2024 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 17-19, 2024 • Denver, CO
3/05/2019 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Tearing Down the Silos in Indiana: Highlighting Inter-agency Connections in our Early Intervenion System | International A
Tearing Down the Silos in Indiana: Highlighting Inter-agency Connections in our Early Intervenion System
Indiana has made significant program changes as a result of successful collaboration between our state EDHI and GBYS programs, Indiana’s Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education and Indiana’s state Early Intervention program (First Steps). These collaborative efforts are key to decreasing loss to follow up and most importantly helping to ensure families receive appropriate services early on in order to improve child outcomes. The history of EHDI in Indiana and the creation of Indiana’s Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education illustrate ways to overcome challenges resulting from interagency collaborations. The biggest challenge has been our ability to share data across systems to better identify the gaps and children lost to follow up. Relationships were fostered through MOUs across agencies and systems- allowing for data sharing and updated procedures to the greatest benefit of the families we serve. By working together to provide ongoing education to Early Intervention System Points of Entry, support to families and collaborative data management, more families are arriving at services early on in a child’s life. Resources developed as a result of the collaborations will be shared for illustrative purposes.
- • Participants will learn about relationships built in Indiana to increase loss to follow up initiatives- specifically understanding contractual language and roles of different entities.
- • Participants will be aware of how to use interagency relationships to reduce loss to follow up.
- • Participants will learn how sharing of data between two different datasets was possible to ensure full dataset available to individual programs
Presentation:
18878_10517BethanyColson.pdf
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Cindy Lawrence
(Co-Presenter), ISDH- Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education, clawrence@isdh.in.gov;
o Cindy Lawrence has a Bachelor of Science degree in Deaf Education, Master of Arts in Audiology, and participated in the Graduate Cohort in Special Education Administration, is a licensed Educational Audiologist and a former Deaf Educator, and Administrator from Indianapolis. Cindy has served as an Itinerant Teacher, Educational Audiologist, Interim Superintendent of Indiana School for the Deaf, Director of Outreach and a SKI HI Parent Advisor for Early Intervention and is currently the Early Intervention and Transition Coordinator at the Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education in Indiana.
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Lisa Condes
(Co-Presenter), EHDI - Indiana Sate Dept. of Health, lcondes@isdh.in.gov;
Lisa Condes is the parent of 5 children, her youngest deaf. She has a B.A. and M.S. Degree in Rehabilitation Psychology. She has worked with families and their children for over 25 years. In 1987-1989 she participated on the Governor’s Interagency Roundtable to establish Indiana’s PartC program, First Steps. As a Licensed Medical Social Worker in a level one trauma center for Pediatric Rehabilitation, Lisa worked with families and their communities to ensure optimal outcomes for her patients. For over 10 years, Lisa was the executive director for 2 different non-profits that served children with special needs, developing new programs and securing grants and donations to support these programs. She is currently contracted by the Indiana State Department of Health EHDI Program as the Indiana Hands & Voices Guide By Your Side State Coordinator, ensuring families of newly identified D/HH babies are supported and safely enrolled in early intervention.
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Bethany Colson
(Primary Presenter), ISDH Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education, bcolson@isdh.in.gov;
Bethany is currently serving as the Executive Director for the Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education, a program within the Indiana Department of Health. She holds a Master of Art degree in Speech-Language Pathology and a Master of Science degree in Deaf Education. Her professional experiences working with deaf and hard of hearing children range from higher education, to private schools for the deaf, to early intervention in the natural environment. In addition, she spent many years working in the DeVault Otologic Research Laboratory assisting with outcome studies within the IU School of Medicine Department of Otolaryngology.
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Stacy Allgeier
(Co-Presenter), Indiana EDHI Program, sallgeier@isdh.in.gov;
Stacy Allgeier is currently the Indiana EHDI Follow-up Coordinator, monitoring all the Indiana babies who do not pass their newborn hearing screening. This includes following up with families, physicians and audiologists to make sure the children obtain diagnostic testing, and if diagnosed, ensuring they are enroll in early intervention. Stacy received her Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, working as a teacher for 12 years, and has started her M.A. in Community and Adult Education from Ball State University. In 2008, Stacy’s daughter failed her newborn hearing screening and was subsequently diagnosed with single-side deafness when she was 2 and a half years old. Stacy became a parent guide through Guide by Your Side and was also the previous Executive Director of Indiana Hands and Voices.
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Christina Commons
(Co-Presenter), Indiana First Steps, Christina.Commons@fssa.in.gov;
Christina Commons has been the Part C Coordinator for Indiana,since September 2016. She has her Bachelor of Science degree in Early Childhood Education and Early Intervention from Purdue University and has completed Master’s courses in Early Childhood Special Education at Ball State University. She was a Developmental Therapist previously in Indiana’s Part C system for 16 years. She provided ongoing therapy, evaluation, and assessment to hundreds of children and their families.
Starting in 2014, Christina spent two years with Indiana’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction as Bureau Chief of Youth and Adolescent Services where she served as an advocate for children’s mental wellness. She has worked on issues such as infant brain development, suspension and expulsion, mental health consultation, home visiting practices, screening and assessment, access to high quality early childhood early learning experiences, and prenatal substance use exposure.
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