CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL HEALTHCARE NEEDS

HELPING WHEN ITS NEEDED MOST

Raising a child is a joy and has its challenges. If your child has special health care needs, that job is even more complex. Navigating the system to ensure your child’s and family’s needs are met can be frustrating and overwhelming.

We are here to partner with families of children and youth with special health care needs to connect and coordinate services which may assist your child’s development.

Our services include:

Referral to resources and support services
Connecting families to Medicaid, CHIP, Supplemental Security Income and/or health insurance
Assisting families with organizational needs
Helping families to complete the Ages and Stages Questionnaires.
Working with families to understand the transition to adulthood process
Exploring housing and financial issues and solutions.
Working through behavioral health issues.
Helping families understand and work through educational needs, concerns, and plans.
Helping families create realistic care plans;
Follow up and monitoring of care plans

Your values and beliefs are important to us. You determine what, when, and how we help you. Some families may only need a few tips or resources. Other families may need more intensive coordination for an extended period of time.

Privacy and confidentiality are paramount as we work together.

Meet the Coordinator

Ericka Wall RN, Tricounty Health Department Care Coordinator- Ericka has been in the medical field for 16+ years. She has worked a variety of areas, with her longest experience based in ICU. Ericka was looking for a different way to help the community and joined Tricounty Health in January 2020. She has worked with families in our WIC program, Targeted Case Management Program, Immunizations. Ericka spent the year of 2020 working with families directly affected by Covid 19, and was our POC for Duchesne County School District for 2020. Ericka has a love of children with special needs, as she helped raise her nephew who was a child with special needs. Ericka is excited to now be in our CSHCN program.

A little bit about what Ericka does in the CSHCN program. She serves as a hub of resources and advocacy for children and their families who are facing special medical circumstances. Ericka provides intake and needs assessments as well as connecting patients to a medical home, pediatric psychology, developmental pediatrics, occupational therapy, audiology, speech pathology, and orthopedics. She can also act as a liaison between primary care physicians, schools, early intervention services, and other agencies. Ericka realizes the importance of a medical home, and that early intervention in a child’s life is key to a successful life for that child’s future. She also realizes the necessity of wrap around services in our rural communities.

Meet the Providers

Cynthia Palacios-Gutierrez, PsyD:

Cynthia is a pediatric psychologist who has been providing diagnostic evaluation, assessment, and treatment to preschool-aged children and their families from diverse backgrounds. She comes to us from the Children’s Center in Salt Lake City. She has a lot of experience with Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Child-Parent Psychotherapy; and Attachment, Self-Regulation; and Competency Therapy. Cynthia provides assessments for cognitive functioning; attention/memory; visual-spatial skills; executive functioning skills; and developmental delays. She has worked with diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorders; ADD/ADHD; anxiety, and trauma and stress disorders. Cynthia is bilingual in Spanish and English.

Natalie Allen, DNP:

Natalie is certified as a nurse practitioner in both family practice and pediatrics. She worked previously at the Utah Department of Health for the Neonatal Follow-up Program, and more recently at the University of Utah Developmental Assessment Center. She has been a nurse practitioner instructor at Weber State University, Idaho State University, and Rocky Mountain University in Provo. She spent more than a decade working as a nurse in the Up to 3 Early Intervention Program, and ten-plus years as a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit. Natalie has extensive experience working with children with developmental delays and is trained in autism evaluation and diagnosis.

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