Maternal and child Health
The initiatives in this domain provide care to address a wide range of conditions, health behaviors, and indicators that affect the health, wellness, and quality of life of women, infants, children, and families.
Maternal and Child Health
Children’s Institute “Get Ready to GROW” Program
We are partnering with the Children’s Institute ‘Get Ready to GROW’ initiative to expand developmental screenings in Western New York and provide screenings to 4,500 children (12-60 months old) over the next two years.
The screenings include vision, dental, speech & language, thinking & reasoning, movement, hearing, social & emotional, and height & weight, as well as new screenings for protective factors, adverse childhood experiences, and social determinants of health.
Children’s Institute partners with a variety of community organizations that collaboratively work on issues impacting young children in our region. The screenings will be conducted by staff from an expanding group of partners that include Rochester Hearing and Speech, Comprehensive Interdisciplinary Developmental Services, and ProAction. The team is actively identifying and developing partnerships for screening and sustainability to expand access to the screenings in the region.
Screenings will occur in rural, suburban, and urban settings and include community-based settings such as early childhood centers, healthcare providers, tele-screening, and includes a mobile screening vehicle (the “GROW” bus). The bus provides flexibility and removes social determinants of health barriers such as transportation or childcare to ensure easy access to screenings in Monroe and rural areas. In addition to more access in Monroe County, the program will expand into other counties to include Wayne, Livingston, Steuben, Yates, and Chemung counties.
This collaboration has enabled a wide variety of early care and education, behavioral health, and healthcare services to align their services to better serve children and families. For example, the Get Ready to GROW initiative will continue to build connections with primary care practices to assure screening results are exchanged and navigate children to primary care doctors and specialists to enable follow-up care.
Our Community Partners
“The key to the success of this menu of services is our ability to have a two-way dialogue with doctors and other medical professionals about both health and social support needs at home. We’ve proven this model can improve patient outcomes and reduce unnecessary ED visits and hospitalizations, and that’s a win for everyone. It also reduces both physician and patient/family caregiver frustrations.”
“For decades Regional Health Reach has been a leader in the community in providing healthcare and support services to those experiencing homelessness. Through our traditional clinic, mobile medical unit, and presence at shelters, our Healthcare for the Homeless program has touched thousands of lives. Health Reach is excited to partner with Finger Lakes Performing Provider System and MC Collaborative to expand our reach to unsheltered individuals, meeting them where they are, to provide the care they need.”
“The Finger Lakes IPA, a partnership of the region’s community health centers, six behavioral health organizations, and the S2AY Rural Health Network, is very excited to be a part of this important initiative by FLPPS to support the critical need for access to developmental screenings for young children in our rural communities. This program will give us the ability to provide access to services that are often not available due to geographic and other barriers to care experienced by our patients.”
“By expanding our Person In Crisis teams to include certified peer specialists, we will be able to assist even more of our residents in need in a humane and compassionate manner. In addition, by assisting residents in this new way, we are expecting that there will be a reduced number of people calling the PIC team because they are getting connected to the services they need.”
“I am excited to see ‘equity in action’ through this partnership with FLPPS, who recognizes the importance of lived experience and elevating the parent and patient voice to bring change across our health and behavioral health systems.”
