Family-to-Family
Health Care Information and Education
Centers
VIRGINIA
Grant Information
Name of Grantee
Medical
Home Plus, Inc.
Title of Grant
The Virginia Integrated Network of Family
Support Organizations
Center (VA INFO Center)
Type of Grant
Family-to-Family
Health Care Information and Education
Centers
Amount of Grant
$165,000
Year Original Funding
Received
2005
Contact Information
Cynthia Jones, Executive Director
Co-Director, Virginia Family to Family Resource Center
Medical Home Plus, Inc.
8660 Staples Mill Road
Richmond, VA 23228
804-264-8428 (b)
877-264-8366 (toll-free)
cjones@medhomeplus.org
Dana Yarbrough, Co-Director
Virginia Family to Family Resource Center
Executive Director of Parent to Parent of Virginia
804-795-1481
PTPofVA@aol.com
Subcontractor(s)
Graphics design consultant
Evaluation and strategic planning consultants
Target Population(s)
Families with children and youth with special
health care needs (CYSHCN), as well as grassroots organizations and other
stakeholders.
Goals
- Create a statewide Family-to-Family Health Care Information
and Education Center (called the Virginia Family to Family Resource Center)
designed to strengthen and expand the capacity to connect CSHCN and their
families with services and resources that promote health and well-being.
- Provide leadership
(through expansion of the newly forming Integrated Network of Family
Support Organizations coalition-called VA INFO) to the Center by linking
collaborators and grassroots organizations, and promoting awareness,
support, and participation of families.
- Develop a statewide
and national presence that supports systems change, providing feedback to Virginia's
stakeholders, CMS, and existing Family-to-Family Health Care Information
and Education Centers to improve health care for children.
Activities
- Gather, create, and
disseminate information on resources, services, and training opportunities
for families with CYSHCN.
- Promote training and
education on home and community services and support for CYSHCN, parent
groups, providers, and other stakeholders.
- Create a timely and
cost-effective process for sharing information and making referrals that
support children and their families in their communities across the
Commonwealth (e.g., Medicaid waiver, respite, home health, transportation,
etc.) through partnerships.
- Maintain updated
information on the Center Web page and share point portal (electronic
workspace).
- Coordinate matches
between families for emotional support.
- Partner with family
support groups and/or agencies to create new resources for families.
- Provide forums for
families in different parts of the State; facilitate peer group
discussion.
- Create a process that
enables providers and family support organizations to work together to identify
needs, develop proposals, and secure funding to address unmet needs of
children with disabilities and special health care needs in Virginia.
- Participate in state
and local councils, committees, and task forces to help facilitate systems
improvements.
- Provide input and
feedback to Virginia's
stakeholders, CMS, existing Family-to-Family Health Care Information and
Education Centers; and status updates to legislators.
Abstract
Today in Virginia,
family members of over 270,000 CYSHCN (approximately 15 percent of Virginia's total child
population) struggle to find resources and services. The percentage of Virginia's children with
disabilities (ages birth to 17 years) is higher than
the national average, as is the percentage of these children living in poverty
(National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs). Family
Voices of Virginia (a program of Medical Home Plus, Inc.) and Parent to Parent
of Virginia, in collaboration with VA INFO (the Virginia Integrated Network of
Family Support Organizations), are committed to addressing this critical need.
The Virginia Family to Family Resource Center will
build capacity in the Commonwealth to assist CYSHCN and their families by
gathering and disseminating information, providing training and technical
assistance, developing resources, creating partnerships across agencies and
family support organizations, promoting individual- and family-directed
supports, and collaborating with other Family-to-Family Health Care Information
and Education Centers nationally. The work of the Center will be assisted by
the family support coalition (VA INFO), whose members are committed to
supporting the development and operation of the Center, and working toward a
"seamless" system of care for CYSHCN and their families.