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Catawba County Adolescent Health Partnership

The conceptual model of the Catawba County Adolescent Health Partnership is one that envisions Catawba Pediatrics Associates, PA and the Catawba County Health Department being at the center of a local network of care involving all providers of health care and ancillary services that can maximize the health and well being of adolescents. The network will effectively target and efficiently serve adolescents that are not likely to have access to preventive and acute care. The focus of this partnership is one of increasing the capacity of the CCHD and CPA to provide preventive and primary health care to Medicaid adolescents ages 13 - 21 and to those adolescents not currently receiving preventive and primary health care. The partnership would also provide comprehensive services that are developmentally relevant to adolescents and their parents by improving the organization of and developing new resources that serve to meet the health needs of adolescents.

Project Plan:
The mission of the Catawba County Health Department is to protect and promote the health status of the citizens who live in this county by assessing the needs of the population and assuring care and services when no other sponsor is available or willing to do the job. The Catawba County Adolescent Health Partnership has emerged as a coordinated effort involving the Health Department and private pediatricians affiliated with the Catawba Pediatrics Associates in order to meet the health needs of Medicaid and Health Choice eligible and under served adolescents in Catawba County. It will serve to identify and refer adolescents who are not currently receiving health services to a proper resource for care. The need for such a program exists because even with the wealth of resources at the disposal of Catawba County residents, surprisingly few Medicaid eligible children have been accessing preventive medical care, opting instead for curative care provided through hospital emergency rooms, which have in may cases become the Primary Care Physician.

What is envisioned is greater access of adolescents to both preventive and curative health care by creating a greater local capacity for meeting the needs of Medicaid and Health Choice eligible and underserved adolescents. This will be illustrated through a decline in the amounts of inappropriate visits to local hospital emergency rooms as well as fewer or no unnecessary inpatient hospitalizations of Medicaid and Health Choice eligible and under served adolescents. In turn, the program will increase the health care knowledge possessed by these adolescents, including their parents and guardians, so they may adjust behaviors and choices resulting in the overall improvement of their personal health status.

• To educate the community about the gaps in adolescents care and the importance and benefits of preventive health care.

• To identify adolescents who are not currently receiving timely and adequate health services; refer to or provide for these youngsters a proper resource for care.

• To provide adolescents and their families with competent and developmentally relevant services that will enhance the growth of today's teens.