Project Description:
The Washington State Legislature, through the Washington State fiscal years 2020 and 2021, supports primary care providers in their ability to diagnose and support treatment plans for individuals with autism and their families through the launch of "ECHO Autism Washington." Similar to the ECHO Autism: Transition to Adulthood program, ECHO Autism Washington supports primary care providers who serve the Medicaid population through the Washington State Centers of Excellence (COE) program. ECHO Autism Washington officially launched its first teleconference session on December 11, 2019 with over 20 primary care providers across Washington State.
The Washington State COE program was designed to address the Washington State healthcare provider workforce shortage that has contributed to the long waitlist for accessing both diagnostic and treatment services for people with ASD. The COE program has successfully recruited over 100 primary care providers across Washington State, however these COE providers have expressed a need for more training and support to provide evidence-based diagnostic and treatment services. ECHO Autism Washington is designed to fill this need.
CHDD Adult and Elder program, LEND Program, and Seattle Children's Hospital came together to create an "autism expert hub team" that will meet with the COE providers twice monthly in 90-minute teleconference sessions. The expert hub team is multi-discipline in nature, and brings together specialists from neurology, developmental pediatrics, psychology, behavioral analysis, speech, nutrition, family advocacy, and self-advocacy. These hub experts are able to provide evidence-based and best practice advice to the COE providers across Washington State in the hope of improving access to care for individuals with ASD.
Through the support of UW LEND and the CHDD, the expert hub team will be closely monitoring and measuring the impact of ECHO Autism Washington on statewide waitlists for both diagnostic services and treatment services such as applied behavioral analysis (ABA). </p>
