December 2021 Resources of the Month
Dear UCCCN members,

Here are your December 2021 resources and meeting summary.
Announcements

University of Utah Pediatric Project ECHO is collaborating with USU's Project SCOPE on NOWS/Opioid Exposure with final presentation of the series on 12/15/21. CME and Nurse Contact hours are available for attending live sessions. The Peds ECHO Spring session will begin on January 12, 2022 with topics including Medical Neglect, Palliative Care Pain Management, Foster Care, and more. Please see the schedule and register for any sessions you wish to attend (recordings of past sessions can be watched, as well).




Survey: If you haven't already completed the Care Coordination Survey there's still time! Please submit your responses by today, December 17th to participate and provide input on transition services offered by your organizations.


The RUBI Autism Network is providing free training and consultation on January 14th and January 28th. This opportunity is directed at ABA therapists and clinical professionals. More information is available in the training information sheet. Attendees should plan on attending both sessions and can register here.



SPARK for Autism genetics study reminder – Parents and siblings of children with autism are encouraged to participate (from home, at no charge, gift cards possible). Registration can be done online at www.SPARKforAutism.org/utah. Please contact Amalia Caamano at sparkforautism@hsc.utah.edu or 801-213-4049 for materials and more information.

Medical Home Portal Section
Content Updates

MHP Spotlight - Athena

ParentGuidance.org is a wonderful online resource with some basic, common sense information for families about mental health. The courses provide ideas on how to tackle common situations and questions that parents need answers for. Weekly coaching sessions are available to parents in the Salt Lake School District (other Utah school districts may also have partnered with ParentGuidance.org that we are not aware of, and may have access to this service as well).

Brainstorming

Case #1: Tina - Looking for friendly Covid-19 vaccine options for a 29-year old patient with Down Syndrome who is very fearful of needles. She needs to be vaccinated soon for her job in a nursing home and to attend the Adele concert.

Dr. Goldman-Luthy presented some ideas with the MHP Procedural Anxiety page. Dora recommended the Neurobehavior HOME Program. Gwen suggested a nurse from the nursing home she works at could possibly help give her the shot, or someone else that she trusts. Rebecca mentioned that CNS Home Health offers in-home Covid vaccinations.





Case #2: Tina - Family recently moved from WA to Kearns and does not have any form of insurance coverage. They are not eligible for Medicaid at the moment and their 17-year old with epilepsy needs Depakote. The patient will turn 18 in January and needs the medication just until they can get on individual Medicaid next month.

Eric suggested patient assistance programs such as the community health centers or Health Clinics of Utah (Michelle Grossman is the clinic manager).


Disclaimer: These resources come from our members as part of the meeting brainstorming session; please check with your providers to make sure they are appropriate for your patient/families.

You can find a custom list of these service providers that can be printed, emailed, and more, here: December 2021 UCCCN Resources of the Month.
Children’s Mental Health Access and Integration Community Quality Collaborative - Gabi Baraghoshi, UPIQ QI Specialist

This is a two-year-long project led by the Utah Pediatric Partnership to Improve Healthcare Quality (UPIQ) and was sponsored by the Intermountain Foundation at Primary Children's Hospital. The goal was to improve mental healthcare delivery in primary care and involved over 100 providers and clinic managers. The project consisted of education monthly webinars (two per month) given by content experts from the University of Utah School of Medicine.

The primary focus of the study in 2020 was to improve recognition of common health problems. They met with each practice individually and identified gaps in their current processes and provided ideas on how to change. But the end of 2020, the screening completion process improved by 30%.

They continued to focus on improving the screening process during 2021, and also focused on closing the loop in mental health referrals and improving the referral network. The use of a shared bi-directional communication form was very positive. Screening went from 40% to 90% by the end of this year.

Gabi cited an email from one of the participants and how she said the program changed her entire view of mental health treatment.

Heidi Bates worked on the behavioral health side of the project and is starting a new cohort. Please let Heidi know if there are any LCSWs in your clinic or circles that may want to participate.

Mindfulness Strategies for Relaxation and Well-being: Liliam Llanos, Utah Parent Center Parent Consultant

Liliam works for the Utah Parent Center and became familiar with their services while advocating for her 10-year-old son who has Down Syndrome. She is a bi-lingual parent consultant and can understand the struggles that parents face when they come in for help.

She presented several ways to help encourage mindfulness and improve well-being. Stress is easier to recover from if we take time to unwind by doing the following:

  1. Yawning (slowly) - helps release neurochemicals, cools off the brain, optimizes brain activity and increases empathy/social awareness
  2. Self-nurturing, super slow movements through stroking hands or arms or hugging a pillow/stuffed animal 
  3. Breathing - two short inhales and a long exhale 
  4. Value words/phrases - write down as many works as you can and pick a word to repeat to reduce stress
  5. Sunlight first thing in the morning - this will help release melatonin in the evening and help with the quality of sleep at night
  6. Tibetan bell - reminder to be mindful for that moment. Websites are available with a bell you can set for each hour or other intervals
  7. Think of something you are grateful for 
  8. Think of a pleasant memory 
  9. Have a compassionate thought 
  10. Daydreaming (for ~1 minute)  

Doing these briefly through the day will help lower your stress levels. It's helpful to use reminders to do something each hour.

Other
Our next meeting date: January 19, 2022. Please register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting and it will give you the option to add them to your calendars.

Archived meeting recordings are available on our YouTube UCCCN 2021 Playlist. We were unable to record today's due to technical issues with Zoom.

Please use our listserv (ucccn-meetings@lists.hsc.utah.edu) to send questions or issues needing help, connect with UCCCN members in between meetings - ask for help, share resources, etc.

Happy Holidays!
Mindy
Mindy Tueller, MS, MCHES
Director of Operations, Medical Home Portal
Facilitator, Utah Children’s Care Coordination Network
Department of Pediatrics
University of Utah
801-213-3920
Medical Home Portal | UCCCN | 801-213-3920 | mindy.tueller@utah.edu | Medical Home Portal