The Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (MNAAP) and its sister organization, the Minnesota Academy of Pediatrics Foundation (MAPF) administer and participate in several projects to address a wide variety of topics that affect child and teen development, health, safety, and wellbeing. These projects offer MNAAP and MAPF the opportunity to meaningfully direct funding and support to partner organizations doing important work for Minnesota’s young people. The mission of the MAPF is to protect and improve the health of all Minnesota children and teens. By partnering with pediatricians, state officials, and national and community-based organizations, the MAPF has developed many model programs that address key health or care delivery issues that have been shared both nationally and internationally. Grant projects for 2022 are listed below.
AAP Healthy People 2030
This project will focus on BIPOC and LGBTQI+ adolescents who experience significant barriers to accessing culturally and content-appropriate mental health screening and treatment options. Particularly at the intersections of these two target populations, LGBTQI+ youth of color and indigenous youth have extremely limited, and often nonexistent, resources to maintain or improve their mental health, especially in rural Minnesota and even more acutely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will build on a past collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) to increase adolescent depression screening and speed up access to mental health treatment services. Additionally, MAPF will oversee the development of the statewide/regional MOC4.
AAP Food Insecurity
This grant aims to close the loop between families and the Minnesota Women, Infant, and Children (MN WIC) program through the touchpoint of routine clinic visits. The project will examine how creating EMR referrals to the WIC program and shared information can promote WIC enrollment and encourage sustained participation.
Pediatricians can play a critical role in addressing food insecurity through screening and referral and this grant aligns a clinician’s interest in better connecting families to available resources.
Project Firstline Infection Control Training
Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Project Firstline provides innovative and accessible infection control education for all frontline healthcare workers – so they can protect their patients, their coworkers and themselves from infectious disease threats in health care.
MNAAP serves as one of 75 healthcare, academic, and public health partners in the Project Firstline collaborative to reach a wide range of healthcare audiences and settings across the country.
Project Firstline offers educational resources in a variety of formats to meet the diverse learning needs and preferences of the healthcare workforce.
Pediatric Mental Health Access Program
This grant, funded by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), partners MNAAP with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to establish a pediatric mental health consult program, deliver evidence-based trainings and technical assistance on mental and behavioral health for PCPs, coordinate centralized data resource directories, and implement an advisory, collaborative leadership structure.
The Psychiatric Assistance Line (PAL) will serve as the medium through which Minnesota can implement its project goals and activities to increase the state’s capacity to advance equitable access to mental and behavioral health services and supports for underserved populations, including rural, BIPOC and LGBTQI+ populations.
