The New Normal, Part 5: A Pediatrics Perspective on it All
Part 5 in our five week blog series: The New Normal: Covid-19’s Impact on Population Health Information Technology. What we know to be true about this healthcare space has been reinforced and accelerated. We’ll help you to discern the noise from the NOW.
Part 5 – Introduction
Healthcare organizations are critical to the support of parents in their efforts to keep kids healthy (bodies, minds, and hearts) during this time of COVID-19. Teachers have done and will continue to do their best to help with lesson planning and content of value with kids at home. Beyond that, a unique integration between pediatricians, child mental health professionals, pediatric care coordinators, healthcare educators and parents is of great need during these uncertain times. There is no Pause Button for childhood development.
Educate Them All!
Everyone was a home teacher this Spring and for those fortunate to continue their work from home, it meant double (triple, even quadruple?!) duty. Will it come back this fall in part? In full? Depending on your location, who knows. (Although you should make sure to read the final note at the conclusion of this blog if you’d like to have a say!) Happy to take the uncertainty out of the equation, some parents are even making plans to go full home-schooling as opposed to signing up for another round of potential virtual education. The situation is fluid to say the least. These times are certainly unique.
Your pediatric healthcare workers are uniquely skilled at providing just the support needed. As a community anchoring healthcare organization, work to develop stratified outreach and engagement across a variety of topics and content much as chronic illness gap outreach has now evolved given the demands of value-based reimbursement. If you’re skeptical, or looking for a place to start, read an example from Boston Children’s: here.
Get creative in your approaches, you’ve got captive audiences in search of any and every tool to fit the unique bill of the challenges each new day brings.
Ideas for Programs to Help Parents Educate Kids
Coping Mechanisms for Kids – Think about campaigns targeted to what kids are missing: friends, teachers, prom/homecoming, graduation, sports/band/theatre/etc. Educate parents on how they can support healthy conversations.
Avoiding Boredom – There are tips galore in this Sesame Street resource ready for distribution via, social, MyChart, and other mediums already at your disposal.
Scheduling the Day – Guidance on the right balance of play, education, screen time by age is helpful. Your pediatricians and other pediatric healthcare professionals are experts in these areas as well as to flexing ‘standard’ recommendations to non-standard times.
General Children’s Education – Great ideas and resources for promotion and/or campaign brainstorming are available at PBS for Parents; skills for life, activities, and more.
Ideas for Parental Education Programs
Conflict and Behavioral Issue Guidance – Reminders along these lines have never been more necessary! Consider resources like this one when developing your own similar programs.
Discipline with Empathy – Help parents to recognize that kids are In This Together too!
Social Emotional Guidance – These times are more challenging for little ones than they are for adults. Connecting kids with their emotions in ways they’re missing while away from friends and teachers is critical. Consider a Spotlight-On interview series that focuses on relevant books or physical activity outlets available.
Keeping Routines Consistent – We’ve all got to take our medicine, and who better to advise on how to deliver that message in a way that lands with a challenging audience than pediatric healthcare professionals? Think bed, sleep, eating, exercise recommendations and creative delivery methods to accommodate them.
Encourage Parents to Give Themselves a Break – You’ve got the professionals who can advise on screen time, snacks, fun, and other areas where disciplined rearing can slip and where ramifications are relatively limited when they do. Parents need to know their best is okay, and hearing it from a child psychologist at their trusted healthcare organization helps.
And don’t forget – parents need all the help they can get to encourage children to GET OUTSIDE! :)
Educate on Wellness Care
Vaccines, developmental screening, well-child visits…it’s all here in this guidance from the AAP. This is your bread and butter and arguably the easiest outreach you can do with the information and data you already have on hand. If you haven’t already developed your strategies to catalyze the return of your pediatrics patients, stem the financial bleeding and get ahead of preventable negative outcomes now.
What’s the incentive? How about the fact that “scheduling has never been easier”, “waiting rooms have never been cleaner”, “healthcare professionals have never been happier to care for your children!” The patient experience, properly planned, is guaranteed to be a positive one under the right circumstances. Don’t delay in making them so!
Even as states and schools begin to give the word that virtual education will be the best option available, that’s simply no excuse to put down the mantle of keeping our kids safe from preventable illness and on track for key developmental milestones.
Delivery Mediums Matter
As always, your outreach and education efforts must be strategic. Your mediums should be consistent with the urgency and content of your message. Households have A LOT going on right now, and caregivers appreciate thoughtful approaches to gaining their attention.
Consider:
Text messaging: Preventive care gaps outreach for high risk patients
Phone Calls: Preventive care gap outreach for medium risk patients
Patient Portal Tools: Preventive care gap outreach for low risk patients, educational tools, and family fun
Email: Educational tools and family fun
Conclusion
All of the above are certainly just starting points to begin thinking about outreach to support parents and their quest to keep kids healthy during a challenging time for all. If you haven’t begun already, don’t delay any further. Kids need you, parents need you, and your pediatric healthcare professionals have an innate need to meet these unique demands!
If you don’t know where to start, explore the resources provided here and/or give Downshift a shout to talk about putting your preferred strategies into action. We are experts at using existing healthcare technology toolsets to do all of the aforementioned outreach and engagement.
Before we sign off on this blog series, we have one final note. Putting on a parental hat here…we need to think about how healthcare organizations can support getting kids safely back to school, where possible, in such a way that keeps them healthy and infection rates at bay. Our teachers and school administrators are going to need all the help they can get to drive home messaging and education that allows for facilitation of critical in-person learning where it is to take place. As a community anchor who may be all for getting kids back to school or one who is perhaps aggravated by the decision of community education leaders to make such a call, now is your time to act.
Study the thinking on this topic from the AAP including their specific recommendations on how to approach such a challenging situation safely. Leverage your resources and get involved. Education, advocacy for specific approaches, and even mechanisms to deliver and facilitate virtual healthcare in concert with school-based clinicians are All. Fair. Game. We have the tools and the determination; our most vulnerable population is calling.
Thank you for reading. If this content speaks to you, please follow CJ on Twitter or LinkedIn to be made aware of future blog content when it’s hot off the presses.
