Improving Healthcare for Youth

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Teen health centers participate in program

https://azpbs.org/horizon/2022/10/teen-health-centers-participate-in-program/

Ten health centers across the state in the Arizona Family Health Partnership (AFHP) network are participating in an intensive 18-month best-practices driven program designed to address the unique healthcare needs of young people by removing barriers to improve healthcare delivery.

The Adolescent Champion Model improves healthcare delivery for young people by identifying and addressing barriers to optimal health services and empowering young patients to establish positive lifelong health behaviors.

What is the Arizona Family Health Partnership?

“The program, called the Adolescent Champion Model (ACM), is an evidence-based intervention developed by the University of Michigan, funded by the Arizona Department of Health Services and
managed through a collaboration with AFHP “to assess and improve a health center’s culture, environment, policies and practices by identifying and addressing barriers to these critical services for
youth,” said AFHP Adolescent Health Program Manager Tracy Pedrotti, MPH. “Adolescents need access to high-quality, healthcare services to achieve optimal health and wellbeing, providing them an
opportunity to thrive as they transition into adulthood.”

Participating health centers include:
• Abrazo Family Medicine Residency, Phoenix
• Adelante Healthcare Goodyear
• Chiricahua Community Health Centers, Inc.- Sierra Vista Pediatrics
• Creek Valley Health Clinic, Colorado City
• Desert Sun Pediatrics, Phoenix
• North Country Healthcare- Payson
• Terros Health 27th Avenue Health Center, Phoenix
• Valle Del Sol – 7th Street, Phoenix
• Wesley Community and Health Center- Central City, Phoenix
• Wesley Community and Health Center- Mobile Unit, Phoenix

Health centers successfully completing the 18-month ACM implementation program “and those going above and beyond to put in place additional best
practices can earn certification as an adolescent centered environment from the University of Michigan,” Pedrotti said.

What is the Adolescent Champion Model?

“The model is really based on the understanding that young people are not just big children or little adults, and that providing health services for young people our services need to be catered to their developmental needs, to their cultural needs, and the specific needs of adolescents,” explained Chulani.

“The Champion Model is really about how health centers can go through a process of obtaining feedback from their young people, from the patients they serve, around how they can better adapt their practices to better serve young people,” he further explained.

He further mentioned that the health centers go through an 18 month cycle, with three of those months they assess how well their services were in order to make changes to adjust to those needs.

“It recognizes that the patient experience does not begin in the office, in the waiting room, it begins in your front office. It’s about how we adapt all these steps along the way to make sure young people have positive experiences in health care,” said Chulani.