JAMESTOWN, N.Y.:–The Tapestry Resilience Initiative is working with local pediatric primary care providers in Chautauqua County to support our youngest community members and their families with the HealthySteps Programs and creating awareness of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Learn the Signs. Act Early.
HealthySteps is a nationally recognized program under ZeroToThree. Pediatrician offices are a consistent place where children are seen for well visits regularly more times than not. The HealthySteps program motto is to meet families where they are at, with people they trust. HealthySteps Specialists are placed in primary care practices to recognize whether children are reaching developmental milestones, to fill in services gaps, connect families with additional services, and support further development education. The main program goal is to ensure all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life.
“Our entire practice received training on this national best practice model (HealthySteps) and we built a provider-specific plan of approach after our program training,” said Dr. Liz Daniels of Jamestown Pediatrics. “While practice plans have similarities, each practice owns their own plan. This is important to fit the culture of the practice and of each family served. HealthySteps fits the culture of Jamestown Pediatrics.”
Tapestry has collaborated with Jamestown Pediatrics to offer this program to their patients. The office has a HealthySteps specialist, a member of their healthcare team who can provide additional time and attention when needed to families with young children. Working with the team, the specialist can provide support, assessments and referrals to ensure that the practice can meet each family’s unique strengths and culture. Along with Dr. Daniels, team members have seen many examples of the impact the HealthySteps program has on their patients.
Rachel Ludwig, Tapestry Director said, “The goal of a HealthySteps Specialist is to provide high quality services in a timely way to the families that are seen in the Jamestown Pediatrics practice. It is rewarding to see that those involved enjoy working with all of the providers and getting to know all the families who receive care here. They have a family-centered environment and have experienced many wonderful stories full of hope from this (HealthySteps) work.”
The program can serve as the inspiration for practices to look to, for and with other system solutions, supports and best practice opportunities. At the practice, the Specialist started a clothes and supply closet for their patients in need of these items. The closet is donation based and the practice continually receives the community’s support of the families they see.
The goal of the Tapestry Resilience Initiative is to provide safe and engaging trauma-informed services to prevent mental, emotional and behavioral disorders and to identify and address concerns as early as possible and strengthen existing collaboration among community groups and forge effective coordination to provide the needed supports and services for children, youth, and their families. This collaboration with Jamestown Pediatrics is an excellent example of this coordination.
For more information about the HealthySteps Program, visit https://www.healthysteps.org/ .
If you are a local pediatric practice and would like to access support for your patients, please email CCDMH@chqgov.com and put HealthySteps in the subject line.
The Tapestry Resilience Initiative operates locally under the supervision of the Chautauqua County Department of Mental Hygiene. You can learn more about Tapestry Resilience by searching @tapestrychq or more about the Chautauqua County Department of Mental Hygiene by searching @mentalhygienechq.