| About Us | Coordinators | Join Us | Contact Us | Links |

Projects

Wisconsin Family to Family Health Information Center

Collaboration

Our partners are an important

 

Project Abstract

Families in Wisconsin have consistently identified the need for access to timely, high quality services and supports in the health and community system of care. The complexities of the current systems, multiple funding streams, and lack of coordination make it difficult for families to obtain the services their child needs. Families who have the information they need to support their child with a disability or special health care need are in the best position to ensure access to quality health and community supports for their child. The Family Voices of Wisconsin Health Information Project will focus on four objectives:

  1. Increase the coordination between existing, state-funded information and assistance activities and the availability of health and community resources to children with disabilities and/or special health care needs;
  2. Increase the availability and sustainability of highly trained health-benefits specialists with expertise in children with disabilities and/or special health care needs;
  3. Assure the availability of resources and training so that parents of children with disabilities and/or special health care needs, including parents of under-represented segments of the community, can be knowledgeable and effective navigators of their child's system of care;
  4. Develop an infrastructure for a sustainable family to family information and training center.

The Family Voices of Wisconsin Health Information Project will collaborate closely with and build upon initiatives occurring in the State of Wisconsin. Collaborators will include the five Regional Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) Centers funded by the Division of Public Health, the Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services in the Division of Disability and Elder Services, the Covering Kids with Special Needs Project of ABC for Health (not for profit health care benefits counseling organization), and the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities of the University of Wisconsin-Waisman Center.

Families will have leadership positions in all aspects of project design, implementation and evaluation; strategies for supporting and training a network of health benefits specialists will be defined and implemented; extensive linkages will be fostered with parent groups concerned with the system of care for CSHCN and/or disabilities and materials and training will be offered to the existing information and assistance network. Project outcomes will be monitored and evaluated throughout the project period.