March 2017 Home Visiting Update
All Cohort Meeting Thursday April 13th
We are less than three weeks away from our All Cohort Meeting at the Sea-Tac Crowne Plaza Airport conveniently located across the from the light rail station and Sea-Tac Airport . Attached please find a draft agenda. If you have any questions or concerns please let us know.
Please Welcome Our New State Team Member!
We are excited to share that Nina Evers will be joining the state home visiting team at the Department of Early Learning team as the Home Visiting Workforce Specialist to coordinate and lead activities in the MIECHV innovation grant. Nina will start on April 3rd and share more about the innovation grant at the HVSA All Cohort Meeting on April 13th. We are so excited to have her on board!
Nina brings a wealth of experience in early learning, with prior experiences as a Parents As Teachers manager in Snohomish County, implementation of the NEAR@Home Toolkit and currently in her role as an Early Achievers coach with Child Care Resources. She will bring great energy, passion and wisdom to our team. Please welcome Nina!
Domestic Violence Trainings-Registration open for April 18th & 19th
Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV) is offering two free trainings back to back on April 18th and19th in Yakima. Participants can register for both days or only one day. These trainings are for Home Visitors, Parent Educators, and Family Service Providers and are co-sponsored with DEL and Thrive WA. Priority registration will be given to home visiting programs funded by Thrive Washington.
First day is a Domestic Violence training, including the use of the Futures Without Violence Safety Card intervention and tools. This is a repeat of last year’s training.
**Second day is Safety Planning with families when domestic violence is happening.
*This safety planning training is only for individuals who have already attended the Domestic Violence training.
There will also be two more trainings held this year if the April training does not work with your schedule:
June 12 & 13 (Port Townsend)
October 17 & 18 (Vancouver)
/ HVSA Transition Update
The Contracts Transition is beginning!
For upcoming important dates, look here
Key deadlines have passed, so please complete these ASAP steps if you haven’t already:
· Submit your DEL HVSA Intake Form (attached),
·Make sure your organization is registered as a vendor with Washington Department of Enterprise Services.
·Names and emails for those 1-2 people you want to access our online portal (this is required for accessing and submitting the Pre Contract Questionnaire): first name, last name, and email address of the 1 or 2 people.
Earlier this week, we sent out an updated FAQs document; since then we have received additional questions and feedback, so we’ll get another update out to you soon. Remember you can always find the FAQs and other important informational documents and training materials on our website. Keep your questions coming in!
Finally, we are looking forward to having some detailed, small group conversations with you as part of the upcoming HVSA All Cohort meeting.
Thrive is Hiring
We are happy to share that a secondNFP State Lead/Nurse Consultant position has opened at Thrive:
"Thrive seeks an additional State Lead/Nurse Consultant to support the high-quality implementation of Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) home visiting services in Washington state. NFP is an evidence-based home visiting model that, through a therapeutic relationship with a registered nurse, promotes a mother’s abilities and behavior change to protect and promote her health and the well-being of her child. The new State Lead/Nurse Consultant will partner with the current NFP State Lead/Nurse Consultant, who will now focus much of her work on integrating the NEAR@Home toolkit into practice around our region.”
Home Visiting Partnering with Children's Administration
With a renewal of federal funding, the HVSA was required to develop Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with a number of system partners, including Child Welfare, which in Washington is the Children’s Administration of the Department of Social and Health Services.
Several local home visiting program supervisors and administrators volunteered to support this learning journey, thank you for participation in several meetings to discuss partnerships with Children’s Administration and home visiting programs. The MOU agreement between Children’s Administration and Department of Early Learning was finalized end of October 2016. Now, we are looking for opportunities to put the MOU into action.
We have been invited to present at Children’s Administration Program Managers meeting on May 2nd in Kent to share more about home visiting, opportunities and challenges in collaboration. We would love for 1-2 home visitors, supervisors or administrators to shape and to participate in this meeting. Please reach out to Kathy Tan for sharing your successes, challenges or to get additional information about CA partnerships or if you are interested in participating in this presentation. > Read more about the focus of the MOU and concrete CA resources.
Visit Tracker Update
Hello PAT programs!
A quick update on Visit Tracker happenings.
Please review the newlyupdated MIECHV Form 1 demographics report. Is available to all programs regardless of funding source “The report can be run by the administrators to view numbers for the whole program and by home visitors to see their report for the families they are serving.”
A follow-up from last month that the PHQ-9 report should be functioning correctly now. Please let me know if you are having any issues and I can help support a resolution.
Take a peek and as always, please reach out to me,Kasondra at DEL with additional suggestions and feedback about Visit Tracker enhancements.
The Triple Aim of a Healthier Washington-What's Your Role?
Much is happening to transform health care in Washington State! Healthier Washington’s Triple Aim describes three core strategies in the Health Care Innovation Plan.
The third strategy focuses on building healthier communities through regional collaboration. In Washington, there are nine Accountable Communities of Health (ACHs) tasked with bringing together health and community leaders with a common interest in improving health and health equity. Traditional and non-traditional service providers are encouraged to take part in ACH activities. For further explanation of ACHs and local contacts, see document attached in this email.
Because home visiting can impact a family’s health, social and educational outcomes, DEL and HCA are partnering to identify opportunities to coordinate and integrate services, as well as possible Medicaid financing options for home visiting. One emergent option includes partnering with ACHs on Medicaid Transformation projects. Project guidance is outlined in a Transformation Toolkit, which describes approaches and activities ACHs can take on in their community. Home visiting is included!
DEL is working with HCA to provide more details to you about Medicaid Transformation. However, now is the time connect with your regional ACH, since they are currently developing project plans for an early autumn 2017 submission to HCA for approval. > Read more how and why to connect with your local ACH here