Project Description:
<p>The Medical Home Partnerships Project is funded by the Washington Department of Health Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) program.</p><p>A 'medical home' is primary health care that is team-based, holistic, and centered on the patient and family. The MHPP project helps the WA Title V Program to meet their federal performance measures to: improve access to medical homes; increase the percentage of children who receive early developmental and other screenings; and improve systems of care for CYSHCN, including patient/family-provider partnership. Project activities include:<ol><li>Provide technical assistance and support to 18 county or clinic-based Medical Home teams or Community Asset Mapping (CAM) coalitions improving care for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) across Washington. Pediatric clinics focus on improving overall 'medical homeness,' care coordination, and developmental screening and referral for children whose families do not have English as a main language. The CAM coalitions bring together community providers from primary care, schools, behavioral health, early intervention, family support and others to collectively improve early identification and evaluation of children with autism and/or other developmental disabilities and linkages to services in their counties. In the past year, we have also used this process to look at: <ol>a) regional information and support needs of families with CYSHCN and </ol> <ol>b) care coordination.</ol></li><li>Provide leadership and consultation on state Universal Developmental Screening initiatives, including, 'Help Me Grow Washington,' 'Central Washington Help Me Grow' (rural Yakima and Kittitas Counties), 'Essentials for Childhood,' and 'WA Frontiers of Innovation' (in collaboration with the Harvard Center on the Developing Child). These efforts are working to: <ol> a) identify and mitigate social determinants of health,</ol> <ol> b) increase parental and community awareness of optimal ways to support and nurture children in the prenatal period and first years of life, </ol> <ol> c) build on local developmental screening efforts in both health care and early childhood settings ensure all children are screened, </ol> <ol> d) address gaps in and link families to services that improve community provision of needed resources, and f) address policies at the local and state level that impact these efforts. </ol> </li><li>Partner with the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the State Department of Health through the Pediatric Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative to pilot Patient and Family Engagement strategies in the participating clinics. We have helped identify or co-develop multi-lingual materials, scripts and focus groups for participating pediatricians to use with their patients. Efforts have targeted families with Medicaid insurance who have high ED usage and face social Determinants of Health challenges. The goal has been to improve family health literacy and self-efficacy around their children's health, strengthen the relationship and communication between clinicians and families in pediatric medical homes, reduce potentially avoidable Emergency Department visits and increase well child visit rates. </li><li>Research and write Child Health Notes (CHN), a quarterly one page newsletter for pediatric primary care providers and others caring for children with special needs. Local communities adapt the newsletter resources section to include contact information for key local resources.</li><li>Provide monthly training to Pediatric residents, LEND Fellows, public health students, nutritionists, dentists and parents of CYSHCN on serving children through the medical home model and how to access key community resources. </li><li>Launch our revised medicalhome.org website by February 1, 2019 and disseminate information on how the Medical Home Neighborhood (primary care, families and community partners) can support children, their families and providers in Washington State as well as through the project listserv with 280 subscribers.</li><li>Provide technical assistance to Department of Health systems integration and quality improvement grant, Autism grant, Medically Complex Care grant for children 0-3, and Washington State Family Leadership (WSLI) Coalition for families who have children and youth with special health care needs. </li></ol></p>
Area of Emphasis
Quality Assurance, Education & Early Intervention, Health-Related Activities, Other - Cultural Diversity, Other - Leadership, Other
Target Audience:
Students/Trainees (long or intermediate trainees), Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Geographic Areas, Urban, Specific Groups
