WA Portal partners are having tremendous success connecting with stakeholders and communities in ways that move our state forward in improving health outcomes for Washington residents. These partner pages are a community of health and wellness programs seeking to share resources and provide a supportive gathering place for peers.
For example, the Cardiovascular Connection site shares new and relevant materials to assist a broad spectrum of health care providers in addressing chronic conditions with their clients. This team developed the Great 8 resource –a simple visual tool that guides communication between health professionals and patients. It is available in 27 languages and multiple electronic formats. The Cardiovascular Connection page also recently added an interactive heart disease and stroke map that offers data down to the county level.
The value of offering accessible content on WA Portal can’t be overstated. Recently the Maternal Mental Health Access project ramped up quickly on WA Portal under the leadership of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington and funding by the DOH Perinatal Unit, in the Office of Family & Community Health Improvement. This project has engaged with hundreds of stakeholders statewide to train and support members of primary care clinics to reduce the risk of death by perinatal suicide and accidental overdose, two leading causes of maternal mortality.
And the Washington Rural Palliative Care Initiative expanded its set of resources to include telehealth and dementia. They also recently organized a webinar library to grow their series of talk show style conversations open to all rural health communities interested in providing palliative care services.
In addition to making resources easily accessible to health service peers, partners are using the My Portal space for closer connections and collaboration. In August, a Youth Behavioral Health Response team launched a series of training sessions to rapidly prepare a range of behavioral health specialists to meet the critical need for youth crisis management as communities respond to mental health conditions worsened by the pandemic.
The Commercial Tobacco Prevention Coalition and Partnerships Initiative uses the My Portal space to converse with members across their large team and share resources on equity as they develop policy that will shape our state’s approach to curbing tobacco use.
These are just a few examples of the significant work WA Portal partners are achieving. As the WA Portal continues to serve as a platform for collaboration, equity, and innovation, return to this page in the future to learn about additional success stories.