Update from HHS OPA
Update from the HHS Office of Population Affairs
By Jessica Swafford Marcella, MPA
I
n May 2021, I was honored to join the US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Population Affairs (OPA) as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs and Director of the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) to help HHS advance the Biden-Harris administration’s priorities on reproductive and adolescent health. The Biden-Harris administration is fundamentally committed to protecting and expanding access to quality, affordable health care for all, including our nation’s youth.
As we tackle the enormous challenges faced by our nation and leverage our expertise in this arena, our office has placed a priority on restoring and improving access to equitable, affordable, client-centered, quality family planning services. We have strong support from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel L. Levine for this work. Furthermore, with Admiral Levine’s leadership, OPA is prioritizing working to ensure that adolescent health services are delivered in a manner that is comprehensive, confidential, gender-affirming, youth-friendly and aligned with the adolescent health objectives included in Healthy People 2030.
Our team has been drawing on the expertise, knowledge, innovations, and best practices of our grantees, clinicians, and other professionals that deliver reproductive and adolescent health services, supports, and information to strengthen the Title X family planning program (Title X) and Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program. Moreover, we are re-invigorating our commitment to promote, sustain, and invest in adolescent health, and that work begins with the development of a national strategic plan on adolescent health that will set a vision for how stakeholders, including federal partners, collectively work together to ensure that young people in this country are thriving. As we embark upon this endeavor, OPA is talking to experts, advocates, and service providers from within and outside government to develop the priorities. We are hoping to build on existing research and work across government agencies, funding streams, and bureaucratic silos to develop an integrated, comprehensive, inclusive, equitable, and youth-friendly system of support for adolescent health and wellbeing, and we look forward to working closely with all of you to make this goal a reality.
In the short time I have been at OPA, we have accomplished a lot. We issued a new final rule for the Title X family planning program that realigned the program with nationally recognized standards of care; reinforced the program’s emphasis on quality, equity, and dignity for all individuals who seek Title X services; and better aligned the 50-year-old program with the ever-evolving health care economy. We also made additional funds available to current and new Title X grantees to support expanded service provision, additional telehealth services, and to provide services in areas of the country that are experiencing extreme need.
We celebrated National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month last May with a focus on positive youth development and meaningful youth engagement. This included a new effort called Youth Create! in which youth from around the country sent us their original artwork, photos, poems, and videos highlighting how the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program has helped them navigate the challenges of the pandemic. You can view the original submissions and a compilation video of these works on the OPA YouTube channel, which is linked from our website.
As we triangulate around quality, access, and equity, one of our greatest accomplishments is our support for expanding the evidence base for teen pregnancy prevention. Specifically, seven of our TPP innovation grantees serving diverse populations, including LGBTQ and rural youth, in new and creative ways have evaluations proving the effectiveness of their interventions. These evaluations offer communities more choices to serve their young people with programs that are proven to work. This year we also launched FPAR 2.0, an enhanced data collection system for Title X family planning grantees that will allow encounter-level data to support service provision and client-centered care.
I am also very excited about what is on the horizon for OPA in the coming year. OPA is preparing to update and refresh the federal guidelines that define what constitutes quality for family planning services, Providing Quality Family Planning Services: Recommendations from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Office of Population Affairs (QFP). The report provides evidence-based recommendations and serves as a valuable and highly respected resource for all providers of family planning care, including primary care providers, to deliver high-quality clinical health services.
We also recognize that providing equitable, affordable, client-centered, quality care requires comprehensive, inclusive data and research. OPA is incorporating the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity (SO/GI) measures into its annual Family Planning Annual Report (FPAR) because our commitment to dignity and respect for all people is paramount in our public health efforts. We’re also adding to the knowledge base of the adolescent sexual and reproductive health field by investing in research to identify the core components of successful TPP programs. If we can understand the cornerstones of success, the opportunities are limitless for how we tailor programming and interventions to meet the needs of all communities.
Speaking of TPP, the House and Senate have both proposed the possibility of additional funding for the program this fiscal year. If the additional funding is approved, OPA will issue a new funding announcement so organizations may apply to provide quality, evidence-based TPP programs in diverse communities across the country. We are thinking carefully about how to expand the breadth and depth of the opportunity to breakdown longstanding silos for youth-serving professionals that are addressing any array of health promotion or risk reduction opportunities for our nation’s young people.
And as previously mentioned, we are focused on building out a national adolescent health initiative, compiling the results of our listening sessions and foundational research to outline the key elements of a national strategic plan and research agenda. Finally, we’ll be revamping our May adolescent health observance; stayed tuned for a new name, new resources, and several ways that you can participate.
I look forward to partnering with SAHM members in all of this work and in particular on the strategic plan for adolescent health. I value your expertise, your knowledge, and would like to hear from you as we move forward to strengthen the building blocks of adolescent health now and into the future.
Admiral Levine and I will both be speaking at the SAHM conference in March and you will hear more from us then about our vision, our goals, and our plans for reproductive and adolescent health. My session will include time for you to share with me your vision for adolescent health going forward.
In the meantime, please visit our website – www.opa.hhs.gov – and YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter – @HHSPopAffairs – to learn more about OPA’s programs, activities, and resources that can support you in your work. On our website you can sign up to receive our bimonthly e-newsletter and you can email me with your question, concerns, suggestions, and ideas. Thank you.
