Family-to-Family Health Care Information and Education Centers

CONNECTICUT

Grant Information


Name of Grantee

FAVOR, Inc.

Title of Grant

Connecticut Family-to-Family Health Information Network

Type of Grant

Family-to-Family Health Care Information and Education Centers

Amount of Grant

$165,000

Year Original Funding Received

2005

Contact Information


Hal Gibber, Executive Director
FAVOR, Inc.
2138 Silas Deane Highway, Suite 103
Rocky Hill, CT 06067

860-563-3232 ext. 201
halgibber@favor-ct.org

Subcontractor(s)

None.

Target Population(s)


Children with special health care needs (CSHCN), including those with mental health needs and their families, as well as providers, state agencies, and policy makers.

Goals


  • Develop the Connecticut Family-to-Family Health Information Network and promote the Network across the State.
  • Provide training, advocacy, and support to Connecticut families of CSHCN.
  • Provide information and resources to providers.
  • Develop policy responses to issues identified by families of CSHCN in Connecticut and implement a policy agenda.

Activities


  • Provide outreach through printed, electronic, telephone, and face-to-face contact.
  • Engage families through provision of direct support to meet their immediate needs.
  • Provide health information specialist training annually.
  • Convene quarterly meetings of the Family-to-Family Grant collaborators, regional medical homes, and others to discuss system issues related to the delivery of health care to Connecticut's CSHCN.
  • Disseminate fact sheets and toolkits to parents and providers.
  • Train Family-to-Family health information specialists.
  • Provide supervision and ongoing training to the health information specialists.
  • Provide direct individual Family-to-Family support, information, and training using a toolkit developed by the project.
  • Document contacts, strategies, and issues through data collection using the Family Voices Solutions Database and anecdotal data.
  • Conduct face-to-face meetings with the project staff and management team and include staff from the Regional Medical Home Support Centers and other medical home providers in the State.
  • Disseminate printed material, including outreach material, toolkits, and fact sheets.
  • Use the data collected to formulate policy agendas.
  • Promote Family-to-Family policy issues with state legislators at the agency's annual legislative breakfast at the Capitol.
  • Convene an annual legislative breakfast at the Capitol to promote the legislative agenda to policymakers.
  • Track bills, legislation, and policy changes that are implemented as a result of project recommendations and action.

Abstract


FAVOR, a statewide family-directed advocacy organization for children's mental health, will administer the Connecticut Family-to-Family Health Information Network. The project will be operated in collaboration with the Connecticut Family Support Council, Easter Seals, Yale Center for Children With Special Health Care Needs, the Connecticut Department of Public Health, and Bridgeport Child FIRST Program.

The project will provide support, information, and advocacy to families in Connecticut who have CSHCN, including children with mental health needs. The primary outcome of this project will be to assist families and providers in navigating the public and private health care financing service delivery systems and to develop appropriate strategies and policies to improve these systems. The project will establish a statewide network of specialists who will be directly supporting families. These specialists will provide technical assistance, information, and direct advocacy to 360 families and will develop training materials and a toolkit that can be broadly disseminated to parents in the State. All information will be utilized to formulate recommendations for policy change, and families will be mobilized to promote those policy change recommendations.