Updates from the State Public Health Autism Resource Center

December 22, 2016

AMCHP's State Public Health Autism Resource Center (SPHARC) has released several new resources and technical assistance opportunities designed to aid and assist ASD/DD grantees.

New SPHARC Webinar and Infographic Resources
AMCHP celebrated Autism Awareness Month this past April by sharing news via AMCHP's Facebook and Twitter pages, conducting an autism awareness webinar: "Telehealth and Autism Treatment, Training and Systems Building", and releasing a new infographic on autism awareness and the role of Title V and state grantees.

In addition, AMCHP hosted an August webinar: "Early Childhood Data Systems Integration" and developed another infographic highlighting three key features of SPHARC: Resource Development, Technical Assistance (TA) and Peer Learning that can help improve and support any state ASD/DD program.

Addressing Gaps in ASD/DD Diagnosis: Peer to Peer Exchange

In June 2016, Virginia's HRSA Autism state team hosted this year's Peer-to-Peer Exchange. Five other grantees (Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan and Minnesota) learned about VA's model related to collective impact, strategies such as streamlining language between medical and school mental health professionals, and lessons learned during their project period. The attending grantees were also able to present on their work around family engagement, shared resource/outreach or Telepractice. To see an overview of each state's work, check out AMCHP's poster presentation at the 2016 AUCD conference here.

ASD/DD at the 2017 AMCHP Annual Conference 
AMCHP's 2017 Annual Conference will take place March 4-7 at the Kansas City Marriot Downtown in Kansas City, Missouri. This year's theme: Engagement with Intention: Inclusivity, Diversity & Non-Traditional Partnerships will showcase a myriad of exciting skills building sessions, workshops, and poster sessions related to ASD/DD and featuring state grantees' work. Resources on these sessions will also be available soon via the SPHARC and AMCHP conference website.

For more information about SPHARC, visit www.amchp.org/SPHARC.