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MCHB Minute - January 2020

December 23, 2019

On behalf of Maternal and Child Health Bureau's (MCHB) Autism staff, I wish you a happy new year! With the end of the 2019, we took time to step back and reflect on some of our significant accomplishments over the past year across the Autism CARES network. Of particular note, we celebrated 10 years of Autism CARES implementation and recognized the enormous advances that we have collectively achieved. In 2019, MCHB was delighted to award new and continuing grants to continue to advance the Autism CARES goals, to convene grantees in a variety of settings to foster collaboration and sharing of effective practices, and to work with you to address emerging issues and ongoing challenges in the field.

Among our significant accomplishments in 2019 include:

  • Awarded five Innovations in Care Coordination for Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Other Developmental Disabilities (DD) Program grants in Iowa, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin to improve access to coordinated and integrated care for children with or at risk for ASD/DD in medically underserved areas through family navigation and prover training.
  • Awarded four new autism secondary data analysis research (SDAR) grants to advance the evidence base on interventions designed to improve the health and well-being of children and adolescents with ASD/DD.
  • Conducted nine site visits across the LEND, DBP and Research network to provide technical assistance and learn from our funded programs
  • Partnered with AUCD and AMCHP to sponsor the Autism CARES grantee meeting to convene grantees from across the network to acknowledge 10 years of Autism CARES program impact, and learn from each other around increasing equity, improving systems performance and achieving population-level outcomes.
  • Engaged with Research Networks to set research agendas in AIR-B, AIR-P, the Autism Longitudinal Data Project, Autism Transitions Research Project, and the DBPNet.
  • Worked with the Society of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics to identify challenges and opportunities around issues facing the DBP workforce
  • Advanced implementation of the Autism CARES evaluation for 2018-2022.

I hope you will also take a moment to reflect on the accomplishments of the Autism CARES network and your particular program over the past year. Many of your specific grant accomplishments have been highlighted through this newsletter throughout the year. We applaud you for the many accomplishments that you achieved in 2019. Thank you for your partnership and all that you do to improve the health of children, youth and their families with ASD/DD in the U.S. We look forward to our continued work in 2020!