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Enhancing access to early intervention by including parent navigators with lived experience in a pediatric medical
Christine B Mirzaian1, Olga Solomon1, Helen Setaghiyan1
1Division of General Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
Insights
The Parent Navigator program successfully connected 71% of children with developmental concerns to early intervention services. This innovative approach utilizes parents with lived experience to reduce disparities and improve access to crucial support for families.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Community Health
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Increasing prevalence of developmental delay (DD) and intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in children.
- Early intervention (EI) is critical for improving developmental trajectories but faces access disparities.
- Existing healthcare systems struggle to adequately connect families with necessary EI resources.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe the development and impact of the Parent Navigator (PN) program.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of PNs in connecting families to EI services.
- To assess physician satisfaction and understand PN strategies for overcoming access barriers.
Main Methods:
- Mixed-methods evaluation approach.
- Documented PN referrals to EI and their outcomes.
- Conducted physician satisfaction surveys and interviewed PNs.
Main Results:
- PNs facilitated 623 referrals to EI between July 2018 and September 2020.
- Achieved a 71% successful connection rate to EI services.
- Pediatricians reported PNs as valuable team members, reducing job stress; PNs effectively addressed barriers using lived experience.
Conclusions:
- The Parent Navigator program demonstrates a successful strategy for mitigating EI access disparities.
- Employing individuals with lived experience in pediatric primary care is an innovative approach.
- This model shows promise for improving resource accessibility for families with children with DD/IDD.
Introduction:
A growing number of children have developmental delay (DD) or intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and early intervention (EI) can improve their developmental trajectory. However, access to EI is fraught with disparities. This article describes the development of Parent Navigator (PN) program that placed three parents with lived experience in a pediatric medical home to serve as community health workers to provide support to families with a child with DD or IDD to access EI and other needed resources.
Method:
We used a mixed-methods approach to program evaluation that included (a) documenting the number of referrals to the EI programs made by the PNs; (b) documenting referral outcomes; (c) conducting a physician satisfaction survey; and (d) interviewing the PNs to reflect on their experiences assisting families.
Results:
From July 2018 to September 2020, our PNs facilitated 623 referrals to EI due to significant developmental concerns found during a pediatric visit. Rates of successful connection to EI were 71%. Survey results indicated that pediatricians felt the PNs were a valuable part of the healthcare team and helped reduce their own job stress. The PNs provided multiple examples of their methods of addressing barriers to EI access by relating to families with their own lived experience and by "meeting families where they are at."
Discussion:
The PN program might be a successful approach to addressing disparities in EI access for families in need by using an innovative method of employing individuals with lived experience in the pediatric primary care setting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
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