Shared care-planning for children with special health care needs (CSHCN) must start with a comprehensive view of the child and family and be anchored to their unique strengths, needs, context, and aspirations. The Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative designed and piloted the CARE_PATH for Kids, a novel three-step, family-centered approach to the process of creating Shared Plans of Care (SPoC) for CSHCN that complements existing models in the field.
Many children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) have conditions that put them at risk for severe COVID-19 illness. Identifying CYSHCN with risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness is paramount to assist strategic planning efforts for vaccine distribution. This report covers the health conditions that may put these children at risk, including how the conditions may be used to prioritize vaccine distribution, how to identify the conditions using health care claims, and how estimating the prevalence of these conditions can help ensure that children and youth receive the care they need during the pandemic.
The Children’s Regional Integrated Service System (CRISS), a collaborative of family support organizations, pediatric hospitals and provider groups, and 28 county CCS programs in Northern California, has monitored the implementation of the Whole Child Model and identified potential strategies to address issues and concerns raised by families, plans, providers, and CCS county agencies.
Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are linchpins of the system of care, providing insurance coverage for almost half of the nation's children with special health care needs (CSHCN). Edwin Park and Elisabeth Wright Burak, two Georgetown University experts on children's health care financing, propose three ways that the Biden Administration could modify Medicaid to better serve CSHCN and their families.
This fact sheet answers key questions about access to care through California Children’s Services during COVID-19. It also provides information on free legal assistance. The fact sheet is available in English, Chinese, and Spanish.
Recent studies suggest that both parental and children’s mental health has worsened since the onset of the pandemic. These changes are most pronounced in families facing more hardship, and children already at high risk for mental health concerns are even more vulnerable as a result of the pandemic. Learn how children’s hospitals have responded in varied ways to these concerns and obtain resources for nurses to share with families.
Juno Duenas, parent of a daughter with severe disabilities, has been a staunch leader in family advocacy for more than 30 years. As she retires from her position as executive director of Support for Families of Children with Disabilities, she reflects on her decades of championing the family perspective, and what lies ahead for her.
A series of webinars that explore strategies for state Medicaid agencies to implement during the pandemic, from coverage requirements to expanded access to services.
A novel methodology combining medical complexity (using the Pediatric Medical Complexity Algorithm) and social complexity (using available family social factors known to impact a child’s health and healthcare use) was used to create a new health complexity model at both the population-level and individual-level. Findings from the article demonstrate that a large number of Medicaid/CHIP-insured children could benefit from targeted care coordination and differential resource allocation that aligns with their health complexity.
The California Research Bureau (CRB) investigated the extent to which the state's child-serving departments and agencies incorporate meaningful input from caregivers and youth in policymaking. The CRB research shows that California state government includes some bright spots of meaningful family engagement, but they are sporadic and not common practice throughout all child-serving agencies.
