In addition to the expert clinical care provided by our Heart Center team, Children’s Mercy also works to provide additional support to our patient and families through our THRIVE program. The THRIVE program focuses on the psycho-social needs of patients, their family members and even the staff members that treat these young patients.
The THRIVE team is made up of social workers, psychologists, child life specialists, chaplains, music therapists, financial counselors, and our palliative care team who are committed to helping everyone involved with their emotional health. This can include helping to create a smooth transition back home by easing fears about returning to school after hospitalization, supporting the emotional well-being of siblings, and providing resources both inside and outside the hospital.
Listen in as Jami Gross Toalson, PhD explains how THRIVE also helps patients and families look towards the future, whether that's going off to college, transitioning to adult care or finding independent living.
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Helping Heart Patients, Family, And Staff THRIVE
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Learn more about Jami Gross-Toalson, PhD
Jami Gross-Toalson, PhD
Jami Gross-Toalson, PhD, is a pediatric psychologist and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. She received her PhD from the University of Iowa and completed her internship in Pediatric Psychology at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. She is fellowship trained in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Washington.Learn more about Jami Gross-Toalson, PhD
Transcription:
Helping Heart Patients, Family, And Staff THRIVE
Dr. Michael Smith (Host): We’re going to talk about helping heart patients, family, and staff thrive. My guest is Dr. Jami Toalson. She’s a pediatric psychologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. Dr. Toalson, welcome to the show.
Dr. Jami Toalson (Guest): Thank you.
Dr. Smith: We know that at Children’s Mercy, you’re a pediatric psychologist, and I know that you work closely with what is called the Thrive Program. Why don’t you tell us about that?
Dr. Toalson: Well, the Thrive Program is a program that our psychosocial team here in in the Ward Family Heart Center developed to try to meet the needs of our patients and families, not only during the acute phase of heart disease, like in the ICU or during surgery but across the lifespan. We know that when kids are born with a congenital heart disease or they develop heart disease over the course of childhood that it affects them throughout their lives and affects them at all of the developmental phases. We really wanted to make sure that we were covering all of those needs of our patients as they transition into adulthood even, because our doctors and our surgeons have gotten so good at helping these kids live longer, healthier lives, that we really need to make sure that we’re addressing their needs, not only in regard to their heart, but in regard to their mental health, emotional well-being, and development as well.
Dr. Smith: Let’s talk about the team that actually makes up the Thrive Team, right? I’m reading here there’s social workers, psychologists, music therapists. Tell us a little bit about how it was decided that these different types of people need to be involved on the Thrive team.
Dr. Toalson: When we first started looking at how we were providing psychosocial care to our families, we had all of these really amazing people that were already involved in taking care of aspects of these children and these families’ lives. Our music therapist who would come in and see these kids while they’re in the hospital to help with coping and development, or our social workers, our financial counselors. Everybody was working in more of a siloed fashion and so what we decided is let’s figure out who were the people who are really meeting the psychosocial needs of our families, and how can we make sure that we’re reaching these families over time and be more efficient in the work that we’re doing? We started meeting at least weekly as a team and saying, “What are all of those psychosocial pieces that these patients and families really need?” We want to make sure that we’re helping these kids develop. We want to make sure that their parents and their siblings are growing and thriving as well so that they can come back and have a positive impact on the children’s lives. We looked at all of those different pieces and said, “Okay, let’s get all of these people together and make sure that we’re adjusting these needs at the times that are necessary, and in a way, that’s necessary for each individual family.”
Dr. Smith: Dr. Toalson, when I hear of a program or a clinic like this at Children’s Mercy – and Children’s Mercy really seems to be leading the way in this – it just makes sense to bring all of these different parts together to work together to make patient care that much better. When putting this kind of team together, obviously, there’s a lot of different dynamics going on. When a patient comes in, and a family comes into the clinic, are they seeing everybody in one visit? Or how does that work, I guess?
Dr. Toalson: No, and that’s really the thing is that it’s not always necessary for families and children to see everybody, and that doesn’t make for a good use of all of our time as well. What we try to do when we meet each week as a team is say, “What are the needs that this family has identified?” Or if it’s a brand-new family, “What are the things, knowing what we know about families dealing with heart disease, what are the things that they’re most likely to need first?” Then we talk to the family and figure out -- are there siblings that are struggling, and if so, then it makes sense for our child life specialist to be one of the key people that’s involved for that family.
Dr. Smith: Got you, yeah.
Dr. Toalson: We really try to individualize things based on what the family shows us they need and based on our expertise of what these families need.
Dr. Smith: Yeah, so the team comes together, reviews the family, the patient, and then puts together that plan of who’s going to be the best person to address those psychosocial issues. That’s kind of how – that’s an amazing program. What are some of the resources though, that you offer or provide to the patients and families?
Dr. Toalson: Well, other than just the general support or the interventions that we do, we try to provide families as they are leaving our hospital after an extended stay, or have a really complicated hospital stay, we provide them with what we call our family discharge plans. Every time that kids are discharged from the hospital, they get a medical plan that talks about the appointments that they have coming up and what are the things families should look for in terms of medical concerns? We like to do that on the family and the psychosocial side, so we provide families with a list of resources for maybe counseling or developmental interventions that they may need moving forward resources like reading materials, or wonderful programs that are out there for families. And then also, a list of some of the recommendations that we’ve made. Let’s say we have a child that’s been having sleeping issues and we’ve tried to help with that during the hospitalization, we send them home with that family discharge plan that tries to mimic that medical discharge plan as well. Families are leaving with something in their hand to reference back to and to have resources and numbers to call if they need things once they get home.
Dr. Smith: How long has the Thrive Program been going on at Children’s Mercy?
Dr. Toalson: We really started looking at how to bring these different resources together about two years ago. I’d say we’ve probably been up and running for about a year and a half, but it’s a constantly moving and developing program, and there are things that we want to have as resources for our families in the next year, or in the next two to three years, that we’re continuing to work on. We’ve been working as a team to try to streamline things for patients, and families, and staff for about the past year, year and a half.
Dr. Smith: In that time period, do you have a favorite success story you’d like to share?
Dr. Toalson: One of the things that I think we do a really nice job of, or that’s been really beneficial, is that we’re able to help the people that are at the bedside take better care of the patients in front of them by giving them resources and giving them some information about those families that maybe they wouldn’t have known because they’re so invested in taking care of the medical needs at that time. One of the things that I think we’ve been able to do is give a little bit of that background information, like, this family had another child that was here in the hospital before, so these things that you’re seeing – the way that the family is responding to what you’re talking about or what you’re doing -- this is why that’s happening. It really helps our staff at the bedside to be more understanding, and be more empathic, and be able to give better care. We’ve seen that in times that maybe there’s been an impasse or a struggle in staff being able to really connect and support a family. I think that’s one thing that we’ve seen repeatedly is the most helpful.
Dr. Smith: Nice, nice. And that makes sense because the topic of today’s discussion was “Helping Heart Patients, Family, and Staff Thrive.”
Dr. Toalson: Right.
Dr. Smith: What an amazing program, Dr. Toalson. I want to thank you for the work that you’re doing at Children’s Mercy, and thank you, for coming on the show today. You’re listening to Transformational Pediatrics with Children’s Mercy, Kansas City. For more information, you can go to ChildrensMercy.org, that’s ChildrensMercy.org. I’m Dr. Mike Smith. Thanks for listening.
Helping Heart Patients, Family, And Staff THRIVE
Dr. Michael Smith (Host): We’re going to talk about helping heart patients, family, and staff thrive. My guest is Dr. Jami Toalson. She’s a pediatric psychologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. Dr. Toalson, welcome to the show.
Dr. Jami Toalson (Guest): Thank you.
Dr. Smith: We know that at Children’s Mercy, you’re a pediatric psychologist, and I know that you work closely with what is called the Thrive Program. Why don’t you tell us about that?
Dr. Toalson: Well, the Thrive Program is a program that our psychosocial team here in in the Ward Family Heart Center developed to try to meet the needs of our patients and families, not only during the acute phase of heart disease, like in the ICU or during surgery but across the lifespan. We know that when kids are born with a congenital heart disease or they develop heart disease over the course of childhood that it affects them throughout their lives and affects them at all of the developmental phases. We really wanted to make sure that we were covering all of those needs of our patients as they transition into adulthood even, because our doctors and our surgeons have gotten so good at helping these kids live longer, healthier lives, that we really need to make sure that we’re addressing their needs, not only in regard to their heart, but in regard to their mental health, emotional well-being, and development as well.
Dr. Smith: Let’s talk about the team that actually makes up the Thrive Team, right? I’m reading here there’s social workers, psychologists, music therapists. Tell us a little bit about how it was decided that these different types of people need to be involved on the Thrive team.
Dr. Toalson: When we first started looking at how we were providing psychosocial care to our families, we had all of these really amazing people that were already involved in taking care of aspects of these children and these families’ lives. Our music therapist who would come in and see these kids while they’re in the hospital to help with coping and development, or our social workers, our financial counselors. Everybody was working in more of a siloed fashion and so what we decided is let’s figure out who were the people who are really meeting the psychosocial needs of our families, and how can we make sure that we’re reaching these families over time and be more efficient in the work that we’re doing? We started meeting at least weekly as a team and saying, “What are all of those psychosocial pieces that these patients and families really need?” We want to make sure that we’re helping these kids develop. We want to make sure that their parents and their siblings are growing and thriving as well so that they can come back and have a positive impact on the children’s lives. We looked at all of those different pieces and said, “Okay, let’s get all of these people together and make sure that we’re adjusting these needs at the times that are necessary, and in a way, that’s necessary for each individual family.”
Dr. Smith: Dr. Toalson, when I hear of a program or a clinic like this at Children’s Mercy – and Children’s Mercy really seems to be leading the way in this – it just makes sense to bring all of these different parts together to work together to make patient care that much better. When putting this kind of team together, obviously, there’s a lot of different dynamics going on. When a patient comes in, and a family comes into the clinic, are they seeing everybody in one visit? Or how does that work, I guess?
Dr. Toalson: No, and that’s really the thing is that it’s not always necessary for families and children to see everybody, and that doesn’t make for a good use of all of our time as well. What we try to do when we meet each week as a team is say, “What are the needs that this family has identified?” Or if it’s a brand-new family, “What are the things, knowing what we know about families dealing with heart disease, what are the things that they’re most likely to need first?” Then we talk to the family and figure out -- are there siblings that are struggling, and if so, then it makes sense for our child life specialist to be one of the key people that’s involved for that family.
Dr. Smith: Got you, yeah.
Dr. Toalson: We really try to individualize things based on what the family shows us they need and based on our expertise of what these families need.
Dr. Smith: Yeah, so the team comes together, reviews the family, the patient, and then puts together that plan of who’s going to be the best person to address those psychosocial issues. That’s kind of how – that’s an amazing program. What are some of the resources though, that you offer or provide to the patients and families?
Dr. Toalson: Well, other than just the general support or the interventions that we do, we try to provide families as they are leaving our hospital after an extended stay, or have a really complicated hospital stay, we provide them with what we call our family discharge plans. Every time that kids are discharged from the hospital, they get a medical plan that talks about the appointments that they have coming up and what are the things families should look for in terms of medical concerns? We like to do that on the family and the psychosocial side, so we provide families with a list of resources for maybe counseling or developmental interventions that they may need moving forward resources like reading materials, or wonderful programs that are out there for families. And then also, a list of some of the recommendations that we’ve made. Let’s say we have a child that’s been having sleeping issues and we’ve tried to help with that during the hospitalization, we send them home with that family discharge plan that tries to mimic that medical discharge plan as well. Families are leaving with something in their hand to reference back to and to have resources and numbers to call if they need things once they get home.
Dr. Smith: How long has the Thrive Program been going on at Children’s Mercy?
Dr. Toalson: We really started looking at how to bring these different resources together about two years ago. I’d say we’ve probably been up and running for about a year and a half, but it’s a constantly moving and developing program, and there are things that we want to have as resources for our families in the next year, or in the next two to three years, that we’re continuing to work on. We’ve been working as a team to try to streamline things for patients, and families, and staff for about the past year, year and a half.
Dr. Smith: In that time period, do you have a favorite success story you’d like to share?
Dr. Toalson: One of the things that I think we do a really nice job of, or that’s been really beneficial, is that we’re able to help the people that are at the bedside take better care of the patients in front of them by giving them resources and giving them some information about those families that maybe they wouldn’t have known because they’re so invested in taking care of the medical needs at that time. One of the things that I think we’ve been able to do is give a little bit of that background information, like, this family had another child that was here in the hospital before, so these things that you’re seeing – the way that the family is responding to what you’re talking about or what you’re doing -- this is why that’s happening. It really helps our staff at the bedside to be more understanding, and be more empathic, and be able to give better care. We’ve seen that in times that maybe there’s been an impasse or a struggle in staff being able to really connect and support a family. I think that’s one thing that we’ve seen repeatedly is the most helpful.
Dr. Smith: Nice, nice. And that makes sense because the topic of today’s discussion was “Helping Heart Patients, Family, and Staff Thrive.”
Dr. Toalson: Right.
Dr. Smith: What an amazing program, Dr. Toalson. I want to thank you for the work that you’re doing at Children’s Mercy, and thank you, for coming on the show today. You’re listening to Transformational Pediatrics with Children’s Mercy, Kansas City. For more information, you can go to ChildrensMercy.org, that’s ChildrensMercy.org. I’m Dr. Mike Smith. Thanks for listening.