ABSTRACT Project Title: Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Program Competitive Supplemental Funding Applicant Organization Name: Rhode Island Department of Health Address: 3 Capitol Hill, Room 302 Providence, RI 02908-5034 Project Director: Blythe Berger Project Manager: Liza Then PD Phone Number: 401-222-5949 PM Phone Number: 401-222-4606 PD Email: Blythe.Berger@health.ri.gov PM Email: Liza.Then@health.ri.gov Web Address www.health.ri.gov Funding requested: $235,000 Annually (April 1, 2024 – March 31, 2029) The Rhode Island Department of Health provides leadership for the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNBHS) program. The goal of the program is to ensure the development of a statewide system of care that ensures that deaf or hard of hearing children are identified through hearing screening, receive timely diagnostic evaluation, and timely and appropriate intervention with the ultimate goal to optimize their language, literacy, and social emotional development. Through this grant proposal, Rhodes Island’s UNBHS program plans to focus on the following: 1. Engage EHDI system stakeholders at the state/territory level to improve language acquisition outcomes 2. Disaggregate data to identify populations and address disparities in language acquisition outcomes 3. Provide a coordinated statewide infrastructure to ensure newborns are screened by 1 month of age, diagnosed by 3 months of age, enrolled in EI by 6 months of age (1-3-6 recommendations), and loss to follow-up/loss to documentation is reduced 4. Support state/territory-wide capacity for hearing screening in young children up to age 3 5. Develop mechanisms to support and engage families with DHH children and DHH adults throughout the statewide EHDI system of services, and 6. Engage, educate, and train health professionals and service providers in the statewide EHDI system about the 1-3-6 recommendations; the need for hearing screening up to age 3, the benefits
of a family-centered medical home and the importance of communicating accurate, comprehensive, up-to-date, evidence-based information to families to facilitate the decision-making process to enroll in early intervention services Additionally, RI will submit a plan for a 1-year EHDI Innovation Project. The Innovation project will enhance the EHDI program’s data capacity by accelerating the ability to collect and analyze data through the application of implementing science and change management in peer-to-peer learning collaboratives. This project will build data system capacity and interoperability, identifying measures, to develop, and collect language acquisition data. This plan will delineate how RIEHDI will enhance data and measurement capacity to improve language acquisition for children identified as Deaf or Hard of Hearing.