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For Healthcare Professionals & Providers
The Children’s Special Health Services (CSHS) team works with healthcare and social service professionals to help them provide the best care possible to children and youth with special healthcare needs.
We have clinics located in each region of the state that serve Louisiana residents under the age of 21 who have certain chronic physical illnesses or disabilities that significantly limit major life activities. For more information on eligibility, disorders we are able to treat, and how your patients can apply for our services, review this Physician Guide for referring to CSHS - Clinical Services. You can also visit the Families and Caregivers page and share this document with patients you think may benefit from the clinic.
Outside of the direct service clinics, CSHS connects caregivers and families to relevant resources, collaborates with health and social service providers to improve service provision and care coordination, and works to build up systems of support for children and youth with special healthcare needs. We provide the following provider tools and resources to help them better serve this population:
Medical Home and Care Coordination
Learn more about care coordination, including how you can integrate these approaches into your practice. We also have resources you can share with your patients and their families to help them navigate the transition from a pediatric to an adult model of healthcare.
Developmental Screening
The Louisiana Developmental Screening Initiative seeks to improve early detection of developmental delays and disabilities in children by promoting universal developmental screening in pediatric primary care for children ages 0-5. As defined and recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), developmental screening entails using a validated, standardized tool during well-child visits at regular intervals to determine if a child is meeting developmental milestones at various ages and stages. The Louisiana Developmental Screening Guidelines (LDSG) provide these recommendations for screening periodicity and instruments that align with the American Academy of Pediatrics and expand screening beyond developmental milestones and autism to include screening for social-emotional problems, environmental risk, and parental depression.
The Initiative created a Developmental Screening Toolkit to help medical practices implement the LDSG and integrate developmental screening services into their day-to-day practice. The toolkit uses a quality improvement (QI) framework, which allows practitioners to systematically improve the way health care is delivered to patients. It contains step-by-step information in web pages, instructional videos, and downloadable worksheets. It is designed to house all the information and tools you will need to put the LDSG into practice in one, convenient spot. The team can provide information and customized training on how your specific practice can implement developmental screening. Check out our Implementation Training and Support page of the toolkit to learn more about these offerings.
Bi-Annual Resource Information Workshops (RIW)
Learn about care coordination, youth health transition, developmental screening, and local health organizations at this daylong event! The Children’s Special Health Services staff host the RIW in a different region of the state each Spring and Fall. Registered Nurses, Social Workers and Licensed Professional Counselors can earn up to 4 Continuing Education credits at no cost.
July 2021: Updates to the Newborn Screening Program's Secure Remote Viewer (SRV)
Learn about the new updates to the Newborn Screening Program's Secure Remote Viewer (SRV). Click here for more information.