2017 Community Benefit Report CHAI_160088756_2018-11_2017 Community Benefit Repo | Page 8

2017 COMMUNITY BENEFIT REPORT
CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL COLORADO
Screening for Whole Health Finding Local Solutions
Psychosocial screener connects families to resources Families receive infant safe sleep education and resources to prevent fatalities
The Child Health Clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado is one of the largest providers of pediatric primary care for Medicaid patients
in Aurora, with children birth to five years old making up the highest percentage of patients. Here, our First 1,000 Days strategic plan
provides a roadmap for the organization to enhance its impact in the early childhood arena through psychosocial screening efforts.
In 2016, the Child Health Clinic launched its psychosocial screening initiative, which is available in ten languages. This universal tool
assesses all aspects of a family’s needs, environments and experiences, and connects them with appropriate resources to provide a
safe, stable and nurturing environment for their child.
In 2017:
8,000
Total psychosocial screens conducted
in the Child Health Clinic
2,335
Patients under age 2 screened
24%
Positive screening rate
19
Languages spoken, including Spanish,
Amharic and Arabic
1,000
Families assisted by Community Health Navigators
Top needs identified by the screener
Financial needs
Food insecurity
When needs are identified by the psychosocial screener,
Community Health Navigators and behavioral health clinicians
work with primary care providers to address each specific need by
offering onsite services and supports, partnering with community
organizations and connecting families with vital resources.
For example, when financial needs are identified, Community
Health Navigators help families access services like Energy
Outreach, which helps families afford heat and assists with bill
payments, or Gabriel House, which provides baby supplies for
families in need. If a family identifies food insecurity as a top
need, Community Health Navigators connect them with Hunger
Free Colorado, local food banks or food assistance programs. And
for benefits support, Community Health Navigators work closely
with local, county and state agencies to provide education and
assistance to the family on how to access critical benefits.
Similarly, when caregiver mental health, family or community
violence, or other factors related to behavioral and mental
health are identified, behavioral health clinicians work with
primary care providers to offer immediate support, engage in
safety planning and when indicated, refer families to community-
based mental health resources.
When families receive access to resources
and supports earlier, children have the best
opportunity to benefit from prevention and
health promotion.
After a spike in infant sleep-related fatalities in Aurora two years
ago, Children’s Hospital Colorado took a more active role in
providing safe sleep education and resources to members of the
surrounding community.
The effort began by partnering with the Colfax Community
Network to train staff and social workers in infant safe sleep
practices. From there, a pilot project focused on serving
community members living in motels along the Colfax Avenue
corridor in Aurora, whose infants were at risk for suffocation-
related deaths due to unsafe sleep environments. Colfax
Community Network staff, serving as trusted community liaisons,
worked to raise awareness of certain hazards by promoting safe
sleep. When needed, staff also distributed portable cribs, linens,
pacifiers and infant sleep sacks.
In 2017, the initiative moved to Children’s Colorado’s Child Health
Clinic, one of the largest providers of pediatric primary care for
Medicaid patients in Aurora. As with the pilot effort, Community
Health Navigators were trained in best practices for promoting
infant safe sleep, and subsequently began providing education
on the importance and practices of infant safe sleep. Community
Health Navigators were best able to discern which patient families
had the greatest need for safe sleep education and resources
through their personal relationships with each client.
Now, Community Health Navigators distribute Pack ‘n Play cribs
at no cost to the families, and work with them to ensure they
understand how to set the crib up, regularly practice safe sleep
and create a home environment aimed at keeping their infant
safe and healthy.
An Individualized Look at Child Fatalities
Colorado’s Child Fatality Review team conducts
systematic, comprehensive, multidisciplinary reviews of
all preventable childhood deaths to better understand
how and why children die in the state. In 2013, a law
was passed that transitioned the child fatality review
process from the state level to the local level. These
teams brought together local professionals that better
understood their individual community to review child
fatalities and propose solutions.
Children’s Colorado Injury Prevention Strategist
Dwayne Smith is a member of the state review team
and participates in the local review teams in Adams and
Arapahoe Counties. He works with local professionals
like school counselors, home visitation nurses, coroners,
mental health counselors, pediatricians and many more
to evaluate child fatalities in Aurora and identify ways to
prevent these heartbreaking losses in the future.
• Approximately 700 child fatalities (ages 0-17)
occur in the state of Colorado each year.
• From 2012-2016, Colorado saw 225 fatalities
attributed to Sudden Unexpected Infant Death. This
figure represented 22.3% of all child fatalities during
that same period.
• Each year about 4,000 infants in the U.S. die as a
result of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death, including
45 infants in Colorado.
• Many sleep-related infant deaths are preventable.
“By providing local solutions to local public health
challenges, we’re preventing future tragedies in a targeted
way that makes sense for each individual community.”
DWAY N E S M I T H
Help with Medicaid and other benefits
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