Medical Home Awareness Events Scheduled for September
Thu, 09/08/2011 - 09:42am | By: Alma Ellis
Medical Homes are an important health care resource for Mississippi families. That is the message two Institute for Disability Studies projects are promoting through medical home awareness events scheduled for September.
The projects – Family-to-Family Health Information and Education Center (F2F) and Mississippi Integrated Community Systems (MICS) both focus on promoting access to comprehensive health and related services through a “medical home.” Specifically, the projects focus on children and youth with special health care needs receiving coordinated ongoing comprehensive care within a medical home by educating families and primary care providers.
A medical home is the one place where parents can take their children for all their health care needs. This includes checkups/well visits, sick visits, accidents, special health needs and immunizations (shots).
The use of medical homes is not new to the health care industry and has been a best practice on the national level. Over the past few years, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau identified the presence of a medical home as one of the six key measures of the quality of health care for children with special health care needs.
Cookie Smith, F2F project manager, agrees the promotion of medical homes to Mississippi families is important in assisting them in advocating for their children. “Parents want a primary physician that gets to know their child -- their strengths as well as areas of growth,” said Smith. “A true medical home promotes a partnership with families and professionals to meet the health care needs of the child, youth or young adult.”
Medical home awareness events have been coordinated for September throughout the state. Key events include a medical home coloring sheet contest, focus and promotion of three online newsletters, and a free parent training Webinar set for Sept. 29. Other promotional events will target the sharing of sharing information with parents, youth, young adults, pediatricians and other primary care providers.
To learn more about the benefits of medical homes and the September awareness events, please visit the F2F Web site at http://www.usm.edu/ids/f2fc/index.php or the MICS Web site at http://www.usm.edu/ids/mics/index.php or contact the Hattiesburg office of the Institute for Disability Studies toll free at 1.888.671.0051.