Project Launch

Ohio

Funded Years : 2009

Project Director :
Elizabeth Kitchen
614-728-6845
Elizabeth.Kitchen@odh.ohio.gov

Address :
246 North High Street
Columbus,OH 43266

Project Status : Active

Project Summary : Project LAUNCH for Appalachian Ohio is based on a partnership between the Ohio Department of Health, the Governor's Early Childhood Cabinet and the child-serving state departments it comprises, Ohio University, and Integrating Professionals for Appalachian Children (IPAC). IPAC is a community-consumer-university rural health network incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2006. IPAC aims to empower Ohio's families in rural Appalachia by building the capacity of caregivers and the knowledge and skills of local providers. It also aims to strengthen integration across systems to reduce the fragmentation that has historically burdened families with the coordination of their own care. Project LAUNCH offers an opportunity for IPAC and its state colleagues to collaborate for state policy and infrastructure reform and to serve the more than 11,000 children (ages 0–8) living in four counties of rural Appalachian Ohio: Athens, Hocking, Vinton, and Meigs.

The four Project LAUNCH counties are part of the 29 Appalachian counties in southeastern Ohio. This region of the state is marked by hilly terrain, a lack of economic development, a poor tax base, non-existent public transportation, and a homogeneous population that is 97 percent Caucasian. More than 128,000 people reside in a service area that is approximately 1,773 square miles. Three of the four counties are classified as “distressed,” and all are underserved by both medical and mental health professionals. Young children in the area are not receiving the services they need because of early identification barriers (lack of screening and an awareness of its importance), because of professional barriers (working in silos, lack of coordination), and because families are overwhelmed and lack access to services.

Project LAUNCH Goals

The overarching goal of Ohio's Project LAUNCH is to create a shared vision for young child wellness that builds a solid foundation for sustaining effective, integrated services and systems to support and promote the health and wellness of young children and their families.

Working collaboratively, Project LAUNCH will enable state and local partners to work toward the following goals:

• Building awareness of the importance of early identification through evidenced-based screenings in primary care across all provider systems (medicine, education, etc.)
• Improving coordination of care from the point of identification, through referrals and the provision of evidenced-based services, such that consumers and those who serve young children share a vision of what strengthens families and optimizes young child wellness
• Improving the integration of physical and behavioral health care for young children
• Developing policies and infrastructure to solidify supports that enable local communities to design system reforms that leverage community assets and respect local cultural values
• Expanding the use of evidence-based programs and practices to promote the wellness of young children and their families in five programmatic areas
• Strengthening the local infrastructure and developing the workforce capacity of professionals in all child-serving systems

Strategies

To achieve these goals, IPAC will employ five key strategies:

• Improve the region's capacity to identify children with special needs by enabling 12 primary care offices to adopt uniform procedures for standardized developmental screening
• Expand the number of primary care practices with integrated behavioral health services from community mental health centers for private practice groups
• Expand the capacity of the region's Help Me Grow programs to offer evidence-based home visiting, using the Parents as Teachers model
• Expand early childhood mental health consultation in the region by hiring an ECMHC in two counties
• Strengthen families through the Family Navigator Program, parent skills training, nutrition counseling, and art and recreation programs

Expected Outcomes

At the systems level:

• Increased public awareness of the determinants of young child wellness
• The enhanced ability of the Governor's Early Childhood Cabinet (and the State Departments it comprises: the Ohio Departments of Health, Education, Mental Health, Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, Developmental Disabilities, and Job and Family Services) to advocate for child wellness issues at the state level
• The expansion of state-level flexible funding streams that promote integrated programs
• The sustainability of IPAC as a Rural Health Network capable of managing regional initiatives to address young child wellness

At the services level:

• Appropriate screenings and referrals for children at earlier ages
• Improved access to services for children and families
• Increased knowledge of child development, behavioral health, and interventions by parents and professionals
• Improved social-emotional competence in young children
• An increase in the number of children ready to enter kindergarten
• An increase in the overall wellness of young children and their families

Evidence-Based Programs :
Parents as Teachers
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
IMPACT
Trauma Focused CBT
Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Screen (EPDS)
Ages & Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional (ASQ:SE)