The National Center for Ease of Use of Community-Based Services has recognized Help Me Grow Utah as an exemplary program making services easier to use for children with special health care needs and their families.
As written in the Center’s case study HMG Utah makes services easier to use in four primary ways. First, because parents frequently don’t know the right questions to ask providers, HMG prepares them to ask the questions they need answered.
Second, HMG builds parent’s self-efficacy and confidence by affirming that they should trust their intuition about what they are seeing in their child, and that they need to trust their voice when speaking to providers about their child.
Third, HMG ensures that families get connected to the right resources, and if they don’t, will follow-up and find an alternate resource. They also try to make sure parents are referred to agencies at which they are most likely to qualify for services.
Fourth, they let families lead the conversation. They understand how frustrated parents get when they are given a list of things to do that they can’t accomplish, so HMG care coordinators offer realistic plans that families feel they can implement. With the needs of parents and children always in the front of their minds, HMG staff and volunteers are committed to making services easier to use.
Congratulations to HMG Utah for recognition of their hard work. For more information, visit www.helpmegrowuc.org.

The National Center for Ease of Use of Community-Based Services is one of six national centers addressing the core outcome measures for success in serving children and youth with special health care needs. It is producing a series of case studies on community-based organizations, providers, Title V programs, family organizations or anyone else using innovative ways to make services easier to use for children and their families. The purpose of these case studies is to increase awareness of these programs, provide concrete examples of partnerships, activities and lessons learned, and identify programs that can be replicated in other states. Learn more at www.communitybasedservices.org.