The Washington Mental Health Referral Service for Children and Teens has doubled its staff from two to four and is planning to add another referral specialist during the school year. The move comes in response to high and growing demand for the free, telephone-based referral service that officially launched in April. Referrals have jumped from 67 in April to 108 in June.
The service is designed for children and teens 17 and younger from across Washington, connecting families with evidence-supported outpatient mental health services in the community. Families receive a custom referral to meet their individual location, insurance and the mental health needs of their child. Referral specialists call local mental health providers to verify their availability before making a referral to the family and then coach the family to contact the provider as soon as possible to secure the appointment. More than half of all families (58%) who responded to a post-referral survey reported success in getting their child in to see a mental health specialist.
The Washington Healthcare Authority funds the referral service, and Seattle Children’s operates it. It works closely with the existing Partnership Access Line (PAL) mental health consult line at Seattle Children’s. Read full post »
Seattle Children’s Is Growing
Seattle Children’s is moving forward with three major construction projects to expand its clinical capacity and research facilities around Seattle and improve access to care for all patients.
- Building Care: new clinical space at the hospital campus
- Building Cure: a downtown Seattle research facility
- OBCC Othello: a second Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in southeast Seattle
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Seattle Children’s is hosting a webinar on our Bowel Management Treatment Program. If you have patients who can’t control their bowels even after standard interventions, join us on Aug. 14 to learn about our one-week program. It serves patients ages 3 to 21 who:
- Never succeeded at potty training and are still having accidents regularly
- Experience repeated urinary tract infections (UTIs) and tummy aches due to ongoing constipation
- Have had pelvic reconstruction surgery and still experience incontinence
- Have Hirschsprung disease or anorectal malformations and still
experience incontinence
- Have no known condition but have failed to improve with standard well-child
constipation management strategies
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Seattle Children’s is participating in a voluntary nationwide recall of several over-the-counter medications manufactured by Torrent Pharma, Inc. The manufacturer has not received any reports of harmful events related to this recall. The risk to patients is judged to be extremely low, and Seattle Children’s has found no evidence of harm to patients. It has notified all providers whose patients received the medications at Seattle Children’s.
Which medicines are included in the recall?
The recall affects medicines that were given to patients between January 2017 and May 2019 and includes:
- Bisacodyl suppository
- Diphenhydramine liquid
- Guaifenesin liquid
- Oxymetazoline nasal spray
- Pseudoephedrine liquid
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What Do I Need to Know?
A nurse who works in one of our River inpatient units has tested positive for measles, and was potentially contagious while working night shifts on Monday, July 8, Tuesday, July 9 and Wednesday, July 10. The nurse was exposed while caring for a patient who had tested positive for measles. The nurse was fully vaccinated and used appropriate personal protective equipment; the patient was in appropriate isolation. As part of our standard process, we reported the event to King County Public Health.
King County Department of Health reports that measles is preventable with the safe and highly effective MMR vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), two doses of the MMR vaccine are more than 95% effective in preventing measles and that protection is long lasting.
If your patient or family has a concern regarding measles, please direct them to visit the King County Public Health website. This is also an excellent resource for you and your staff if you have questions.
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What Do I Need to Know?
A patient who arrived at our Emergency Department (ED) on June 22, June 25 and June 26 has tested positive for measles. During each visit, ED staff members followed the appropriate screening processes but the patient’s symptoms did not suggest measles until their third visit on June 26. Immediately, we implemented infection control procedures, which include isolating the patient and their family. As part of our standard process, we reported the event to King County Public Health.
If your patient or family has a concern regarding measles please direct them to visit the King County Public Health website at kingcounty.gov/measles. This is also an excellent resource for you and your staff if you have questions.
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Seattle Children’s has released an updated clinical standard work (CSW) pathway for febrile seizure. The pathway is intended to improve the safety and quality of care for children with a simple or complex febrile seizure. It identifies interventions that are not necessary for a child who is well-appearing and describes the small subset of children who need further evaluation. For questions or concerns, contact the Seattle Children’s Seizure Pathway team.
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Seattle Children’s Hernia Program has adopted 16 years old as the age at which our pediatric patients with hernias will be referred to an adult surgery provider, if they need surgery. Adult surgery providers use treatments that are different from those used in young children and are more appropriate for youth 16 and older. Children 15 and younger will still have hernia surgery at Seattle Children’s. Our providers will continue to see patients for hernia diagnosis and evaluation all the way up to age 18.
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Summary: 10-year-old transgender male with gender dysphoria desiring pubertal suppression and to start testosterone in the future.
Patient History: The patient is a 10-year, 10-month-old child assigned female at birth who identifies as male. He started showing interest in wearing boys clothing around first grade, and in the last two to three years has been saying that he “wants to be a boy.” He now goes by his chosen name and uses he/him pronouns at school and at home, although his mom is still struggling with using these pronouns and name. He is out to his teachers and most of the kids at school, and most are supportive. The patient becomes very upset, aggressive and angry when people use the wrong name or pronoun. He has had some fights at school in these situations. Mom reports concern that the patient has been talking about hormones and surgery after doing some research on the Internet, and she worries about the permanency of these treatments. The patient started to have some pubertal changes, including breast development and pubic hair, three months ago, which has been distressing. He has not had any vaginal bleeding or discharge. The patient reports wanting a male body in the future and does not want to have breasts. He is very worried about menarche and wants to know what can be done to prevent his periods from starting.
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If you have patients who can’t control their bowels even after standard interventions, join Seattle Children’s webinar for providers on Aug. 14 to learn about our nationally known Bowel Management Treatment Program. The 1-week program serves patients ages 3-21 who:
- Never succeeded at potty training and are still having accidents regularly
- Experience repeated UTIs and tummy aches due to ongoing constipation
- Have had pelvic reconstruction surgery and still experience incontinence
- Have Hirschsprung disease or anorectal malformations and still
experience incontinence
- Have no known condition but have failed to improve with standard well-child
constipation management strategies
Read full post »
