Growing Pains, Seeing Gains: Improving Youth Transitions
Thursday, August 16th
10:00am – 11:30am
Transitioning from youth to adulthood requires increased responsibility for many areas of life, including managing one’s health. This can be particularly challenging for children with a range of social and health care needs, particularly children with special health care needs. Policymakers from several states, including Georgia and Wisconsin, discuss innovative approaches to support young adults’ transitions to adult health care services and programs through managed care, quality improvement, family engagement, care coordination, and interagency collaboration and cooperation.
This session is supported by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health
Moderators
Lori Abramson, Director-Georgia Families 360, Georgia Department of Community Health
Lori Abramson, LCSW is Director of the Georgia Families 360° program at the Georgia Department of Community Health. She ensures that children in foster care, adoption assistance, and youth in the juvenile justice system receive medical, dental, and behadvioral health care without barriers. Lori has 38 years’ experience in clinical practice, advocacy, collaboration building, and the managed care environment. Lori’s professional focus is about leveraging that experience on behalf of Georgia’s children and families.
Donna Bradbury, Associate Commissioner, NYS Office of Mental Health
Donna Bradbury directs the Division of Integrated Community Services for Children and Families at the Office of Mental Health. She oversees all community-based children’s mental health programs in New York State. She is currently leading the effort to transition children’s behavioral health services into Medicaid managed care as part of the larger Medicaid Redesign project.
Prior to state service, Donna worked for twelve years for the Rensselaer County Department of Mental Health. She delivered clinical services to children and their families, served as a consultant to Family Court as well as county-operated human service departments and schools, ran a specialized treatment program which successfully prevented institutional placement for many youth, and assisted in the creation and implementation of several interagency initiatives that resulted in children and their families having easier access to better quality services.
Speakers
Becky Burns, Statewide Coordinator, Wisconsin Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Program
Becky’s career centers on supporting children and families whose lives have been affected by unanticipated journeys through the world of disability services. She treasures the opportunities to work with these families whose resilience and growth continues to astound her. With a Master’s of Science in Social Work, she has used her education along with her personal experience of being raised in a family with a child who has a disability to influence her work with families. She has worked in one capacity or another for the state of WI for over 18 years.
Gordon Lee, Health Program Administrator, KY Office for Children with Special Health Care Needs
Lee holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and a Bachelor of Health Science in Health Administration. He is employed by the Office for Children with Special Health Care Needs (OCSHCN) where he carries out the duties of the agency’s Transition Administrator. Lee works with children, adolescents, families, support groups, service providers and OCSHCN staff to help ensure that Kentucky’s children with disabilities are prepared to successfully transition from pediatric to adult health care, from school to work, and from home to independent living. Lee coordinates the activities of the OCSHCN’s Youth and Parent Advisory Councils.
Peggy McManus, President, The National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health
Peggy McManus is President of The National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health and Co-Director of Got Transition. With Dr. White, she led the revision of the Six Core Elements of Health Care Transition, developed new transition quality improvement and consumer feedback measurement tools, published systematic reviews on transition outcomes and measures, and published extensively on transition quality improvement, payment options, state Title V transition efforts, and the status of transition preparation in the US.
Kate McEvoy is the Director of the Division of Health Services at the Department of Social Services, and is responsible for administration of medical, behavioral health, pharmacy, dental and transportation benefits for over 800,000 Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries. Related, she oversees health policy aspects of Connecticut Medicaid’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Administrative Services Organization contracts and associated special projects, including the Person-Centered Medical Home initiative and the State Innovation Model Test Grant PCMH+ Program. She is also responsible for oversight of diverse aspects of the Connecticut Strategic Rebalancing Plan, including the Money Follows the Person Program, State Balancing Incentive Payments Program, nursing home diversification and workforce initiatives. In this work, Kate is particularly interested in the intersection of law and medicine with respect to person-centeredness, autonomy in decision-making and dignity of risk. Kate currently serves as the Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Medicaid Directors and a member of the Steering Committee of the Reforming States Group. She is the author of the treatise, Connecticut Elder Law, and many articles on elder law, advance directives and conservatorship. Kate is a graduate of Oberlin College with a B.A. in Economics and English, received her law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law, and graduated from the CHCS/NGA Medicaid Leadership Institute.
Jeremy Vandehey is the Director of Health Policy and Analytics for the Oregon Health Authority. He oversees a 160-person team that is responsible for developing and implementing the state’s vision for health reform. His teams’ work includes policy analysis, reporting on health care costs and quality of care, expanding use of electronic health records, developing evidence-based clinical and benefits coverage guidance, providing technical assistance to advance payment reform and quality improvement, and leveraging the state’s purchasing power in pharmaceutical and public employee health benefit programs to improve care and lower costs. Jeremy is currently leading work to establish the goals for the next five years of the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program. Previously, Jeremy served as Health Policy Advisor to Governor Kate Brown from 2015 to 2017 where he helped renew Oregon’s 1115 Medicaid waiver, pass legislation to expand care coverage to all children regardless of citizenship status, and negotiated a state budget package to maintain the Medicaid expansion through the ACA—despite a $1 billion state funds deficit. Prior to 2015, Jeremy led government relations for Kaiser Permanente’s Northwest Region and served as the legislative director for OHA during the design and implementation of the state’s nationally recognized Medicaid coordinated care organizations. Jeremy received his Juris Doctor from the University of North Dakota School of Law and his undergraduate degree in public policy and administration from Western Oregon University.
Pete Liggett, Ph.D., licensed psychologist, serves as the Deputy Director of Long Term Care and Behavioral Health for the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. His focus is guiding long term care and behavioral health policies as SCDHHS transforms these critical services and explores ways to better integrate long term care and behavioral health with primary care services. He joined SCDHHS in August 2012 as Director of Behavioral Health.
Speaker Ana Gupte, PhD, is managing director and senior research analyst at Leerink Partners LLC, a leading investment bank specializing in health care. She has held senior roles within the health care industry and is a nationally recognized Wall Street analyst. NASHP is pleased she has agreed to join us and share an important perspective on health care policy.
For individuals living with complex, often chronic conditions, and their families, palliative care can provide relief from symptoms, improve satisfaction and outcomes, and help address critical mental and spiritual needs during difficult times. Now more than ever, there is growing recognition of the importance of palliative care services for individuals with serious illness, such as advance care planning, pain and symptom management, care coordination, and team-based, multi-disciplinary support. These services can help patients and families cope with the symptoms and stressors of disease, better anticipate and avoid crises, and reduce unnecessary and/or unwanted care. While this model is grounded in evidence that demonstrates improved quality of life, better outcomes, and reduced cost for patients, only a fraction of individuals who could benefit from palliative care receive it. 
