#UMNMCH student Annie Olson (MPH 2024) wrote this reflection on how her deployment with the Minnesota Department of Health gave her the opportunity to analyze and disseminate information about the health of Minnesota adolescents and contributed to her understanding of the state’s mental health landscape. 

Tell us about your deployment: what did you work on, what was the goal, did your work result in any products, and what did you learn?

My deployment was with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Division of Child and Family Health in the Director’s Office working as the Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Needs Assessment Intern. The Title V MCH Needs Assessment is conducted every five years on the health of MCH populations for the Title V MCH Block Grant, which is used to identify statewide priority areas. The prior 2020 needs assessment identified mental well-being and adolescent suicide as priority areas, among several others. My deployment supported the work of this needs assessment and prepared for future assessments, which included updating communication materials and assisting with Title V MCH Block Grant annual reporting in an online database called REDCap. 

For the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minnesota Student Survey was conducted in 2022 and found that mental health and well-being across all demographics dramatically dropped since 2019. I helped analyze the results of the survey–typically administered every three years to 5th, 8th, 9th, and 11th grade students across the state–and which includes questions about a range of behaviors and experiences among youth, including mental health. I created two data briefs supporting these efforts. One data brief discussed stillbirths in Minnesota from the Minnesota Resident Final Stillbirth File, and another detailed the state of adolescent mental health in Minnesota from Minnesota Student Survey data. These data briefs were created to improve the public’s awareness of stillbirths and adolescent mental health in Minnesota since these topics tend to be areas that are not widely studied. Both of the areas of research in these data briefs were desperately needed to illustrate and communicate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and adolescents as well. With the knowledge I gained during my deployment, I plan on continuing to fight for improved MCH in my future as a public health professional.

BIO

Annie is a second-year MCH MPH student. She received her bachelor’s degree from Augustana University in 2022.

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