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Children's Services

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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:

  • Expert County Care Management

Lunch Sponsors:

  • Brier Dlugolecki Strategies
  • Novak Strategic Advisors

Beverage Hole Sponsors:

  • Comprehensive Financial Associates/PA Pension Planners
  • Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

Prize Sponsors:

  • Qualifacts
  • Salisbury Behavioral Health, a division of RHA Health Services

Hole Sponsors:

  • Ceisler Media & Issue Advocacy
  • Christopher S. Lucas & Associates
  • Embolden WC Trust
  • Firetree, Ltd
  • Hearten Workers’ Comp Program
  • Pinnacle Treatment Centers, Inc.
  • Step By Step, Inc.
  • Threshold Rehabilitation Services, Inc.

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.

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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:

  • Enhancing Trauma Awareness;
  • Deepening Trauma Awareness;
  • Applying Trauma Principles;
  • Trauma-Sensitive Certification;
  • Train the Trainers;
  • Processing Pain, Facilitating Healing; and
  • Trauma 101 through 110 Workshops.

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:

  • Trauma-Competent Professional: Requires completion of 3 courses — Enhancing, Deepening, and Applying Trauma (75 hours) and 8 books for required outside reading. The courses must be taken in the order listed, and one must be completed before advancing to the next.
  • Trauma-Sensitive Professional: Requires completion of the course of the same name (50 hours) and 3 books for required outside reading. This certification covers fewer topics than the 75-hour course.

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.

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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.

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Physical, Mental and Emotional words on a venn diagram to illustrate total balance of mind, body and soul or spirit health and wellbeing

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.

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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:

  • “Prevent a reduction in access to care for patients who do not yet have an existing telemedicine relationship;
  • For relationships established both during the COVID-19 PHE and those established shortly after, prevent backlogs with respect to in-person medical evaluations in the months shortly before and after the expiration of the telemedicine flexibilities;
  • Address the urgent public health need for continued access to the initiation of buprenorphine as medication for opioid use disorder in the context of the continuing opioid public health crisis;
  • Allow patients, practitioners, pharmacists, service providers, and other stakeholders sufficient time to prepare for the implementation of any future regulations that apply to prescribing of controlled medications via telemedicine; and
  • Enable DEA, jointly with HHS, to conduct a thorough evaluation of regulatory alternatives in order to promulgate regulations that most effectively expand access to telemedicine encounters in a manner that is consistent with public health and safety, while also effectively mitigating against the risk of possible diversion.

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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Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, the Chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, will be introducing new legislation on the floor of Senate titled “The Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Relief Act of 2023.”

The HCBS Relief Act of 2023 would provide dedicated Medicaid funds to states for two years to stabilize their HCBS service delivery networks, recruit and retain HCBS direct care workers, and meet the long-term service and support needs of people eligible for Medicaid home and community-based services. States would receive a 10-point increase in the federal match (FMAP) for Medicaid for two fiscal years to enhance HCBS. Funds could be used to increase direct care worker pay, provide benefits such as paid family leave or sick leave, and pay for transportation expenses to and from the homes of those being served. The additional funds also can be used to support family caregivers, pay for recruitment and training of additional direct care workers, and pay for technology to facilitate services. The funds can help decrease or eliminate the waiting lists for HCBS in the states.

The HCBS Relief Act of 2023 will be introduced during the fourth week of October with a House companion bill expected to be released in the near future. Please join RCPA in supporting this critical piece of legislation to create a viable and sustainable pathway for HCBS.

If you have any questions, please contact your respective RCPA Policy Director.

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The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released updated guidance on the CCBHC Quality Measurements. The guidance provides revisions regarding monitoring of the demonstration project programs:

Additionally, SAMHSA has released a series of webinars and PowerPoints aimed at providing technical assistance for CCBHC providers, listed below:

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact RCPA Policy Director Jim Sharp.

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