A unique partnership, funded by bi3, brings parenting experts and pediatricians together in hopes that mothers and fathers will have help right in the place they take children to get all the care they need.
“It didn’t seem like it would take nothing, it felt like, to really set him off,” said Jennifer Hornschemeier about her son.
Just about a year ago, Hornschemeier began working with Sue Sivertson.
“I coach parents if they are speaking with the pediatrician about a particular challenge,” Sivertson said.
The program is called Parents Connext.
“It’s a unique partnership between TriHealth, Beech Acres Parenting Center and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and the focus of the project really is to break down barriers to care and get parents access to services that they need by embedding and integrating a parent coach in their pediatric primary care setting,” said Jennifer Zimmerman of bi3.
“They enable parents to have the tools to function in these really frustrating moments, and that gives the parents confidence and they feel better prepared to enjoy time with their kids,” said Dr. Warrick
As part of the program, Zimmerman said they now have nine patient offices in the Tri-State offering Parent Connext.
“We’ve screened 11,000 families in the last two years, which is pretty phenomenal. We’ve connected over 2,500 of those families to a parent specialist, and then we also track and see what the impact of that parent coaching relationship has been to reduce stress in the family and to build resilience, and all those outcomes are really positive,” she said.
The program allows parents to meet with coaches at regular visits throughout the year at no charge thanks to the bi3 grant.
This parenting program is considered a national model for other healthcare providers across the country.
View Local 12’s full story to learn more about how Parent Connext is changing healthcare in Cincinnati.
