Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative. Additionally, the policy recommendations included in this post reflect the viewpoints of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of others engaged in the development of this report (e.g., interviewees, reviewers).

Nemours Children’s Health and the Elizabeth Dole Foundation are pleased to announce the national release of Caring for Children and Teens in Military Caregiving Families, a continuing education course to increase healthcare providers’ ability to understand and support the unique needs of children in military families.

The three-part training is designed for primary, specialty, and behavioral health care providers and care team members who see children and teens from military and veteran caregiving families. The recommendations offered in the training were informed by more than 200 survey and focus group responses from parents and guardians of children and teens growing up in military caregiving homes as well as the experts featured in the presentation. The course is intended to provide a high-level overview; it is supplemented by a resource document with links for taking a deeper dive into topics addressed in the modules. 

The course is available via the continuing education platform of Nemours Children’s Health. As part of Nemours Children’s commitment to creating the healthiest generations of children in our service areas and beyond, the course is nationally available at no cost. 

In this video clip, Silvia Lopez, a military caregiving spouse, reflects on the need for healthcare providers to better understand the realities of Hidden Helpers- children of wounded, ill or injured service members or veterans.  

Along with Ms. Lopez, the course features spouses and young adults from military caregiving families along with Nemours Children’s psychologists and physicians. We thank them for their participation in this important work on behalf of military/veteran-connected children and families across the nation.  

“Nemours Children’s is committed to creating the healthiest generations of children. One way we do this is by developing tools and resources for our colleagues on the front line caring for some of our most vulnerable children,” said R. Lawrence Moss, MD, FACS, FAAP, President and CEO, Nemours Children’s Health. “We are honored to partner with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation to make this training available to clinicians at no cost. Together, we can substantively support our providers in offering even better care to these young families who are defending our nation’s freedom.” 

 CALL TO ACTION 

Partners are encouraged to use the communications/promotion toolkit to help us spread the word. The toolkit contains draft social media posts and email or newsletter content, along with images to include.  

BACKGROUND 

In November 2021, Nemours Children’s was proud to be the first pediatric health system to join the Hidden Helpers coalition, a joint initiative of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Wounded Warrior Project, and Joining Forces (a White House initiative to support military families). The 60+ member organizations in the Hidden Helpers coalition seek to fill gaps in supports and services for “Hidden Helpers”- the 2.3 million U.S. children of wounded, ill or injured service members or veterans, and to increase awareness of their unique needs. 

 At a White House event, the partners behind the Hidden Helpers coalition announced a series of commitments to address gaps and needs identified in the first major research study focused on military caregiver children and adolescents, Hidden Helpers at the Frontlines of Caregiving: Supporting the Healthy Development of Children from Military and Veteran Caregiving Homes. Nemours Children’s committed to create continuing education resources aimed at increasing the ability of health care providers to understand and support the needs of Hidden Helpers. We collaborated with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation to carry out our commitment.   

FOR MORE INFORMATION 

To learn more, please email [email protected]. 

Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

Nemours Children’s Health Experts Outline Key Population Health Strategies in International Journal

Authors address school health centers, population health networks, pediatric payment models

Nemours Children’s Health is pleased to share highlights from a special section on population health published in the February edition of Current Opinion in Pediatrics.

The special section includes an invited editorial from Kara Odom Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS, executive vice president and chief population health officer at Nemours Children’s Health, as well as three review articles from Nemours Children’s experts. The three Nemours-authored review articles summarize current evidence and provide a framework for strategies to advance key aspects of pediatric population health: population health networks, alternate payment models, and school-based health centers. The special section includes three additional articles from other noted experts in the field. Four of the six articles are open access, available at no cost to the field at large. [Read more…]

Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours Children’s, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

Moving the needle on measures of health and wellbeing for everyone living in a community requires collaboration between systems and sectors.

Bringing systems, sectors, and resources together to foster healthy, thriving communities is part of being a population health integrator. In addition to setting the table for population health networks to exist, integrators are organizations that agree to share responsibility for activities that strengthen and sustain networks- ensuring that network governance and leadership structures are inclusive, establishing data-sharing among network partners, building partner capacity, establishing joint advocacy agendas, planning for network sustainability, and the list goes on…

• With limited time and resources, how can population health integrators decide WHICH integrative activities to prioritize?
• And once they’ve decided, HOW do networks put these activities into action within day-to-day network operations?
• These action-oriented toolkits guide networks in making smart choices about which integrative activities to focus on and how to move into action as they collaborate to build health- including tools for assessment, alignment, action planning, and implementation.

We invite you to share your reflections and insights on the tools by emailing us at [email protected].

Toolkits were developed by Nemours Children’s Health as part of its Exploring the Roles & Functions of Health Systems within Population Health Integrator Networks initiative, with support from The Kresge Foundation.

Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health System (Nemours) and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

Between January and September of 2020, nine population networks from across the country participated in Nemours’ Integrator Learning Lab; a learning-and-action collaborative in which multi-sector teams (including health care organizations) working on shared population health goals have an opportunity to receive self-directed resources, coaching, and technical assistance on issues presenting challenges to their network. The 2020 Integrator Learning Lab focused on strengthening use of integrative roles and functions within cross-sector networks. Since “Continuous Use of a Health Equity Lens” is a category within Nemours framework of essential integrative activities, it was a focal area for coaching and technical assistance in the Learning Lab.

[Read more…]

Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort originally co-led by Nemours Children’s Health System (Nemours) and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

Between January and September of 2020, nine population networks from across the country participated in Nemours’ Integrator Learning Lab, a learning-and-action collaborative in which multi-sector teams (including health care organizations) working on shared population health goals have an opportunity to receive self-directed resources, coaching, and technical assistance on issues presenting challenges to their network. The 2020 Integrator Learning Lab focused on strengthening use of integrative roles and functions within cross-sector networks.
[Read more…]