Connecting Porter County NICU Graduates to Community Supports
By: Mariann Frigo | Founder & Executive Director, Jacob’s Ladder Pediatric Rehab Center
Jacob’s Ladder Pediatrics and Northwest Health Porter Birthing and Family Care Center joined forces last year to discuss best practices, opportunities to support Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) families and babies as they transition home, and trends in this population. In imagining this project, several NICU nurses and Jacob’s Ladder pediatric specialists gathered to create an actionable outcome for NICU babies and families. With the support of a Collaboration Challenge Grant from First Things First Porter County we were able to provide this support to some of our tiniest, most fragile members of our newborn community.
As with any journey, we climbed over a multitude of unanticipated hurdles. And as often happens in collaborative projects, this divergence allowed us to re-prioritize the highest needs of our population and refocus our attention on effective family and newborn initiatives. The post-pandemic medical staffing shortages affecting both teams, record-high newborns requiring NICU support, and increased early intervention referrals meant nurses and therapists had to re-think the original plans we had in order to continue providing the best care for their tiny patients. We had to set aside our initial goal of cross-training NICU nurses and Early Intervention therapists and re-focus on a different way to support NICU graduates.
What blossomed out of this project shift was an opportunity to brainstorm, share, and collaborate in the creation of a comprehensive NICU graduate community supports guide. Stephanie Didion, Director of Northwest Health Porter Birthing and Family Care Center, along with Holly Tuthill, NICU Speech Language Pathologist came together with others on their teams to improve and ensure Porter County NICU graduates have multiple opportunities to receive milestone trainings and parent support. In addition to the ongoing Northwest Health NICU milestone clinic run by Holly Tuthill SLP and Jonni Pera RPT, we worked together to add Jacob’s Ladder Pediatrics free drop-in milestone screening clinic and lactation consulting to their screening team in addition to Laura Crohan SLP, CLC lactation consultant.
Through creative re-imagining, we were able to grow this project from two collaborators to a team of five. Our final project not only included the NICU and Jacob’s Ladder teams but was also able to incorporate:
Seeds of Promise--Ensuring a $100 educational savings investment to all Porter County newborns
Kidworks LLC--Providing free developmental milestone screenings clinic days
Northwest Health Lactation team--Offering free lactation consultancy by appointment
All in all, we not only created a well-developed, comprehensive guide for our families but also created new professional connections and strengthened relationships between providers in our community. We will continue to grow and collaborate as we look to provide best care for our tiniest Porter County residents.