Texas Pediatric Society Receives Grant from St. David’s Foundation For Central Texas Pediatric Trauma Learning Collaborative

The Texas Pediatric Society, The Texas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, is the premier state professional nonprofit organization of over 4,200 Texas pediatricians.

AUSTIN, TEXAS — The Texas Pediatric Society (TPS) is pleased to announce a new partnership with the St. David’s Foundation to help pediatricians in Central Texas screen and refer for Adverse Childhood Experiences and related factors.

Following a successful “Faces of ACEs” Continuing Medical Education track at the 2017 TPS Annual Meeting, TPS is excited to extend its efforts to help pediatricians address these important social determinants of health.

Over the next two years, TPS will focus efforts in Central Texas to cultivate a community of early adopters in addressing childhood adversity in primary care clinics.

TPS will convene a Central Texas Pediatric Trauma Learning Collaborative in which pediatricians from Williamson, Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell and Hays counties will learn about the impact of childhood adversity and toxic stress and develop strategies to screen and refer for ACEs and related factors in their clinics.

A group of champions from the Learning Collaborative will create enduring educational materials to give pediatricians across the state in unique clinic environments insight into different strategies for screening and referral.

According to the CDC, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been linked to risky health behaviors, chronic health conditions, and even early death. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that a child’s primary care pediatrician plays an important role in identifying signs and symptoms of toxic stress and recommends pediatricians screen regularly for factors that put children at risk.

With the support of the St. David’s Foundation, TPS will help pediatricians enhance the health and safety of Central Texas children and make Central Texas an example by which primary care pediatricians across the state can learn to address childhood adversity in their clinic settings.

About the Texas Pediatric Society:

The Texas Pediatric Society, The Texas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, is the premier state professional nonprofit organization of over 4,200 Texas pediatricians.

TPS believes that the most important resource of the State of Texas is its children and pledges its efforts to promote their health and welfare.

The goal of the Society is that all children in the State attain their full potential for physical, emotional, and social health. For more information, visit  www.txpeds.org and follow us on Twitter @txpeds.

About the St. David’s Foundation:

St. David’s Foundation is one of the largest health foundations in the United States, funding $70 million annually in a five-county area surrounding Austin, Texas.

Through a unique partnership with St. David’s HealthCare, a Malcolm Baldrige award-winning hospital system in Central Texas, the foundation reinvests proceeds from the hospital system back into the community, with a goal of building the healthiest community in the world.

St. David’s Foundation also operates the largest mobile dental program providing charity care in the country, and runs the largest healthcare scholarship program in Texas.

The foundation’s strategic priorities include:

• Providing Central Texans with the healthiest care in the world,
• Creating the healthiest places for Central Texans to live, and
• Helping Central Texans become the healthiest people they can be.