Quality Service Improvement’s Post

During National Health Education Week in October 2024, I revisited segments of Vice President Kamala Harris highlighting her proposal for Medicare to cover in-home health care services. Currently, Medicare only covers short-term skilled services at home for seniors' or post-hospital discharge. The "sandwich generation" to which I can attest and most often women, face emotional and financial strains caring for both young children and aging parents. This burden can manifest physically due to stress. Despite the aim to maintain independence safely at home, families sometimes opt for long-term care or incur private hiring costs. As we conclude October with mental health workshops, public health conferences, and cancer awareness campaigns, let's not overlook the needs of this growing population and their caregivers. #NationalHealthEducationWeek #Medicare #InHomeHealthCare #SandwichGeneration #Caregivers #PublicHealth #HealthAwareness

A study published in the Journal of Public Health International sheds light on crucial educational needs among mothers regarding Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) use during acute diarrhea in children under 5. 👩👧👦 The study underscores the pivotal role mothers play in combating childhood diarrhea, a leading cause of child mortality globally. 🔍 Key findings reveal that low literacy, lack of knowledge, and misconceptions about ORS hinder its effective use. However, targeted educational interventions can bridge these gaps and empower mothers to manage dehydration at home effectively. 📰 Check out the full article for deeper insights into this essential public health issue: https://lnkd.in/gWZEERc6 💡 Let's spread awareness and empower caregivers with the knowledge they need to safeguard children's health! #PublicHealth #ChildCare #ResearchAwareness

In my work in the pediatric ER, I've seen firsthand how essential it is to address the rising mental health needs of students. Nearly 70% of public schools report increased demand for mental health services since 2020. Medicaid, covering over 41 million children, could provide sustainable funding for comprehensive school-based mental health programs. These programs can offer direct services like counseling, preventive programming, staff training, family engagement, and collaborations with community providers. While Medicaid pays about $4 billion annually for school-based services, the reimbursement process is often burdensome, especially for smaller districts. Recent legislation aims to streamline these processes, increasing access and reducing administrative hurdles. However, challenges like administrative burden, complex billing, and consent issues remain. To improve school-based mental health services, states and districts can provide targeted funding, foster collaboration, and make program impact data public. By effectively leveraging Medicaid, we can ensure students get the mental health support they need. #healthcare #children #mentalhealth #schools #hospitals

Dr Corina Modderman has evaluated a new area-based intervention model to improve health outcomes for children in out-of-home care (OOHC). “In Australia, children and young people may be placed in OOHC when they cannot safely remain at home due to child abuse, neglect, or parents' inability to provide adequate protection,” Dr Modderman explains. Dr Modderman says the health needs of children in OOHC are often not prioritised, leading to long-term health conditions. “This issue is even more present in rural and regional communities, where healthcare inequalities persist due to limited access to primary healthcare services," she says.   Dr Modderman’s project, based in Mildura, explored how collaborative processes could improve health outcomes for children in OOHC. “A key factor was the co-location of a health navigator, which is someone who helps people access the right support. In our study, the health navigator was a registered nurse and we found that having them integrated into the Maternal and Child Health Service and Child Protection Program improved health access and outcomes for children in OOHC.” “Key infrastructure improvements also took place, such as forming a specialist paediatric OOHC clinic at the Mildura Base Public Hospital and identifying children in OOHC on Sunraysia Community Health Services and Maternal and Child Health referral documents.” Dr Modderman says the results are promising, demonstrating that improved health system integration is beneficial for children in OOHC. “At the heart of our recommendations is the spirit of collaboration, mutual support and a shared drive for the rights of children in OOHC to have quality and priority access to health and wellbeing services.” Read more: https://bit.ly/45OK2PH #LaTrobeRuralHealthSchool #LaTrobeUniversity #SocialWork

One in four Californians will be age 60 or older by 2030, with many requiring supports from care workers to meet their daily needs. At the same time, experts predict a shortage of between 600,000 to 3.2 million workers to provide this essential care. Jarmin C. Yeh, PhD, MPH, MSSW, associate professor, is leading a statewide project to equip California’s in-home supportive care workers with skills to provide quality care — and self-care strategies to thrive in a role that can be emotionally challenging. Read the Q&A: https://lnkd.in/gi5Gh5ui

Learn how home-visiting programs like SafeCare are changing lives and strengthening communities. Discover the impact of early intervention in the article, 'Early Childhood Home Visiting Programs and Health.' #SafeCare #ParentingProgram #EarlyIntervention. https://lnkd.in/eSs8zAkw

🏥 Can we still rely on our public services?  New research on what the public think is needed to have a decent standard of living reveals a troubling trend: the British public believes it’s necessary to budget for some private health treatments because of long NHS waiting lists. This raises serious questions about the state of our public services and the impact on people's living standards. 📝 Read the full Minimum Income Standard report to understand these shifting perceptions and what they mean for UK living standards.  

We are pleased to announce the first issue of the Journal of Family & Child Health is now available! Formerly Journal of Health Visiting and British Journal of Child Health, this peer-reviewed journal is dedicated to professionals working with children and families, covering a wide range of clinical and public health topics. In this inaugural issue, you’ll find: 🌬️ A clinical review on improving inhaler technique and adherence in children 🚸 An important study on barriers to health visitors identifying child neglect 🤱 Insights into women's experiences during the transition to motherhood and the role of self-compassion 🖥️ A professional perspective on cyberbullying, moral disengagement, and the role of school nurses 🧠 Guidance on supporting children with specific phobias and fears Subscribers can access the full issue via #OpenAthens. Keep your practice up to date with the latest research and evidence-based insights in family and child health. Link in the comments. 👇 #FamilyHealth #ChildHealth #PublicHealth #SchoolNursing #ClinicalPractice

“More than one third of children in the United States live below 200% of the federal poverty level and are disproportionately exposed to adverse social conditions that increase their risk of physical, developmental, and behavioral health problems.” Screenings for Social Drivers of Health (SDoH) in the primary care setting can lead to essential connections to community services for families and children. An exceptional qualitative study was published exploring the perspectives of caregivers being asked the screening questions for SDoH. Their findings are an excellent example of how intent does not equal impact. As healthcare professionals, we strive to help others and unfortunately, how we go about offering services can, unintentionally, be an added barrier to the help we hope to provide.  The themes families shared that healthcare professionals and systems can integrate into their practice include:  - The acceptability of social determinants of health screening questions was tied to participants’ understanding of the connection between the topic and child health - Families preferred a warm handoff to community services  - Families fear child protective services intervention as a result of sharing unmet social needs - Positive provider rapport was an important factor in choosing to share social needs We especially appreciate the methodology including focus groups in both Spanish and English. The study identified Spanish-speaking families face additional barriers when trying to connect with community services without a warm handoff by the primary clinic due to lack of interpreter services. One quote is quite powerful, highlighting one of the very real fears families face in healthcare settings: “You never know the doctor is going to call CPS which is Child Protective Services, and they don’t have hesitation on taking your child away from you, you know, so a lot of these parents would be scared to really talk about, not to say that we’re not a bad parent and we did not take care of our child, it’s just that we had lack of resources” (an English-speaking caregiver on child protective services intervention) This study adds the most important voice of patients and families. Thank you to the authorship team Leena Penumalee, Jennifer O’Neil Lambert, Martha Gonzalez, Melanie Gray, Ekta Partani, Celia Wilson, Rebecca Etz, and Bergen Nelson for sharing this work! #healthequity #intentversusimpact #implicitbiasinterruption https://lnkd.in/eaxEwJwn

'For a model of care to be successful, drivers must be close to outcomes' Huh? We (recovering) academics can really confuse stuff, so chuck this Babel fish in your ear 👇 and try to make sense of that statement. At the local school council meeting last night, listening to our incredible school principals describe their annual plans and talk about the piles of data they were going to collect and collate and use to measure impact .. got me thinking about a few things. The first thought was around a seminal piece of work I was privileged enough to work on many moons ago .. ( make a strong coffee if you read it, link in comments). The research looked at 55 new models of allied health care implemented across Queensland. We wanted to know what worked, why, how and to what extent did they work. A key finding was that the outcomes that were identified as important and that were measured often didn’t really reflect the reason why the care model was developed in the first place. I know seems a bit daft, yes (anyone else love that word…)? But this happens more often than you think. For example. I am working with a delightful PhD student, Georgia, and her two very fun supervisors (Saravana Kumar and Helen Banwell) looking at early intervention models of care in rural areas for children with disabilities. In her first output, a systematic scoping review, Georgia discovered that many research articles examining new or ‘novel’ (not a fan of that word) models of care are also not great at this. Here’s an example. A model of care is devised and implemented to improve access to allied health services. The primary outcome measure is the number of children assessed and referred on to appropriate services. Hmmm. So, more children were assessed and referred elsewhere, but what then? Did that actually improve access to allied health services or did it mean children were subject to another waiting list? Was assessment and referral a proxy measure of access? Was this a positive outcome for the child and family? The findings were interesting, and we got the gist of what they were trying to do …  but from a quality data and impact perspective we are left guessing to some extent whether or not the model of care achieved what it set out to achieve. In the end, I believe the authors actually needed to be clearer about their driver (why they felt they needed to implement the model of care). If they were clearer about exactly what the problem around access was (and with that, how an assessment and screening service might help to resolve part of that problem), then their outcome measure would have been more meaningful. So as we launch into strategic planning o’clock, as well as thinking carefully about the improvement strategies you choose, try to choose measures that are closely aligned to and are most likely to demonstrate that you are making progress towards solving the problem you are trying to solve.