Our Collaborators
CYSHCN Network

Advocacy and Benefits Counseling for Health is a Wisconsin-based nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to ensuring health care access for children and families, particularly those with special needs or who are at risk. ABC for Health's mission is to provide health care consumers with the information, advocacy tools, legal services, and expert support they need to navigate through America's complex and confusing health care financing system.

Wisconsin First Step is a statewide Information and Referral (I&R) hotline that serves families with children who have special health care needs and professionals. Wisconsin First Step has two components. It serves as the Central Directory for Wisconsin's Birth To 3 Program. This statewide program provides supports and services to infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities and their families. Another component to First Step is to serve as the I&R hotline for the CYSHCN Regional Centers. In addition to providing referrals to disability-related resources, Parent Specialists provide direct linkages to the closest CYSHCN Regional Center. A health and human services database of disability-related resources has been developed and is regularly updated.

The Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council's Children/Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Project is a program which assists in providing information, resources, professional support, advocacy, parental training/ education, social service coordination and assistance and aid in resolving specific concerns or needs regarding a child's disability to Native American families in Tribal communities in rural northern Wisconsin. The goal of the project is for each Native American child with a special health care need to obtain culturally appropriate health care service coordination, to include early identification, a complete developmental and medical assessment and to have access to primary health care services.

Parent to Parent of Wisconsin provides the one-to-one connection for parents new to having a child with special needs, experiencing a time of stress or simply seeking support, resources and information with another parent who has been there.

Regional Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Centers provide a system of information, referral and follow-up services so all families of children and youth with special health care needs and providers have access to complete and accurate information.

Medical Home Toolkit Building Medical Home Partnerships: Small Steps: Big Changes (Wisconsin Medical Home Toolkit)

Building a Medical Home Partnership: A Wisconsin Toolkit is a new Web-based resource for Wisconsin health care providers. The Toolkit shares the insights of a committed group of families, physicians and care coordinators who have been involved in a continuous quality improvement process to create family-centered care for children and youth with special health care needs. The Toolkit is a roadmap to the tested tools and practice strategies recommended by Medical Home Teams both nationally and here in Wisconsin.

For more information about Medical Home and to obtain an introductory packet on the Wisconsin Toolkit, contact your Regional Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Center at www.mch-hotlines.org. An Introductory Toolkit packet containing a CD-Rom with four of the videos is available in limited quantities. In addition, two brochures on medical home -Tips for Providers and Tips for Families - can be requested through the Regional Centers.

The Survival Coalition of Wisconsin Disability Organizations is a cross-disability coalition of more than 40 state and local organizations and groups. For more than 20 years, Survival has been focused on changing and improving policies and practices that support people with disabilities of all ages to be full participants in community life.