This year at RCPA’s Annual Conference A Decade of Unity, which was held in Hershey, PA, we were fortunate enough to have John Broderick, Jr. speak on mental health. His presentation and message are inspirational, and he continued to share his message on TEDx Talk. We encourage you to listen to his words on childhood mental health. You can view the speech here.
RCPA held a golf fundraiser for the RCPA Political Action Committee (RCPA PAC) on Monday, October 9, 2023. This successful event raised much-needed funds for our legislative activities, and we would like to thank all the generous golfers who participated and contributed. Congratulations to our winners! In addition, we would like to thank our sponsors:
Tournament Sponsor:
Lunch Sponsors:
Beverage Hole Sponsors:
Prize Sponsors:
Hole Sponsors:
Your support is always appreciated. We encourage anyone interested to make a personal contribution to the RCPA PAC. For your convenience, you can now make an online contribution. Thank you again for your participation and support, and congratulations to our golf winners!
Your participation in the RCPA-PAC is completely voluntary, and you may contribute as much or as little as you choose. Donations are not tax-deductible and will be used for political purposes. You may choose not to participate without fear of reprisal. You will not be favored or disadvantaged by reason of the amount of your contribution or decision not to contribute.
The Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF) is pleased to announce the continuation of their partnership with the Office of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) in contracting with Lakeside Global Institute to provide PA Child Welfare Professionals FREE trauma training. What is considered a PA Child Welfare Professional? Anyone who serves children and families who live in Pennsylvania. If your work touches on improving the lives of children and families, this applies to you and your organization!
Multiple cohorts for courses and workshops will be facilitated by Lakeside Global Institute and are available until September 30, 2024, or while funding is available. Available trainings will be offered live via a web-based platform. Tuition and material costs are covered!
This opportunity is perfect for new staff that have joined your team who may need workshops (101–110) as well as the child welfare professionals who are ready to take the next step in their trauma-informed care education journey via completion of the Intensive Courses.
Trainings available include the following:
Interested in workshops? Visit here.
Interested in the Intensive Courses? Visit here.
Note: Participants who have completed Enhancing Trauma Awareness, Deepening Trauma Awareness, and Applying Trauma Principles should not take Trauma-Sensitive Certification, as content would be duplicated.
The simple distinction between certification as a Trauma-Sensitive Professional (TSC course) and Trauma-Competent Professional (ETA, DTA, and ATP) is:
DO NOT DELAY for this exciting and FREE opportunity, and schedule your trauma trainings today!
If you have questions relating to any of these trainings, please submit them via email to Lakeside Global Institute.
Researchers at CHOP and Penn plan to enroll 2,500 Philly-area pregnant patients, tracking the health of their fetuses through early childhood.
by Tom Avril, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Published
The University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have won a $50 million grant to study how environmental factors affect the health of fetuses, babies, and toddlers.
Researchers plan to enroll 2,500 pregnant patients and their partners over a 7-year period with the grant from the National Institutes of Health, as part of a larger study of more than 60,000 children.
The study will track harmful environmental exposures such as pollution, violence, and extreme temperatures, as well as beneficial ones like walkability and green space.
All are thought to have significant effects on pediatric health, but the grant will allow researchers to tease out the individual impact of each, said CHOP neonatologist Heather Burris, one of three leaders of the Penn-CHOP portion of the study.
“We really need to understand the relative importance of each of these environmental toxicants and also what can be done about it,” she said.
Philadelphia joins national study
The national study, called Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO), has been underway since 2016, already yielding 1,200 peer-reviewed research articles, the NIH says.
The addition of Philadelphia to the mix will allow researchers to get a better sense of how environmental harms can have a disproportionate impact on children of color, who are underrepresented in some other participating locations, Burris said.
The other two project leaders are CHOP neonatologist Sara B. DeMauro and Sunni L. Mumford, a professor of epidemiology at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine and the co-director of Penn’s Women’s Health Clinical Research Center.
The team plans to study the interplay between “macro” environmental factors like pollution and violence and the “micro” environment for each individual fetus: their parents’ diet, physical activity, stress, and sleep.
The researchers will monitor fetal health throughout pregnancy into the first three years of childhood, tracking preterm birth, asthma, obesity, and developmental delays.
The study seeks to enroll pregnant patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Hospital.
On behalf of COMCARE, Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, and their partner Behavioral Health Managed Care Organizations (BH-MCOs), RCPA is pleased to distribute the following report highlighting more than two dozen Integrated Behavioral Health (BH) and Physical Health (PH) Care Models that are available to Pennsylvanians enrolled in Behavioral HealthChoices (BHC), the Commonwealth’s BH managed care program for Medical Assistance consumers. This is considered a “living” document and will be updated with additional models as they are identified.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued a temporary rule extending the allowance for physicians and practitioners to prescribe controlled medications to new patients based on a relationship solely established through telemedicine (live video or telephone for buprenorphine) until December 31, 2024. The extension will give the DEA time to consider permanent changes to their rules around prescribing controlled substances moving forward.
Key concerns from stakeholders expressed during the listening sessions were related to in-person visit requirements, the 30-day prescribing limit in the initially proposed rules, and adding various reporting requirements, such as notating on prescriptions that they were prescribed via telemedicine. The rule itself lists additional reasons the extension is being issued:
RCPA will continue its advocacy work in partnering with the National Council on Mental Wellbeing to support the flexibility becoming part of reimagined legislation. Also, RCPA will continue its efforts on the current appeal it has filed with the DEA and OMHSAS to provide regulatory clarification on the licensing classification for those provider members who submitted applications for DEA Site Registration to disseminate Controlled Substances under the titled Act of 1970.
If you have questions, please contact RCPA Policy Director Jim Sharp.
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