Vermont Child Health Improvement Program

Goals:

• Improve quality of prenatal and postnatal care for pregnant people with substance use disorder and their infants.

• Improve availability, access, efficiency, and coordination of care services for pregnant people with substance use disorder.

• Provide support to health care professional who care for opioid-dependent pregnant people and their infants and improve systems for implementation of current guidelines and best practice recommendations for care.

Achievements:

• Provision of support and guidance for the Vermont Plan of Safe Care (POSC) with the Vermont Department of Health Division of Family and Child Health and the Department for Children and Families.

• Collaboration for the statewide adoption of DCF CAPTA notifications for substance exposure in utero as outlined in Federal CARA (Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act) including engagement for planning and development of a revised Plan of Safe Care (POSC) and the development of a POSC supportive structure to assist providers in the state.

• Provided support and guidance for Vermont community hospitals implementing the Eating, Sleeping, Consoling (ESC) care tool for symptom assessment of opioid-exposed newborns.

• Regional collaboration with neighboring states via Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network (NNEPQIN).

2024 Annual Statewide Improving Care for Opioid-Exposed Newborns Conference: Substance-Exposed Newborns and Families: Creating a Community of Practice Materials

Click the play button in the video below to watch the recording. (After clicking play, click the arrows in the bottom right of the screen to view in Full Screen.)

VT IDTA

• Vermont In-Depth Technical Assistance is an interdisciplinary team developing systems of care and support for perinatal people with substance use disorder (SUD), including updating guidelines for the Community Response Team (CHARM) model and supporting the expansion of a perinatal peer support network.

Statewide Call

• On October 31, 2023, the PQC-VT ICON team hosted a webinar, Demystifying Nurse Home Visiting: Increasing Acceptance of Prenatal and Postpartum Services. Guest speaker Katy Leffel, RN BSN, IBCLC, Nurse Program Coordinator, Division of Family, presented reflections from physician champions about how to talk to families about the benefits of nurse home visiting, and how they promote and integrate referrals to nurse home visiting in their practice.

View the recording here.  |  Review the presentation slides here.

Preparing for Hospital Stay and Preparing for Baby

• A short video to help pregnant people with a history of opioid use disorder (OUD) prepare for their hospital stay and what to expect after their baby is born. 

• Parent and Provider Resources (link) 

• Updated Our Care Notebook (link): a resource booklet to help families affected by opioid use disorder navigate pregnancy and newborn care