Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health Friday Notes

September 19, 2014

In this issue
School Nurse Awareness Campaign Underway
Child Health Infographics Available for Social Media Sharing
House Panel Clears $4 Million From Autism Fund for WMU
Michigan Child Protection Registry Available
School Nurse Awareness Campaign Underway
The State School Nurse Task Force has been working with the Parent Action for Healthy Kids of Michigan on an awareness campaign. This advocacy campaign, School Nurses Care, is designed to increase awareness of the critical role school nurses play in Michigan schools, to make parents aware of why school nurses are needed and that Michigan ranks last in the nation for school nurses with a ratio of 1 school nurse for every 6,607 children.

To be successful, we need your help. Please invite parents you know through your profession as well as friends, family and neighbors to go to ParentActionForHealthykids.org, sign on, look at our fact sheets and resources, share a story, and, most importantly share the information with other parents. Download this flier about the campaign to help spread the word.

The success of this campaign depends on everyone taking a few moments to get the word out to parents so they can stand up for their child's health in school.

Sign On: ParentActionForHealthyKids.org
Facebook: facebook.com/ParentActionForHealthyKids
Twitter: @ParentAction #SchoolNursesCare

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Child Health Infographics Available for Social Media Sharing

As we get closer to the November election, MCMCH and fellow advocates and health professionals--Michigan Chapter American Academy of Pediatrics, School-Community Health Alliance of Michigan and the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital--are working to circulate crucial information on five key maternal and child health topics: immunizations, infant mortality, mental wellness, obesity, and oral health

MCMCH worked with these groups to produce five policy briefs and a website, childhealthfactsmichigan.org, as a resource for policymakers, and to provide background, data, and contact information to facilitate a dialogue between candidates, voters, and providers as we approach the November election.

Also available are graphics designed to be shared easily via social media, providing a keep snapshot of each topic. Share the graphics via MCMCH's Facebook page.

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House Panel Clears $4M From Autism Fund For WMU
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday reported a bill that would divvy up $5.5 million from the Autism Coverage Fund by giving Western Michigan University $4 million for its continued implementation of its university autism programs and family assistance services, and the Michigan Autism Network the other $1.5 million.

However, HB 5742 saw some pushback from committee members wanting to ensure the fund remains pure and used only for reimbursement to insurance companies as intended. In the end, the bill passed with an amendment stating that in the 2015-16 fiscal year, the one-time allocation of up to $5.5 million will be reimbursed from the Department of Community Health budget.

DCH currently funds university autism programs throughout the state, but the committee came to a consensus that the funds will ultimately come from the General Fund.

The bill was reported 22-2. Rep. Pam Faris (D-Clio) and Rep. Sarah Roberts (D-St. Clair Shores) voted no. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids), Rep. Andrew Kandrevas (D-Southgate) and Rep. Terry Brown (D-Pigeon) abstained.

Rep. Margaret O'Brien (R-Portage), sponsor of the bill, said there is a service provider issue in the state. In some areas, there can be two-year waits before parents can get an autism diagnosis for children, she said.

"When you have a new program go into effect you don't all of a sudden see hundreds of thousands of providers from across the country deciding they want to move to Michigan on day," O'Brien said, speaking about the reimbursements coming from the Autism Fund.

O'Brien said to increase the program size at WMU, the program needs to increase capacity, and the funds will assist the university in doing that. The $4 million will double the graduating class size for a graduate program in behavior analysis with specialties in autism. The $1.5 million going toward the Michigan Autism Network will be used to create a network with other universities.

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Michigan Child Protection Registry Available

The state is offering a free program to combat certain advertising as Michigan families, especially minors, are becoming inundated with advertisements from alcohol, tobacco, pornography and gambling marketers through different internet and cell phone inboxes.

Texting their advertisements is the newest marketing effort that many of these companies are using. The state program, Michigan Child Protection Registry, will stop adult advertisements from reaching e-mails, mobile phones (text messaging ads) and instant messenger IDs. The Registry, like the federal Do Not Call List, is a free do-not-contact service for Michigan's families.

Sign up only takes seconds at www.ProtectMIChild.com.

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Contributors to this Issue
Columbia University Medical Center
HealthDay
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Quick Links . . .

Webinar: Food Allergy Management and Education Toolkit for Schools
Tuesday, September 23, 2014 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT
Register here
The Food Allergy Management and Education (FAME) Manual and Tool-Kit is a new free resource designed for school nurses, parents and other school staff. St. Louis Children's Hospital developed it to assist schools and parents with the prevention of life-threatening food allergy reactions. This webinar will explain the toolkit. ___________________________________________________________________________
MDCH Schedules Sixth Public Input Forum on Integrated Care Demonstration
MDCH will be hosting the sixth public input forum on the state's plan to integrate care for individuals who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid on October 14, 2014, at the Radisson Plaza Hotel and Suites in downtown Kalamazoo. The MI Health Link Forum will be held in the Arcadia Ballroom from 10 a.m. to noon, and MDCH will provide a conference line for interested stakeholders to participate by phone.
For directions to the Radisson Plaza Hotel and Suites, information about participating by phone, or other information about the quarterly forums, visit michigan.gov/mihealthlink.

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Kids Prescribed Antibiotics Twice as Often as Needed: Study
Pediatricians prescribe antibiotics about twice as often as they're actually needed for children with ear and throat infections, a new study indicates. More than 11 million antibiotic prescriptions written each year for children and teens may be unnecessary, according to researchers from University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital. This excess antibiotic use not only fails to eradicate children's viral illnesses, researchers said, but supports the dangerous evolution of bacteria toward antibiotic resistance. The study was published online on Sept. 15 in the journal Pediatrics. Read more

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Parental Immunization Protects Infants From Whooping Cough
When both parents received the tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis vaccine, their babies were 51% less likely to get whooping cough than children of parents who were not immunized, Australian researchers wrote in the journal Pediatrics. Maternal immunization alone was associated with a 42% reduced risk of whooping cough. Read more
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Nominations Accepted for 2015 MI-AIMH Conference Awards

At the 2015 MI-AIMH Biennial Conference, "Working Together for the Health and Well-Being of Infants, Toddlers and Their Families: Caring for the Whole Child," MI-AIMH will recognize three individuals who will be awarded the Selma Fraiberg, Betty Tableman and Hiram E. Fitzgerald Awards. The Conference will take place May 17-19, 2015 at the Kalamazoo Radisson in Kalamazoo.

Nominations are due no later than December 5, 2014. Learn more here.