SLED Opportunity · DELAWARE · DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES
AI Summary
Delaware's Division of Public Health seeks proposals for a Medical-Legal Partnership program to support low-income pregnant women enrolled in home visiting or Healthy Women, Healthy Babies programs. The initiative addresses social determinants of health and maternal stress to improve birth outcomes and health equity.
A. BackgroundThe mission of the Division of Public Health is to protect and enhance the health of the people of Delaware. The Division accomplishes its mission by:• working together with others. • addressing issues that affect the health of Delawareans. • keeping track of the State’s health. • promoting positive lifestyles. • responding to critical health issues and disasters. • promoting the availability of health services.The accomplishment of this mission will facilitate the Division in realizing its vision of creating an environment in which people in Delaware can reach their full potential for a healthy life.National public health priorities increasingly recognize that improving health in low-income communities requires addressing underlying social and economic factors. The U.S. Healthy People 2030 initiative shows that social determinants of health (SDOH) are critical drivers of health outcomes. One of the Healthy People 2030’s overarching goals is to “create social, physical, and economic environments that promote attaining the full potential for health and well-being for all.” This reflects the broad consensus that factors like safe housing, safe neighborhoods, quality education, job opportunities, and access to essential services fundamentally shape health. Low-income communities disproportionately lack resources in these areas, which lead to persistent health disparities and therefore public policy now emphasizes intersectoral efforts to improve these social conditions as a means to advancing health equity.Access to civil legal assistance is one over-looked dimension of social and health disparity. The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in 2022 found that low-income Americans received no or insufficient legal help for 92% of the civil legal problems that affected them. These problems included access to basic needs such as safe housing, access to health care, child custody and protection from abuse. The study also found that civil legal problems were widespread, with 74% of low-income households experiencing at least one in the past year, and 39% experiencing five or more. It also found that 1 in 2 (46%) of those who did not seek legal help for one or more problems cite could not afford to hire an attorney. This creates significant un-remediated stress for a population already disproportionately represented in morbidity rates. Moreover, only one legal aid attorney is available for every 8,893 low-income people.B. Project GoalsThe goal is to build partnerships among a Legal Aid office, Home Visiting programs and the Healthy Women, Healthy Babies 3.0 program. Women will have to be enrolled in a home visiting program or a Healthy Women and Healthy Babies program to be enrolled in the Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) program. Providers would apply the benefits of MLP model to a vital demographic: low-income pregnant women. This is an extremely important population to serve because of the significant public health and financial ramifications of un-remediated maternal stress. The causal connection between maternal stress and low birth weight and pre-term birth is well documented in the scientific literature.1 Low birth weight and preterm birth are risk factors for poor outcomes in childhood2 - infant mortality, delayed cognitive development, incidence of disease, disability – and even in adulthood3 - lower levels of educational attainment, earnings, and employment.SCOPE OF SERVICES Please refer to Appendix B for details/requirements for the Scope of Work.
SLED stands for State, Local, and Education. These are solicitations issued by state governments, counties, cities, school districts, utilities, and higher education institutions — as opposed to federal agencies.
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