Top 3 Medical Outreach Tips While Social Distancing

We hope you are all well and safe during these uncertain times, and we also wanted to give you some ideas for how to engage in medical outreach while social distancing. Below are some ways to build your programs to support expectant parents and medical providers who might be having a hard time getting the information they need as they adjust to more limited in-person appointments and telehealth options.

1. We're happy to share that we have a free online training module with downloadable templates and resources for the medical outreach supervisors and other leaders at local Down syndrome organizations. These modules include instructional videos and activities, free downloadable templates, and ideas for how to grow your medical outreach program. You will need to add the course to your cart and register using the University of Kentucky Learning Management System, but there is no cost to register. Visit PHT 202: Prenatal Medical Outreach Training for Advocacy Organizations. You can also check out all of our Advocacy Organization Medical Outreach Training Resources on our website.
2. You can do research on medical providers in your area (or ask an intern to work on it) and compile a spreadsheet of all the clinicians in your area. Some helpful references to make sure you information is accurate are the National Society of Genetic Counselors, the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, the US News and World Report Directory of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American College of Genetics and Genomics. All of these websites have tools that allow you to locate clinicians in your area.
   https://www.nsgc.org/page/find-a-genetic-counselor
   https://www.smfm.org/members/search
   https://health.usnews.com/doctors/obstetrician-gynecologists
   https://www.acmg.net/ACMG/Membership/Find_a_member_public.aspx
3. You can also send an email to clinicians in your area about the resources you can offer remotely to support them and their patients during this time. Below is a template to get you started, and you can customize it based on what your organization can offer:

Dear Clinician,

We understand the significant concern regarding in-person contact at this time; therefore, we wanted to reach out to share some of the ways our patient advocacy organization can remotely support clinicians and new and expectant parents learning about Down syndrome.

Our organization has the following services and resources you can access remotely:

1. The website for our organization has links to resources for new and expectant parents learning about Down syndrome. [Share link]
2. The Lettercase National Center for Prenatal Resources has nationally-recommended materials about Down syndrome in multiple languages that are available free online, in the iTunes store, and you can request free printed resources to be mailed directly to you. http://resources.lettercase.org. 
3. Our organization provides a hotline that expectant parents can call if they want to speak with our trained parent support specialists. Clinicians can also call to request us to mail printed educational materials. 
4. Our organization also offers an email contact where expectant parents and medical providers can also reach us for resources and support.
5. During this time, our organization is also offering monthly online forums for new and expectant parents to connect with each other.
6. You can further access a training module for clinicians on best practices for delivering a diagnosis at https://www.lettercase.org/education/medical-professionals/

Some clinicians may also have questions about the specific implications of COVID-19 for people with Down syndrome, so we thought it would also be helpful to share some of the latest resources available on that topic:

• https://www.globaldownsyndrome.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/QA-on-COVID-19-and-Down-Syndrome-Expanded-Version-03-26-2020.pdf
• https://www.lumindidsc.org/t21covid/#DS-updates

We hope these tips help your organization and the families and clinicians you serve during this uncertain time, and please feel free to contact us with any questions.