Kansas Home Visiting

Monday September 27

12:30 - 1:30 PM Opening Keynote

Welcome

  • Morgan Hill, Kansas Department of Health and Environment
  • Amanda Peterson, Kansas State Department of Education

COVID Myth Buster Keynote

  • Dr. Joan Duwve, Deputy State Health Officer, Kansas Department of Health and Environment

1:45 - 3:15 PM Breakout Sessions I

Option 1: Building Resilience through H.O.P.E

Home visitors have known for a long time the power of positive interactions between children and caring adults – and now we have the science to support it. In this session we will discuss how H.O.P.E. (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) can help children and their families weather and heal from adversities they face.
 
  • Vanessa Lohf, Public Health Initiatives Project Specialist, Community Engagement Institute Center for Public Health, Wichita State University

Option 2: Personal Safety in Home Visitation

This presentation will share planning and safety tips for community-based services including personal safety and incident reporting. 
  • Rhonda Stubbs, Bert Nash Mental Health Center

Option 3: Reflective Supervision and Consultation: A Racial Equity Intervention

The presentation will provide a brief overview of reflective supervision consultation and how reflective supervision consultation can be a racial equity intervention. 

  • Amittia Parker, Georgetown’s National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety

3:30 - 4:30 PM Breakout Sessions II

Option 1: Impactful Home Visit Observations

Join us for a discussion about how to make the most out of home visitation observations. This session will unpack the “Why” for home visit observations.  When you can clearly define why you are doing something, it is easier to put practices into place to help you accomplish that task in an impactful way. We will discuss the parallel process between home visitors supporting parents as they learn to observe their children to promote growth and connection and supervisors supporting home visitors.  We will share open ended questions that help home visitors reflect on their practice, encouraging a growth minded atmosphere and how the use of video can elevate the work.  You will leave this session with a fresh perspective on home visit observations.

  • Michelle Kelly & Terry Jensen, Blue Valley Parents as Teachers

Option 2: Perinatal Behavioral Health: Screening, Referrals, and Resources

The Kansas Connecting Communities perinatal behavioral health program, administered by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, has refined policies and procedures to support the identification and treatment of perinatal mood and substance use disorders. This session will first discuss best practices in screening for behavioral health disorders in perinatal populations in various care settings, such as establishing an organization-wide screening policy, creating an MOU (Memorandum of Agreement/Understanding) with a behavioral health treatment provider/center, and establishing at least one community-level educational initiative to increase awareness and provide information to perinatal women and their families. We will review KDHE’s perinatal health intervention recommendations and briefly cover the impact of early intervention of behavioral health disorders on long-term maternal and fetal health, with a focus on intervention strategies outlined in the perinatal mental health and substance use toolkits. Lastly, the session will cover resources available to perinatal providers to support the implementation and administration of addressing the behavioral health needs of their pregnant and postpartum clients.

  • Lucinda Whitney, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC, University of Kansas Medical Center

Option 3: The Home Visitor’s Role In Maternal Warning Signs

Join us as we dive deeper into the Maternal Warning Signs initiative, discussing the specific role of home visitors and their unique opportunity within this life saving initiative.

  • Stephanie Wolf & Jill Nelson, Kansas Department of Health and Environment

Option 4: Innovative Home Visiting Strategies

Learn from fellow programs all around the state as they worked to stay connected to community members, increase referrals, and learned how to navigate the virtual world of home visiting services.

  • Christy Huslig, Barton County Healthy Start
  • Melanie Chappel, Labette Center for Mental Health Service
  • Taelyn Mathews, Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center

Option 5: Using the Period of PURPLE Crying to Support Families and Prevent Infant Abuse

The Period of PURPLE Crying® is the phrase used to describe the time in a baby’s life when they cry more than any other time. Infants who cry a lot or are awake and fussy at night are a source of concern for many parents. Because of the normal increase in crying that occurs in the first months of a baby’s life, parents and caregivers usually have questions. Crying is the most frequently reported trigger for why a parent or caregiver would shake a baby. Early prevention education is the key to decreasing the incidence of shaken baby syndrome and infant abuse. The Period of PURPLE Crying® is an evidence-based shaken baby syndrome program, created by the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome. Come learn about the Kansas strategy, how PURPLE is being implemented by agencies and home visitors across the state, and how you can be a partner in helping to prevent infant abuse.

  • Rachelle Soden, MS, Training Manager, Kansas Children’s Service League

Tuesday September 28

12:30 - 1:30 PM Keynote

The Mindful Molding of a child...the Critical Capacity of an Adult

  • Danica Moore, CEO & President, 4tified Educational Practices, LLC

1:45 - 2:45 Breakout Sessions III

Option 1: Discussing Race in the Space: Am I Ready to Engage? Did I Miss Something?

As our nation continues to work towards understanding the connections and intertwined commitment to equity consisting of an intense and intentional analysis of race at all intersections and in all fields, we hear the “interest” of many driving their investment in learning. That same “interest” if not truly developed and monitored at the Personal before Professional layers, will only serve to protect and maintain the status quo, hidden historical truths, and the oppression of those demanding liberation. This workshop will provide space to reveal the layers that each individual needs to target for self-awareness, readiness for racial conversations, limitations in actions, and capacity building. Dr. Asa G. Hilliard once asked educators “Do you have the will, skill, capacity, and knowledge to transform education?” Today, those who have the will are invited to go deeper in the exploration and foundational building of their skill, capacity, and knowledge as learners committed to supporting children. 

  • Danica Moore, CEO & President, 4tified Educational Practices, LLC

Option 2: Cultural Humility as an Everyday Practice

“We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.” – Anais Nin. Culture impacts every aspect of our lives, including how we  behave and how we see the world around us. In this session, we will define the difference between cultural competence and cultural humility and discuss ways that we can expand our understanding of the people we interact with every day.

  • Vanessa Lohf, Public Health Initiatives Project Specialist, Community Engagement Institute Center for Public Health, Wichita State University

Option 3: Home Visiting System in Kansas

This presentation will share about the alignment of Home Visiting (HV) programs in Kansas including: MCH Universal, Evidence-Based Models/Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV), Part C, etc. This will include a high-level overview of universal home visiting and the flow across all programs. This presentation will also provide an overview of the vision for the future of HV in Kansas.

  • Carrie Akin, Kansas Department of Health and Environment

Option 4: Recruitment of Families

Learn how the MIECHV coordinated intake providers are recruiting families and combatting stigma, hear from a parent that received home visiting services and her perspectives for decreasing stigma, and hear about what is being done with media marketing at the state level for the promotion of the entire HV system in Kansas with PDG funding.

  • Anita Muniz, Project Eagle Connections
  • Tiffany Green & Cathy Shald, MyFamily
  • Latoya Mothershed, Parent
  • Kail Winfrey-Gorzek, DCCCA

3:00 - 3:45 Breakout Sessions IV

Option 1:Breastfeeding Support During COVID-19: The Powerful Role of the Home Visitor

Home visitors are increasingly recognized for the unique role they play in supporting families. This has never been more so than during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Due to social distancing there is less support available from extended family and friends. Parents are turning to other trusted sources, such as home visitors, for information and support. With fewer prenatal classes, in-person support groups, and often early hospital discharge, it can be challenging to establish breastfeeding which puts newborns at risk of food insecurity, illness, and infection. This presentation will equip home visitors to promote and support breastfeeding through the coordination of services during the COVID-19 pandemic and afterward, focusing on Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, and other populations who are at increased risk for early cessation of breastfeeding.

  • Brenda Bandy, Co-Executive Director, Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition

Option 2: Mindfully Managing Stress and Supporting Others

This presentation will discuss simple and effective ways to engage in self-care and manage stress as a way to prevent and/or alleviate compassion fatigue.

  • Julia Gaughan, Bert Nash Mental Health Center

Option 3: Using the 1-800-Children Parent Helpline and Resource Directory

This presentation will go through how Kansas Children’s Service League utilizes the Help Me Grow Kansas (HMG KS) framework and operates the 1-800-CHILDREN Call Line and Resource Directory, previously the Parent Helpline, that serves as a centralized access point for families across the state. KCSL is a leader and key contributor to the early childhood system actively engaging and working toward our state’s early childhood common vision, participating, and providing recommendations, collaborating, and supporting statewide initiatives and projects, consistently communicating with early childhood state leadership, as well as providing critical data and information that inform state policy and programs.

  • Kaitlyn Moore and Stephanie Boone, Kansas Children’s Service League

Option 4: Rethinking Safe Infant Sleep Education: Utilizing a Conversational Approach

Sleep-related deaths are the leading cause of death for infants over 28 days. Clear recommendations to reduce sleep-related infant deaths have been provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics for over 30 years. Despite this, caregivers report limited counseling on how to implement safe sleep strategies. Presenters will use the World Cafe method to teach attendees to utilize a conversational approach to safe sleep…a shift from being an expert who makes recommendations to being a resource to support families in making informed decisions.

  • Christy Shunn and Maria Torres, Kansas Infant Death and SIDS Network

Option 5: Building a Positive Working Relationship with Parents

This presentation will cover the importance of building positive trusting relationships between home visitors and parents/caregivers. Participants will learn about the HEART principles and how they can be used to effective build collaborative and trusting partnerships with parents to achieve strong outcomes for the children and families they work with.

  • Kayzy Bigler, Kansas Department of Health and Environment

4:00 - 4:30 Closing Keynote Session

  • Morgan Hill, Kansas Department of Health and Environment