Division of Healthy Start and Perinatal Services (DHSPS)

Our division:

• Aims to reduce the rates of infant death and promote positive maternal and women’s health outcomes
• Has a special focus on reducing the differences in rates of death between racial and ethnic groups
• Directs our interventions before, during, and after pregnancy to support healthy moms and babies

Key Accomplishments

Healthy Start Initiative

• 101 Healthy Start awardees in community settings provide screening, parenting, and health education to participants. In 2019, awardees reported that:
  • 90% of participants did not smoke/use tobacco in their third trimester
  • 96% of participants were screened for depression
  • 86% of women participants attended a well-woman visit
  • 75% of infant participants were breastfed
  • 80% of infant participants were placed to sleep following safe sleep practices
• Between April 2019 and March 2021, 93 Healthy Start sites hired 194 maternal health clinicians/providers to increase access to services and improve those services
• In 2021, we expanded funding to support doulas in communities most in need

Screening and Treatment for Maternal Depression and Related Behavioral Disorders

• Currently fund (FY2018-2022) seven state telehealth access programs offering psychiatric consultation, care coordination support, and training to health care providers to screen, assess, treat, and refer pregnant/postpartum women for behavioral health disorders
• From May 2020 until October 2021, funded the Maternal Telehealth Access Project (MTAP): Collaboration and Innovation for Equity and Healthy Families
  • Provided mini-grants to 91 community-based organizations in 34 states and Puerto Rico. This work:
    • Increased access to telehealth services and supports
    • Trained providers on topics such as how to use and sustain telehealth technology/programs, and how to provide trauma-informed care
    • Developed a Telehealth Social Media Toolkit to educate pregnant women and new moms about telehealth in English and Spanish

  Programs We Manage

• Healthy Start, our largest initiative
• Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM)
• Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM)—Community Care Initiative (AIM-CCI)
• Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC) Program
• Screening and Treatment for Maternal Depression and Related Behavioral Disorders (MDRBD)
• State Maternal Health Innovation Program (State MHI)
• Supporting Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Screening & Intervention Program (SASDSI)
• Supporting Healthy Start Performance Project
• Women’s Preventive Health Initiative (WPSI)

Contact Us

Lee Wilson, M.A.
Director