The funding will be used for specific initiatives, including direct engagement with families and youth, mental and behavioral health support, and support for children and adolescents with special healthcare needs. The University of Alabama at Birmingham has been selected as one of the 10 centers nationwide to participate in the Pediatric Prevention Network, previously known as the Pediatric Pandemic Network. The network recently received $22.5 million in funding through the Health Resources and Services Administration to strengthen pediatric response capabilities across the nation, including rural, remote, and tribal areas. UAB will receive more than $10 million in funding over a five-year period.
The funding will be used for specific initiatives including direct engagement with families and youth, mental and behavioral health support and support for children and adolescents with special health care needs.
With this funding, UAB researchers will develop a one-of-a-kind, hospital-based, physician-reviewed program designed to improve emergency care for medically complex children and adolescents; expand Youth Advisory Boards in Jefferson County and Wilcox County; and establish a Tribal Youth Advisory Board in Alabama; these Youth Advisory Boards are instrumental in equipping young people with lifesaving skills and addressing community-based disasters. The funding will allow for continued support of UAB’s Mini Medical School program — a program designed to facilitate a series of virtual and in-person experiences to increase middle school students’ awareness of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers, with a particular focus on healthcare — and UAB’s 9th Grade Bridge Program — a program developed for ninth graders to educate students on how to recognize, prepare for and respond to issues in their communities. The funding will continue supporting UAB’s current partnerships with Kulture City, COACHES, PsySTART and the Gulf Shores Disaster Project.
The funding will help support new partnerships such as one with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, which will serve as an affiliate hub site subrecipient under the UAB and Children’s of Alabama Regional Pediatric Prevention Network. OU will lead program activities serving the state of Oklahoma and HHS Region 6 with a specific focus on rural and Native communities that face compounded barriers to pediatric disaster preparedness and emergency medical care. OU’s geographic presence established tribal nation relationships, and regional health care partnerships will help advance RPPN goals in communities that are among the most underserved in the nation for pediatric emergency services. This funding will support UAB’s partnership with Pulse Finders to certify and train UAB’s Youth Advisory Boards in life saving EMS skills like Stop the Bleed, AED/CPR, first aid and Narcan use.
Tamera Coyne-Beasley, M.D., the Derrol Dawkins M.D. Endowed Chair of Adolescent Medicine and vice-chair of Pediatrics for Community Engagement, serves as the UAB hub principal investigator. She also serves as the Community and Youth Engagement lead for the entire 10 hub site network. Coyne-Beasley will be working with Erin Carley, the program director and facilitator of UAB’s youth advisory board. Co-investigators on this project include multiple faculty members in the UAB Department of Pediatrics, School of Public Health, and School of Education and Human Sciences.
“We are honored to be one of the 10 centers nationwide selected to serve the needs of our pediatric patient population through our partnership with the Pediatric Prevention Network,” said Coyne-Beasley, a professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at UAB and Children’s of Alabama. “Providing exceptional patient care is a core part of our mission here at UAB, and we are looking forward to working with other hospitals in the network to combine leading expertise and compassionate, patient-centered care for communities across the country. Furthermore, we are thrilled to continue our work in communities and collaborating with adolescents and their families.”
The collective purpose of the Pediatric Prevention Network is to strengthen the pediatric disaster preparedness of every children’s hospital, elevate pediatric health care capability everywhere to be better equipped for any crisis that could impact children and adolescents, establish well-integrated and resilient local-regional systems that leverage collaborations and community engagement, and foster workforce development in the field of pediatric emergency management that is rooted in data and quality improvement.