Developments, December 2017
Monday, December 18, 2017
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Developments is a newsletter for Autism CARES programs funded under MCHB. The content of this newsletter has been generated by program staff and trainees, and does not necessarily reflect the views and policies of HRSA-MCHB. No official support or endorsement by HRSA-MCHB is intended or should be inferred. This publication is funded in part by cooperative agreement #UA5MC11068.
 AUCD | 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1000, Silver Spring, MD 20910
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In preparation for the 2018 Autism CARES Network virtual activities, AUCD is looking for planning committee members who can represent the voices of the training, research, and state systems change grantees. This year as we expand the planning committee to represent the diverse perspectives within the CARES network, we are seeking nominations from grantees; self-nominations are welcome. While we continue to value the wisdom and expertise of established network leaders, we are also hoping to leverage new ideas from emerging leaders involved with implementing the goals of the grantee network. If you are interested in participating in the planning committee or would like to nominate someone from your program, project or coalition, please email Sarah DeMaio at 
The ASD Family Voices Project is an initiative of Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) that focuses to improve service delivery to multilingual and underserved young children (3-5 years) with ASD and their families. In the 2016-2017 school year, MPS and MNLEND launched a collaborative partnership to create an evaluation project to analyze the effectiveness of MPS services and processes for multilingual children and families who receive services in the Early Education, Special Education and Multilingual Departments. The project design included a literature review, an analysis of MPS student data, development and implementation of a family survey, analysis of survey results and recommendations for an ASD Family Voices Project 2.0. 
To advance equity and to enhance leadership skills, self-advocates with intellectual/developmental disabilities are now part of the cohort of trainees in the University of North Carolina LEND, which means that they fully participate in the Interdisciplinary Leadership Development Program, a collaboration among programs in public health, social work, and LEND, which meets monthly. To evaluate the impact of this new participation by self-advocates, the program has conducted a study analyzing the reflections of graduate students on the contributions of self-advocates to their leadership training. At the conclusion of the program each year, graduate students respond to a questionnaire about how self-advocates influenced the content and interactions/discussions of the monthly workshops and are asked to provide specific examples to explain their perceptions. The 12 MCH leadership competencies were used to guide the coding of the comments for this qualitative, directed content analysis. The results of this study demonstrate that the inclusion of self-advocates throughout an interdisciplinary leadership development program for graduate students in health affairs can strengthen MCH leadership competencies for all participants as they enter an increasingly interdisciplinary workforce. 
The Division of DBP at Brown/Hasbro Children's Hospital has graduated 19 DBP fellows since 2003 when they were one of the first programs to receive ACGME accreditation. Ten of their graduates, as well as 6 current fellows and 3 additional faculty members attended the 2017 SDBP Annual Meeting in Cleveland OH. In addtion15, RI LEND trainees observed a press release from the Rhode Island congressional delegation at an inclusive school, child care and early intervention center, Meeting Street. 
The Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health (AIR-P), led by Karen Kuhlthau, PhD, conducts research on evidence-based interventions to improve the physical health and well-being of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities, with an emphasis on underserved communities. Two key goals of the AIR-P network are 1) to conduct multi-site research on evidence-based interventions that improve physical health of children and adolescents with ASD and developmental disorders, especially underserved populations and 2) to transform AIR-P into a multi-site Learning Network (LN) which will provide a collaborative laboratory for developing and testing evidence-based interventions and accelerating the adoption of effective interventions and system management approaches into practice. 
The UW READi Lab received a 3-year HRSA award in September 2017 for a grant entitled, "Expanding Pathways to Early Screening and Intervention for Underserved Toddlers with ASD." The purpose of the PATHWAYS project is to reduce health care disparities and improve early access to ASD-specialized services for low-income English- and Spanish-speaking families. We are partnering with health care, early intervention, and early learning agencies/programs. In the first phase, we are conducting focus groups with community providers and families to understand the barriers and facilitators to communicating about ASD concerns. Based on the information obtained, we will design shared decision-making materials for use in the second phase of the grant. 
AMCHP's State Public Health Autism Resource Center (SPHARC) has released several new resources and technical assistance opportunities designed to aid and assist Autism and other Developmental Disabilities (ASD/DD) grantees.
The purpose of the module is to provide resources, and support family navigators to allow Washington Autism Alliance and Advocacy to be a known resource for medically underserved families with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or a developmental disability (DD). It was created as a way to facilitate where and how families can find immediate answers to questions they may have. Health systems in the state of Washington are difficult to navigate by families who may be overwhelmed. Our hope is that through this readily accessible online format, both families and professionals can access essential information that we have collected over many years of research and advocacy. 
In July of 2017, AUCD indicated an ability to provide supplementary funding and targeted assistance to programs working to address these identified areas of need in ways that could be replicated by other programs or could benefit the broader network. After careful review of a diverse pool of program proposals, five programs were selected to receive up to $8,000 in supplemental funding.
In August of 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the 2017 Report to Congress: Young Adults and Transitioning Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder, which found that there is a critical need for research and better coordinated services targeted to youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are transitioning to adulthood. ITAC staff developed a brief summary of the HHS report that pulled out items relevant to the LEND and DBP training programs. This document offers a number of direct links to datasets, analyses, and other source material used in the full report that may be relevant to programs seeking additional information on transition activities across the federal government. 
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