NC InCK executive team members, Dr. Rushina Cholera, Sarah Allin, Dr. Richard Chung, Dr. Kori Flower, Dan Kimberg, Melissa McDonald, and Dr. Mike Steiner, published a case study sharing early learnings from NC InCK’s approach to whole-child care in the North Carolina Medical Journal.
This article highlights NC InCK’s integration of physical, mental, behavioral, and social health needs into a care management model that focuses on child and family well-being. The case study describes NC InCK’s efforts to enhance the capacity of health systems and go beyond traditional medical interventions. The authors underscore how NC InCK’s focus on the ten core child service areas contributes to accomplishing these goals.
Additionally, the article emphasizes how NC InCK’s care management model offers long-term support to families while collaborating toward shared goals through the development of personalized Shared Action Plans. To do this, NC InCK trains care managers to focus on family well-being through a holistic look at the systems that impact them (e.g., Behavioral Health, Food, Housing, Early Childhood), and through collaboration with care team members like guidance counselors, school nurses, and teachers who represent those systems.
Furthermore, the authors stress NC InCK’s collaboration with schools, highlighting the importance of in-school services, information sharing between care managers and school professionals, and the evidence-based actions healthcare practices can take to promote school readiness. NC InCK is also focusing on the care of children in foster care. NC InCK works to pair children in foster care with care managers to increase coordination between their different care providers. The authors of the case study recognize the need for additional foster care resources so that we can fully realize our vision of whole-child health.
The authors share that, ultimately, NC InCK hopes to provide an example of how care management focused on whole-child health can lead to improved health and well-being outcomes. The model remains dedicated to advancing whole-child health care by addressing the holistic needs of Medicaid-enrolled children in North Carolina.