Funded Projects

Healthy Transitions: Aging Out

Project Year

2022

City & State

Providence, Rhode Island

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

Foster Care

Program Description

Our project, in coordination with the Teen Focus program through Adoption RI, seeks to address the issues and obstacles that adolescents and young adults face as they prepare to age out of both the foster care system and pediatric medical care. These individuals often encounter difficulty with engaging regularly with a primary care physician due to a number of circumstances, including but not limited to: complex medical and psychiatric histories, trauma intertwined with the medical system, limited knowledge regarding how to find a PCP, uncertainty regarding the logistics of their health insurance plan, frequent moves, and inexperience with managing their own medical care. This has resulted in a disproportionate number of urgent care and emergency department visits for issues that could have been addressed by a PCP, with resultant discontinuities of care. Our CATCH project seeks to help adolescents and young adults in the Teen Focus program navigate the process of finding and establishing care with an adult primary care provider as well as understanding their health insurance with the goal of setting them up with a patient-centered medical home. The first stage of our project involved identifying needs by engaging with institutions and community programs that interface most with our target population of youth aging out of child welfare to determine existing resources and gaps in care. We have identified that a health literacy program targeted towards youth aging out of state custody and the foster care system has not yet been established. Other states and institutions have implemented health literacy programming for adolescents exiting foster care, but there is no formalized programming in Rhode Island. The next stage of our project will consist of a focus group representative of our target population to more appropriately understand their needs as they navigate young adulthood. The participants in the focus group will help us to identify the core topics for health and health-systems workshops aimed at supporting youth as they navigate the transition to adult care providers and ownership over their health and wellness. Our intervention would consist of quarterly workshops during which Teen Focus staff as well as residents and health professionals would provide population-targeted education on the following topics: understanding insurance plans and coverage, how to establish care with an in-network PCP, summarizing their own medical history, patient self-advocacy, and the differences between a PCP problem visit, urgent care visit, and ED visit. Additional workshop topics may include identifying specialty care providers, women’s health, and navigating mental health care as an adult. These workshops can be adapted to a virtual form with curated resources in the setting of the ongoing pandemic though they will ideally be in person. We also hope to incorporate a medical navigation piece in which we assist youth with setting up appointments and contacting providers or insurance companies. Our anticipated measurable outcomes are knowledge of healthcare navigation gained, an increase in PCP identification and utilization, and a decrease in ED usage. Our hope is that this initiative would lead to a better relationship with the healthcare system, decrease disparities in care, and assist in an easier transition from pediatric to adult healthcare for youth and young adults aging out of the child welfare and foster care system.

Project Goal

Increase participant understanding of and comfort with navigating the medical system and managing their own medical care as they transition to adulthood and out of the Child Welfare System

Project Objective 1

75% of youth participating in the Primary Care Workshop (workshop #1) have identified a PCP and 50% have scheduled their next visit.

Project Objective 2

Youth enrolled in the workshop series gain knowledge of the medical system and preventative healthcare as assessed by an increase in pre and post survey scores.

Project Objective 3

60% of youth enrolled in Teen Focus who participated in at least one workshop have created a medical portal or have established a centralized place to record their medical history.

AAP District

District I

Institutional Name

Adoption Rhode Island

Contact 1

Natasha Furtado Dalomba