Celebrating Autism Awareness: The State Public Health Autism Resource Center

April 15, 2014

 AMCHP's mission is to support state maternal and child health programs  by providing national leadership on issues affecting woman and children. In  support of this mission, the State Public Health Autism Resource Center (SPHARC) has several new activities planned, along with presentations, webinars and technical assistance opportunities designed to aid and assist ASD/DD grantees.

Celebrating Autism Awareness Month

National Autism Awareness Month provides a special opportunity to increase public awareness of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which are estimated to affect 1 in 68 children in the U.S.  AMCHP will be celebrating by sharing news, resources and information through the SPHARC website, social media and listservs. The SPHARC website has a calendar of events from current and former state grantees, which will be updated throughout the month. Check out AMCHP's Facebook and Twitter pages for regular social media posts all about autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. For more information, click here.

ASD/DD at the 2014 AMCHP Annual Conference - Resources Posted

AMCHP's 2014 Annual Conference was held January 25-28, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Washington in Washington, DC. There were several exciting sessions and events related to ASD/DD and that featured state grantees. Resources from these sessions have been posted to the SPHARC website and are available here.

Encouraging Mentorship and Replication of Effective Practices

SPHARC recently launched a new technical assistance activity that provides funds for current state planning and implementation grantees to receive mentorship from another state on replicating or adapting an effective practice to improve systems of care for children, youth and families with ASD/DD. This is an exciting opportunity to offer an individualized form of technical assistance to help states work towards their goals. AMCHP has had success with this model in the past - if you'd like to read about how states used a similar opportunity to advance implementation on parent-provider partnerships and youth transition, click here. Stay tuned for updates! 

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