May is National Foster Care Month
In a news release from the US Department of Health & Human Services, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius highlighted how National Foster Care Month “provides us a special opportunity to focus on the nation’s more than 400,000 children and youth in the foster care system. It is a time for us to raise awareness about the urgent needs of these young people and encourage all Americans to get involved—as foster or adoptive parents, volunteers, mentors, employers or in other ways.” For additional information on American Academy of Pediatrics foster care initiatives, check out the May is National Foster Care Month! flyer.

Data on Health Disparities in the United States
Data from the 2009-10 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs highlights the health status of minority children with special health care needs in the United States; including the finding that one-quarter of Hispanic and African American youth with special needs received sufficient transition planning whereas nearly 45% of white youth received such planning. Data depicting differences in health status and access to care among minority children in the United States can be an important tool in eliminating disparities and ensuring that all children have access to a medical home. 

Making IT Meaningful: How Consumers Value and Trust Health IT
This new report , developed by the National Partnership for Women and Families, highlights consumer attitudes towards Health Information Technology and focuses specifically on how consumers value electronic versus paper records and which they trust more in terms of privacy. A survey found that patients do see a value to electronic health records (EHR) and that those with online access to their health information see a greater value in EHRs for themselves and their providers.

New Edition of Community Services Locator
The Maternal and Child Health Library (MCH Library) has related a new edition of their Community Services Locator. The Community Services Locator can be used by service providers and families to find available child care and early education programs, developmental assessment and learning services, family support, and health and wellness care.

AAP Community Pediatrics Monthly Funding Alert
The AAP Community Pediatrics Monthly Funding Alert provides information on funding opportunities from the AAP and other organizations, as well as links to key programs and agencies.

Request for Proposals—Innovative Programs to Address Childhood Obesity
Deadline: May 15, 2012
The Safeway Foundation, in partnership with Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland, has announced a total of $2 million in grants ranging from $40,000 to $75,000 available to nonprofit organizations working on innovative approaches to treat or prevent childhood obesity. For additional information, click here.

Request for Proposals—Support for National Projects to Empower Youth With Disabilities
Deadline: June 1, 2012
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation has announced grants ranging between $10,000 and $75,000 available to nonprofit organizations working on innovative projects designed to empower children and youth with disabilities to lead productive lives. For additional information, click here.

For a more detailed listing of funding opportunities, click here.

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Webinar—Reaching Your Audience through Effective Health Communication
May 9, 2012—1 to 2:30pm (Central)
This free webinar, offered by the national Healthy Tomorrows Technical Assistance Resource Center, is intended to educate attendees about the characteristics of effective health messages, cost-effective ways to create clear and compelling health communication materials, and how technology and social media can help increase audience reach and engagement.

Webinar—Winning the Battle: Impacting Tobacco Control in the Real World
May 9, 2012—2 to 3:30pm (Central)
This webinar will discuss strategies for successfully pursuing a tobacco control agenda while facing opposition at the community, state, and national levels. The topics in this webinar outline ways to involve clinicians of all backgrounds and can easily be applied to any health topic.

Webinar—Partnering to Make Services Easier to Use for Latino Families with CYSHCN
May 9, 2012—2 to 3pm (Eastern)
Recent evidence from the 2009-2010 National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs showed that children from monolingual Spanish speaking families are having more difficulty accessing services than their English-speaking counterparts. This webinar, hosted by the National Center for Ease of Use of Community-Based Services, will highlight unique programs being used by Salud Para Niños, the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Vision for Equality. It will provide concrete examples of how partnering between these organizations has helped to deliver more efficient and effective community-based services for Latino families in Pennsylvania.

Webinar—Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Quality Indicators Software
May 9, 2012—3 to 4:30pm (Eastern)  
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently announced the release of the AHRQ Quality Indicators™ (QI) software for Windows (WinQI) and SAS Version 4.4 for four modules: Prevention Quality Indicators (PQI), Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQI), Patient Safety Indicators (PSI), and Pediatric Quality Indicators (PDI). This free webinar will highlight the updates to the AHRQ QI, as well as provide an opportunity for participants to ask questions about them.

Webinar—Oral Health Risk Assessment in the Medical Home
May 15, 2012—1 to 2:30pm (Central)
During this webinar faculty will discuss how to implement oral health services in the medical home. It will include instruction on how to use the AAP Oral Health Risk Assessment Tool to identify children at risk for early childhood caries (cavities). The webinar also will include information regarding using oral health as a topic for quality improvement. Information on oral health anticipatory guidance will be shared, including diet, oral hygiene, and fluoride use. Faculty will also provide practical tips on how to implement oral health services in the medical home from getting paid to the application of fluoride varnish to finding a dentist to see your patients.

Webinar—Understanding the Basics—Medicaid & CHIP and Building Partnerships among Stakeholders
May 16, 2012—12 to 1pm (Eastern)
This webinar, hosted by the Catalyst Center, will teach participants how different systems define children with special health care needs, the basics of Medicaid and CHIP, and different kinds of partnerships between Title V and Medicaid/CHIP.

Webinar—On the Road to Injury Prevention
May 24, 2012—3 to 4:30pm (Eastern)
The Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Program is hosting this webcast for state managers, researchers, EMS providers, family members and others interested in how to improve emergency medical services for children. Presenters will highlight new innovations in injury prevention. Topics include ATV safety and using simulation training to improve teen driving.

Webinar—Ordering the Right Tests—Genetics in Primary Care
May 31, 2012—12 to 12:30pm (Central)
This free educational webinar is offered as a part of the series Time Out for Genetics hosted by the Genetics in Primary Care Institute (GPCI), a cooperative agreement between the AAP and HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The webinars included in the series are presented by recognized experts with the overarching goal of educating participants about the value of incorporating genetic medicine into primary care. For additional information on the webinar series, click here.

The 5th International Conference on Patient- and Family-Centered Care
June 4-6, 2012—Washington, DC
This conference, hosted by the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care, will provide opportunities to address emerging issues in patient- and family-centered care, both at the systems and individual levels. It will include presentations and videos developed by health care organizations to support partnerships with patients and families, as well as plenary sessions, concurrent/topical breakout sessions, networking discussions, and poster presentations. For additional information, click here.

Difficult Conversations in Healthcare: Pedagogy and Practice
June 9, 2012—Waltham, MA
This 1-day course will be offered at the Children's Hospital Boston and is designed for physicians in all specialties, residency and clerkship directors, medical education leaders, medical educators, and multidisciplinary healthcare professionals (social workers, psychologists, and others) interested in and/or involved in teaching interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, relationship-centered care, patient-practitioner relationships and related topics. The course offers the opportunity to learn about an innovative, collaborative relational learning model, known as the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills (PERCS).

2012 AAP National Conference & Exhibition
October 20-23, 2012—New Orleans, LA
The AAP National Conference and Exhibition (NCE) is the most comprehensive pediatric meeting in the world and represents the full spectrum of pediatric medical professionals and decision-makers, including pediatricians in general practice and subspecialties, young physicians, pediatric residents, and allied health professionals. Participation at this meeting offers opportunities to be present among other leaders in the health care industry.

American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting
October 27-31, 2012—San Francisco, CA
The theme of the 2012 annual meeting is Prevention and Wellness across the Life Span. The meeting program addresses current and emerging health science, policy, and practice issues in an effort to prevent disease and promote health.

For a full listing of Upcoming Conferences and Events, click here

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Purchasing High Performance Update: Medical Homes Gain Momentum
In late 2009, Purchasing High Performance published an article introducing readers to the patient-centered medical home. Three years later, results from early patient-centered medical home demonstrations suggest the medical homes appear to improve quality and make care more efficient. For additional information, click here.

Spotlight on Initiatives Connecting Patients and Families with Community Resources and Services

• Help Me Grow
  Health Me Grow (HMG) is a collaborative, cross-sector system that assists states in identifying at-risk children, then helping families find community-based programs and services. The organization and its affiliates do not provide direct services. Rather, it is a system for improving access to existing resources and services for children through age eight. States affiliated with the Help Me Grow National Center use the HMG system to implement effective, universal, early surveillance and screening for all children, and then link them to existing quality programs. Currently, thirteen states are Help Me Grow affiliates, including: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Delaware, Massachusetts, Utah, and Washington.
• Health Leads
  Health Leads is a volunteer-driven service to connect patients and their families with the basic resources they need to be healthy. With Health Leads, doctors can "prescribe" resources such as food, housing and heating assistance—just as they do medication. Patients take their prescriptions to the clinic waiting room, where volunteers help "fill" them by connecting patients to community services. Health Leads' 21 desks are located in pediatric outpatient, adolescent, and prenatal clinics, newborn nurseries, pediatric emergency rooms, health department clinics, and federally qualified health centers in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York City, Providence, and Washington, DC.

New Medicaid-Safety Net Learning Collaborative Announced
The National Academy for State Healthy Policy (NASHP) has announced the launch of the Medicaid-Safety Net Learning Collaborative (PDF) to support innovative delivery system models to support vulnerable populations through a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration. This initiative provides an opportunity to integrate safety net providers into evolving health systems through partnerships with the Medicaid agency and other stakeholders. The six states involved in the collaborative are Alaska, Iowa, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and Texas.

Healthy People 2020 Seeks Stories from Organizations Implementing Innovative Programs
Healthy People 2020, the US Department of Health and Human Services 10-year health promotion plan, is looking for real stories from organizations implementing innovative programs to target specific Leading Health Indicators (LHI), such as access to primary care and vaccinations. Only members of the Healthy People 2020 Consortium can Share Your LHI Story. To become a member, sign up at HealthyPeople.gov.

For additional information on National Initiatives, click here

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When Young Adults Need Help with Decisions—Guardianship and Other Approaches to Decision-making Support
A new brief from Got Transition, the National Health Care Transition Center, describes a number of decision-making supports that may assist young adults with intellectual disabilities while assuring the highest degree of independence and self-direction. It also provides links to important resources regarding guardianship and other alternatives.

New Issue Brief on Integrating Services for Children
The Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs and The Commonwealth Fund has released an issue brief, New Opportunities for Integrating Care for Women, Children and Their Families. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act gives states new tools and funding to integrate public and private delivery of health care services. For example, many state Medicaid agencies and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, public health agencies, provider groups, private insurers, children’s hospitals, and family organizations are partnering to share resources including technical assistance, coordinated care, and quality improvement efforts. This issue brief highlights the efforts of Colorado, Florida, Ohio, and Vermont to integrate health care services for low-income women and children, especially through state Title V maternal and child health programs.

Funding Opportunities for Head Start Service Areas
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced the availability of Head Start funding in 97 Head Start service areas across the country. This funding opportunity is available to all eligible organizations, which have 90 days to submit their grant proposals. The funding opportunity announcements will be released in two groups. The Office of Head Start is using this approach to plan potential transitions at natural breaks in services, minimizing disruptions to children, families and staff. Funding opportunity announcements for the first group of service areas are now available on Administration for Children and Families Funding Opportunities site. For additional information, click here.

Funding Awarded for Home Visiting Programs in 10 States
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced the awarding of grants to 10 states (Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington) to provide early childhood supports and home visits to families. The funding has been awarded for the purpose of expanding or establishing home visiting programs that will provide for effective coordination and delivery of critical health, development, early learning, child abuse and neglect prevention, and family support services to at-risk children and families. For additional information, click here.

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Learn More about Medical Home from the Experts—New Videos Released!
The NCMHI has conducted interviews with thought leaders and medical home advocates to capture their thoughts on medical home concept of care and how to implement it in practice. Framed around the six building blocks of the Building Your Medical Home toolkit, the interview videos are designed to provide an in depth view of the essential components that make up the medical home. The second set of videos in a series of three releases from March-May 2012 is now available for viewing on the new NCMHI YouTube channel. Topics included in the second series of videos are:

Care Partnership Support

• How can practices support patients and families as partners in care? – Lee Partridge
• How can practices support patients and families as partners in care? – Nora Wells, MSEd
• How have you supported patients and their families as partners in care? – Tim Geleske, MD, FAAP

Care Delivery Management

• How does a medical home improve access to care for patients? – Jennifer Lail, MD, FAAP
• How have you promoted and facilitated a team-based approach to care? – Christopher Stille, MD, MPH, FAAP
• How does a medical home support transitioning from pediatric to adult care? – W. Carl Cooley, MD, FAAP

Clinical Care Information & Organization

• How has use of evidence-based guidelines helped to enhance medical home in your practice? – Tim Geleske, MD, FAAP

Practice Performance Measurement

• How can families be involved in the quality improvement process? – Lee Partridge
• How does quality improvement enhance medical home? – Thomas S. Klitzner, MD, PhD, FAAP

Resources & Linkages

• What is the benefit of utilizing community services in the medical home? – Colleen Kraft, MD, FAAP
• How can practices benefit from working with community-based organizations? – Nora Wells, MSEd

Payment & Finance

• How is the AAP advocating for enhanced payment for medical home services? – Thomas F. Long, MD, FAAP

General Medical Home

• Why should consumers advocate for medical homes? – Lee Partridge
• What is collaborative care and does it advance high quality outcomes? – Richard C. Antonelli, MD, MS, FAAP

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