Telehealth ROCKS Schools extends telemedicine into the school setting in South Central and Southeast Kansas to assist children and families with developmental and behavioral concerns.
What is it?
Telehealth ROCKS Schools uses a range of telemedicine technologies to partner with the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas' (CHCSEK) rural school-based health centers and rural school districts served by the South Central Kansas Special Education Cooperative. By collaborating with families and child-serving systems (healthcare, education, behavioral health, social service agencies, advocacy groups, others), the Telehealth ROCKS Schools project anticipates a strong impact for the child and family, the primary care/medical home practices, and the broader communities. We also partner with our Heartland Telehealth Resource Center to extend school-based telemedecine lessons learned.
Telehealth ROCKS Schools includes ECHO "telementoring" to assist local medical, mental health, and school providers in developing expertise in developmental and behavioral disorders to increase their capacity to identify and treat these disorders in local settings. The ECHO telementoring model bridges the gap between healthcare knowledge and local health care providers using established adult learning principles and practice change strategies.
This is not telemedicine where the specialist assumes the care of the patients change strategies. This is not telemedicine where the specialist assumes the care of the patients and families; instead, it is a guided practice model where the primary care provider manages the patient and gains skills to manage many more patients. Thus, Project ECHO participants learn by doing, learn from each other, and learn from specialist teams.
Telehealth ROCKS Schools aims to empower rural communities to meet the Surgeon General's Charge to create a "new normal", with an emphasis on achieving an optimal level of health and well-being for rural children and their families. Our team aims to support rural children and families where they "live, labor, learn, play, and pray" and work together to decrease the negative impact of behavioral health concerns and pediatric obesity. Dr. Eve-Lynn Nelson serves as the principal investigator for Telehealth ROCKS grant.
Project Counties
11 Counties, 19 School Settings ... and counting!
The Telehealth ROCKS Schools project covers the south central and southeast region of the state of Kansas including the following counties:
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Barber County
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Comanche County
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Crawford County
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Edwards County
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Harper County
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Kingman County
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Kiowa County
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Labette County
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Montgomery County
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Pratt County
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Stafford County
South Central Kansas Special Education Cooperative (SCKSEC)
Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas (CHSEK)
Telemedicine Services
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Behavioral Strategies for Autism
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Psychological Strategies for Behavioral Concerns, Trauma and Chronic Conditions
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Modified Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
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OASIS Intensive Parent/Guardian Training
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Behavioral Medication Management
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Pediatric Obesity
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Feeding Difficulties
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Toileting
Telehealth ROCKS Schools GOALS
Assessment and Treatment
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Following telemental health best practices to increase evidence-based assessment and treatment for behavioral health and obesity.
Workforce Development
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Supporting trainee participation in Telehealth ROCKS Schools activities across the workforce pipeline.
Prevention
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Adapting healthy lifestyles collaborative approaches for the rural Kansas audience and using telehealth to implement pediatric obesity prevention approach across rural school partners.
Engagement and Family Support
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Engaging diverse community stakeholders to advance school-based telemedicine and promote family support.
Education and Mentoring
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Using a range of distance education delivery approaches including Project ECHO to increase continuing education and telementoring opportunities for school-based telemedicine personnel.
