Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain and the Department of Defense Child Collaboration Study | Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain

Accessing and navigating services for children with mental health, emotional, developmental or behavioral (M/E/D/B) health concerns has greater complexity for military families, geographically-dispersed families, and families who are highly mobile or lack providers near their homes. University of Minnesota’s Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain (MIDB) has received $3.5 million to lower these barriers as a partner in the Department of Defense Child Collaboration Study “A Research Collaboratory to Explore Best Practices for Expanding Access to Care Through Expansion and Support of Telehealth Care for Children and Families with Behavioral Health Needs.” MIDB’s team of clinicians and researchers will develop three platforms that are intended to broaden mental health worker capacity and improve family access to care.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Discover resources, enroll in training, and learn more about the DoD Child Collaboration Study here

The Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) model is being used to develop and expand mental health provider capacity throughout Minnesota. Each ECHO session is a virtual collaborative forum on topics that address unmet needs in that specific region. University of Minnesota specialists facilitate synchronous “hub and spoke” connections with providers who support rural, highly mobile, and military-connected families to discuss best practices with didactic and case-based learning. The MIDB team is also developing telehealth satellite site capacity to improve access of resources by both providers and families.

Feature Articles

New Behavioral Health Resources Launched
Bringing Together Providers to Broaden Care Access for Children
Expanding Access for Rural, Highly Mobile, and Military-Connected Families
MIDB Aims to Address Shortage of Mental Health Services in Greater Minnesota By Supporting Current Mental Health Workers Through TeleOutreach Model

Project ECHO®: Telehealth to Support Families of Children with Behavioral Health and Mental Health Needs Longitudinal Series

Hear from and share with U of M Hub Team members in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Social Work, Early Childhood Intervention and Special Education. This series will allow for deeper dives into specialty topic sprints that span multiple sessions, as well as standalone didactics. This series is open to all, but is likely most relevant to primary care, pediatric, behavioral health, mental health, and educational providers. Social work CEUs will be available for this series. This series if free but registration is required. Learn more and register

Telehealth is a tool to reach families who reside long distances from specialty providers or to ‘follow along’ with families when they re-locate. Relocation requires families to have the efficacy to navigate new systems of care, educational and state systems. The MIDB team is focused on developing and training on the use of evidence-based models to support family navigation of resources for their children to build the efficacy and resiliency of highly mobile families.

Research Study Opportunity: Bridging Barriers Autism First Project

Study Purpose
Researchers at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities are looking for research participants for a study about the efficacy of early intervention services provided over telehealth (video conferencing) for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their families. Parents will receive coaching to provide interventions to support their child's communication and other skills.

You And Your Child May Be Eligible If
Your child is between 1 and 5 years old and is either on a waitlist to be evaluated for ASD or has received an ASD diagnosis in the last 3 months & is waiting for services.

What Does The Study Involve
Participants receive parent coaching for 30-60 minutes 3x weekly for 9-12 weeks through video conferencing home visits. Questionnaires and interviews are given before and after the intervention. Overall, parents commit to 18 months of participation. Research staff will connect with participants via a webcam and a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Training is provided. Compensation is up to $225 per child/family.

Please contact [email protected] for more information about the study.

A challenge for both families and providers in geographically-dispersed regions is identification of resources and real-time tracking of resource capacity. Development of actionable telehealth utilization analysis that is presented in a user-friendly interface will enable on-going, ‘just in time’ needs assessment, to target provider training, capacity building, and technical assistance in telehealth to improve access to M/E/D/B services in rural and highly mobile populations, including military-connected families.

This research was supported by a cooperative agreement with the Henry Jackson Foundation and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the views expressed are those of the presenters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.