Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs

This project is a collaboarative effort between The Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities and 28 Local County Health Departments across NYS

Our Mission

To positively impact the lives of Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) and their families by assisting Local Health Departments (LHDs) in providing needed and appropriate services.

Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities will:

• Engage families and youth in meaningful conversations with our family specialists
• Provide training and technical assistance to local health departments
• Collect regional resources to create a resource directory for families and youth impacted by special health care needs.

We will we do this by:

• Collecting information on regional resources for your county***
• Conducting needs assessments for families and LHD's
• Providing technical assistance to LHD's
• Collecting & developing educational print materials for providers & caregivers
• Developing Public Service Announcements &  webinars
• Developing video vignettes about important health related topics

Who will we serve?

• Families of children and young adults ages 0-21 years old with special health care need(s).

What is considered a special health care need?

• More information on what is considered a special health care need.

Next Steps

• If you would like to participate in one of our family discussions complete our Intake Survey
• ***Make a referral for our resource directory
• For more information about this program contact Melissa_Parrish@URMC.Rochester.edu

Meet Our Team

• Susan Hetherington
• Sabrina Smith
• Therese Welch
• Melissa Parrish
• Mark Prins
• Jennifer Ward
• Mark Williams