723: Certified Wellness Coaches, AZ Reach

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, August 7, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

BEN GAMACHE:  

Children and youth have inadequate and inequitable access to behavioral health care that they need, and we especially see that in rural populations or underserved populations.

SILVERS: 

That's Ben Gamache, and he works as a consultant for California's Department of Health Care Access and Information. Part of the solution to rectify the youth mental health crisis in the state is the creation of certified wellness coach positions.

GAMACHE:  

HCAI, specifically the Office of Health Workforce Development, was tasked with creating a new profession. It's a preclinical behavioral health profession that offers preventive and early intervention supports to children and youth.

SILVERS: 

Gamache says the goal is to address the issue sooner than ever before.

GAMACHE:  

So the intention is that we can get to children and youth where they are and reach them earlier on in the continuum, to ideally prevent more extreme behavioral health issues coming about.

SILVERS: 

These coaches can provide services wherever children are, but right now they are focusing on school settings.

GAMACHE 

So, the big primary focus that we're prioritizing right now is in the school settings, because that's where we can get in front of the most children and youth. We actually did just close and announce an employer support grant through HCAI, specifically to support education in organizations and institutions, as well as community-based organizations that support those education organizations to be able to hire on wellness coaches.

SILVERS: 

Find out more information about the program and a scholarship opportunity by using the link in the show notes.

In Arizona, leaders are working to make sure small hospitals and patients alike are better taken care of. AZ Reach began during Covid to help hospitals with patient transfers. Here's Dr. Lisa Villarroel, chief medical officer for Public Health with the Arizona Department of Health Services.

LISA VILLARROEL:  

So, AZ Reach at its core is really a centralized hospital transfer line, and it's for all patients that are coming from Indian Health Service, critical access, or tribally operated hospitals. So for example, if someone needs to be transferred from one of those three types of hospitals to a higher level of care, if they need a specialist that's not available, if they're transferring for continuity of care, then they can call the centralized line to help place that patient in an appropriate facility.

SILVERS: 

Villarroel says this resource is much needed.

VILLARROEL:  

We had hospitals in Arizona where you had one clinician, you know, maybe even a single clinician in an emergency department who would be calling, you know, 40 plus facilities to try transfer successfully one patient out. And we thought, oh my goodness, can we just get that provider back to the bedside?

SILVERS: 

The next step for AZ Reach is expansion.

VILLARROEL:  

It has to be to expand to inpatient behavioral health transfers, not just medical transfers, which is what we're doing right now. That's sort of the main thing that our hospitals are now asking for. It's just, we're ready to do so, it's just it'll require a chunk of additional funds to cover the additional staff that will be required.

SILVERS: 

Learn more about AZ Reach by clicking the link in the show notes.

As the landscape of public health continues to change, our ways of modernizing data must follow suit. Rachelle Boulton from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services tells us the North Star architecture is one of those innovations.

RACHELLE BOULTON:  

It really provides that ground level work, the framework, a structure that allows us to capture, share, send, manage data across the public health ecosystem.

SILVERS: 

Hear more from Boulton and ASTHO leadership about data modernization in an episode of the Public Health Review podcast that is out now. There's a link to that episode in the show notes, or you can find it wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Finally, today, an ASTHO webinar will teach you how state health agencies can address gaps in the policy review process. Leaders from ASTHO, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, and Health Management Associates will give examples of how to successfully update and improve processes. The webinar is on August 27. Sign up using the link in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information.

I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition.

Have a great day.