Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN)
Enacted in 1935 as a part of the Social Security Act, the Title V Maternal and Child Health Program is the Nation’s oldest Federal-State partnership. For over 75 years, the Federal Title V Maternal and Child Health program has provided a foundation for ensuring the health of the Nation’s mothers, women, children and youth, including children and youth with special health care needs, and their families.
Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Training Programs
The California Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (CA-LEND) and Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP) Training Programs are designed to support state Title V systems by nurturing the next generation of leaders in the MCH field.
CA-LEND program’s goal is to create an interdisciplinary learning community where leaders in Maternal and Child Health, especially in California, prepare to serve children with, or at risk for, neurodevelopmental and related disabilities and their families, with a life course perspective, through family-centered, culturally responsive, coordinated, comprehensive, developmentally appropriate clinical care, teaching, research, and systems change.
We accomplish this mission in our CA-LEND program through leadership training and interdisciplinary faculty engagement in:
- Interdisciplinary leadership training
- Continuing education and technical assistance
- Research, evaluation, and dissemination
- Collaboration and systems change
In our DBP training program, there is an urgent need to train the next generation of DBP leaders to advance knowledge, improve the developmental-behavioral pediatric system of care, and to optimize children’s developmental potentials, through direct care, research, teaching and advocacy, for a culturally and linguistically diverse population of children, adolescents, young adults, and families in Southern California and the Southwest. We accomplish this goal by training of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatric Fellows, the Pediatric health care pipeline and community providers by focusing on:
- Fellows as Care Providers
- Fellows as Scholars
- Fellows as Advocates
- Fellows as Educators
- Health Provider Education
Clinical Services
The USC UCEDD and Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) support the mission of Children’s Medical Services (CMS) to provide care to eligible children and youth with special health care needs through California Children’s Services (CCS), the state’s CSHCN program. CCS provides treatment, medical case management, referrals to other agencies, and physical therapy and occupational therapy in public schools through the Medical Therapy Program (MTP). Children's Hospital Los Angeles has 28 approved CCS Special Care Centers.
Key Personnel
Douglas Vanderbilt, MD, MS, CA-LEND and DBP Training Program Director
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. CA-LEND Training Director
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. CA-LEND Training Director
Alexis Deavenport-Saman, DrPH, DBP Training Coordinator
Related Resources
Maternal Child Health Bureau website
Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Training Network
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Programs