Group items tagged

This NOFO is intended to increase the capacity and capability of newborn screening laboratories to test for newborn screening conditions as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children. This NOFO is also intended to improve newborn screening test performance and test interpretation of dried blood spot newborn screening.

This notice solicits applications for the Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) Screening and Education program. The purpose of this program is to: 1) increase awareness and knowledge about SCID and newborn screening for SCID among parents, families, health care providers, public health professionals, and the public; 2) provide education, training, and support for newborn screening programs; 3) educate families with children diagnosed with SCID and link them to clinical and other services, especially those in rural and medically underserved areas; and 4) improve clinical care through education and training for providers caring for individuals with SCID.

This notice solicits applications for Vision Screening in Young Children. The purpose of this program is to fund a national entity to support state efforts to implement evidence-based and promising early childhood vision screening, follow-up, and surveillance protocols by providing technical assistance, tools, training, and opportunities for information sharing and learning. Recipients will, in partnership with families and caregivers, provide state entities expert and peer guidance to support the development and replication of strategies that are adapted to meet the unique needs of underserved communities, and address systemic barriers to implementing comprehensive systems for delivering vision screening services to young children.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) encourages applications that propose to develop studies that will lead to a broad understanding of the natural history of disorders that already do or could potentially benefit from early identification by newborn screening. A comprehensive understanding of the natural history of a disorder has been identified as a necessary element to facilitate appropriate interventions for infants identified by newborn screening. By defining the sequence and timing of the onset of symptoms and complications of a disorder, a valuable resource will be developed for the field. In addition, for some disorders, specific genotype-phenotype correlations may allow prediction of the clinical course, and for other disorders, identification of modifying genetic, epigenetic, or environmental factors will enhance an understanding of the clinical outcomes for an individual with such a condition. Comprehensive data on natural history will facilitate the field's ability to: 1) accurately diagnose the disorder; 2) understand the genetic and clinical heterogeneity and phenotypic expression of the disorder; 3) identify underlying mechanisms related to basic defects; 4) potentially prevent, manage, and treat symptoms and complications of the disorder; and 5) provide children and their families with needed support and predictive information about the disorder.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage research that would develop and validate new screening methods for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that can be used in infancy (0-12 months of age). This FOA uses the R21 grant mechanism, while RFA- MH-19-120 uses the R01 grant mechanism. Applications with strong preliminary data proposing validation, refinement or final stages of testing of existing tools or methods may be more appropriate for the R01 mechanism. Pilot or exploratory projects with minimal preliminary data, or those proposing early-stage feasibility testing, may be more appropriate for this FOA (R21 mechanism).

The purpose of this program, which is consistent with language contained in the Joint Explanatory Statement to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of FY 2017, is to fund a study focused on improving child health through a statewide system of early childhood developmental screenings and interventions. This includes improving population level early childhood developmental health outcomes in a state with significant risk factors for poor child health status such as high rates of poverty among children under age 5, high rates of low birthweight infants, and low rates of early childhood developmental screenings. This goal will be achieved through the implementation of a high quality statewide early childhood developmental health system, an evaluative study on best practices, polices and innovations that can serve as a model for other states with high needs, and the development and utilization of an early childhood cross-systems workforce program.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program supports the success of all children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) in the United States by helping to ensure they receive a newborn screening, early diagnosis, and timely intervention services. Without timely screening, diagnosis and intervention, children who are D/HH lose valuable time in gaining the skills that will put them on a trajectory to have language on par with their hearing peers in kindergarten and be ready to succeed in school. Additionally, among children who are D/HH, delays in language development are more difficult to remediate with late diagnosis and intervention. While collaborative efforts by CDC, states, and other partners have helped lead to the early identification of thousands of children who are D/HH each year, their developmental and language outcomes are often unknown, and these data are not routinely collected by CDC or state EHDI programs. Furthermore, it is currently unclear what actions beyond early identification should be taken by public health to help reduce adverse consequences of hearing loss and ensure that children who are D/HH are ready for success in early childhood. The current lack of public health capacity to document and assess the intervention services and associated outcomes of early-identified children who are D/HH at the state and national level makes it challenging to: Assess the developmental progress to ensure all children who are D/HH are achieving age-appropriate milestones and are ready for success in early childhood; Identify strategies, in addition to those beyond early identification, to help assess and reduce adverse consequences of hearing loss; Assess and document the success and impact of EHDI activities across the United States.

The objective of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage research on screening and brief interventions to prevent and/or reduce alcohol use and alcohol-related harms among underage and young adult populations.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage research that would develop and validate new screening methods for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that can be used in infancy (0-12 months of age). This FOA uses the R21 grant mechanism, while RFA- MH-19-120 uses the R01 grant mechanism. Applicants with strong preliminary data proposing validation, refinement or final stages of testing of existing tools or methods may wish to use the R01 mechanism. Pilot or exploratory projects with minimal preliminary data, or those proposing early-stage feasibility testing, may be most appropriate for this FOA (R21 mechanism).

The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to reduce risky alcohol use among women of childbearing age through system-level implementation of alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) in health systems providing women’s health services. Risky alcohol use can result in a variety of negative health and social consequences, such as motor vehicle crashes, intimate partner violence, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. It is costly, results in over 88,000 deaths annually, and can affect serious medical conditions, such as hypertension, liver disease and certain types of cancer. Health professionals are uniquely positioned to intervene with patients with acute and chronic health conditions caused or exacerbated by risky alcohol use. Alcohol SBI implementation efforts within health systems will focus on development and implementation of: a training and technical assistance plan; alcohol SBI protocols in primary care clinics; system-level approaches that facilitate uptake (e.g., electronic health record integration and performance metrics); an evaluation plan assessing feasibility and impact of system-level implementation; a dissemination plan on promising models and lessons learned; and a sustainability plan. Expected performance outcomes include documenting provider/clinic readiness to conduct alcohol SBI, documenting implementation barriers and proposed solutions, tracking clinic-level data on alcohol SBI, and assessing the use of system-level strategies.

To increase the number of states and territories with fully implemented newborn screening programs.

This targeted 5-year cooperative agreement is to be awarded to create a national center of excellence to develop, implement and evaluate curriculum in child welfare agency settings that will: Support the child welfare workforce to better understand social and emotional needs of children and families involved in the child welfare system. Support the child welfare workforce to better screen and assess for social and emotional needs of children and families. Support the child welfare workforce to understand the effective interventions and active ingredients of those interventions and how to ensure children and families receive those interventions. Increase exposure to active ingredients and Evidence Based Practices for agency staff through enhanced curriculum and practicums. Provide professional development opportunities for agency staff by developing, delivering, and evaluating course offerings, continuing education, and certificate programs aimed at addressing the shortage of child welfare practitioners prepared to deliver evidence based child and family treatment. Provide curriculum aimed at assisting case managers to make excellent decisions about how to refer and evaluate the effectiveness of the services provided to the children and families in their care. Develop decision making tools for agency leadership that might assist them in assessing their current mental health service array. These tools would provide direction about the cost and effectiveness of the mental health services in their current service array, assist the administrator in evaluating if the current mental health services are achieving intended outcomes, and provide guidance on best practice in implementing evidence based treatment services.

THE ADMINISTRATION for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families' Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) announces the availability of funds under the Street Outreach Program (SOP). SOP WORKS to increase young people’s personal safety, social and emotional well-being, self-sufficiency, and to help them build permanent connections with families, communities, schools, and other positive social networks. These services, which are provided in areas where street youth congregate, are designed to assist such youth in making healthy choices and to provide them access to shelter and services which include: outreach, gateway services, screening and assessment, harm reduction, access to emergency shelter, crisis stabilization, drop-in centers, which can be optional, and linkages/referrals to services. THE AWARD process for FY2018 SOP allows for annual awards over a three-year project period, as funds are available.

The purpose of this project is to support methodologically rigorous research and evaluations (ideally a randomized controlled demonstration field experiment) with practical implications for government-funded juvenile reentry including in areas not limited to screening and assessment, behavioral management, organizational or institutional capacity and structure, cross-system services and coordination, post-release services and supervision, and family engagement and support. OJJDP is particularly interested in studies that focus on effective strategies for juveniles with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health issues; gang involved juveniles; and older juveniles or young adults who are returning to communities struggling with violence and crime.

This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding under the Innovations in Care Coordination for Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Other Developmental Disabilities (DD) Program. The purpose of this program is to build on past HRSA programs (HRSA-16-048 and HRSA-13-207) to improve access to coordinated and integrated care for children with, or at risk for, ASD/DD and their families in medically underserved areas and populations.[1],[2] The purpose and objectives of this program will be accomplished by implementing the following two strategies: Family Navigation - Increasing family navigation services to improve communication between families and primary and specialty providers; link children with/at risk for ASD/DD to diagnostic evaluations, ASD/DD services, and community resources; and provide education to families of children with/at risk for ASD/DD to improve self-efficacy in navigating the system of care for children with/at risk for ASD/DD; and Provider Education - Providing education, training, and technical assistance to providers, and community based-organizations providing services to ASD/DD on improving care for children with/at risk for ASD/DD through a learning community. [1] At risk for ASD/DD can be defined as children who have been identified through primary care developmental surveillance as needing further screening or evaluation for ASD/DD. [2] HRSA definition for Medically Underserved Areas: https://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/topics/shortageareas.aspx.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Head Start (OHS) announces the availability of approximately $7,582,500 to be competitively awarded for the purpose of operating a National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety (NC HBHS). The NC HBHS will provide training and technical assistance (TTA) that reflects current evidence, is research-informed, and promotes best practices. The NC HBHS will strengthen professional development outcomes for staff and improve outcomes for children and families enrolled in Head Start and/or Early Head Start programs. The NC HBHS TTA efforts will lead to improved health, behavioral health, and safety of children and families. Because of the complex work the NC HBHS will conduct, the recipient will be expected to bring together knowledgeable subrecipients within the fields child nutrition and oral health; physical activity; health (including hearing and vision screening); behavioral health promotion and prevention, including the promotion of mental health, resilience and wellbeing; and the prevention of mental illness and substance use disorders; safety practices; child and adult trauma; child incidents and maltreatment; emergency preparedness, response and recovery; prenatal care; environmental health and safety; and staff wellness.

To that end, CATCH is accepting applications for its CATCH Planning and Implementation Grants program and CATCH Resident Grants program. 1) Planning and Implementation Grants: Grants of up to $10,000 will be awarded to individual pediatricians and fellowship trainees for the planning of innovative community-based child health initiatives that ensure all children in the community have access to healthcare services not otherwise available. Priority will be given to projects that serve communities with the greatest health disparities. Outreach must be to the community at large, not to practice or clinic patients only, and all initiatives should incorporate screening for or connecting children to medical homes and available insurance programs. All pediatricians are eligible to apply regardless of employment setting or retirement status. 2) Resident Grants: Grants of up to $2,000 will be awarded to pediatric residents for the planning and/or implementation of community-based child health initiatives. Projects must include planning activities or demonstrate completed planning activities, and may include implementation activities.