About Our Team
Creator: Amy Edgar
Education: University of Pennsylvania DeSales University
Hospital Affiliation: Children's Integrated Center for Success
Title: Nurse Practitioner, Founder
Advanced Degree(s): MSN, APRN, CRNP, FNP-C
About Our Company
How We Help Patients
At least one time every day, a child, their parent or teacher says a version of the following:
-Child: "I always thought I was lazy and stupid and weird. Now I understand how I am made and what I need to do to feel comfortable in my body."
-Parent: "I always thought it was behavior. That my child was a bad kid. Now I understand how she's built. I understand the difference between something she can control and something she can't control. I also understand now how I can help."
-Teacher: "It's so helpful to have input about what's avoidant behavior and what's the root cause. If we address the root cause, the behavior takes care of itself!"
We call this reversing the "downward spiral."
We are commited to helping "Every Child Every Time". With our collaboration inspired holistic approach to care, children and families are celebrated for their strengths and supported through change. The SUCCESS model utilizes the best of science, medicine, genetics, psychology and engagment to address needs for help. We are also passionate about prevention. We use our understanding of how your child "is built" to help create resilience for the child and family to maximize future success.
How We Help Physicians
There is currently a severe shortage of behavioral health providers in this country. Regionally in PA most children wait for mental health services 6 months or more. Our solution currently provides care for children and families of the Lehigh Valley. Local pediatricians have contacted us directly to say "thank you for improving my quality of life" by providing a quality, referal source for integrated behavioral health services for children. The stress of not knowing how to treat behavioral challenges weighs heavily on primary care providers.
We all want the same outcomes for the children and families to whom we provide care. Imagine what your patients might achieve with a CICS inspired center in your community. Imagine if you could consult CICS specialists for help in caring for the most challenging behavioral health concerns for children. We want to help!
How We Help Hospitals
Currently hospitals and medical institutions refer patients to CICS for step down and outpatient care. Hospitals and medical institutions are well situated to adopt aspects of our 360me model. Imagine if you had truly integrated behavioral, developmental, physical healthcare for the children in your community. Imagine if you had a one stop shopping turnkey service to set it up. We'd love to talk about the possibilities.
How We Help Partners
Flexibility, nimble response to new science, innovation and the creation of the next generation of best practices requires creative partnerships. With our unique data set and ongoing commitment to development, we are positioned to collaborate on projects including medication trials, deep and machine learning in search of predictive algorithms for a variety of mental health conditions in children and the digitalization of tools, and treatments.
Challenge Mission
How we will improve Depression Care
The real success is the magic that happens with children and families in the course of treatment. For example, in a recent session I reviewed the results of the data with parents of a depressed seven year old boy who also had trouble academically. I explained that his working memory was in the upper 25% which is great but I also told them "Your son's visual motor integration is in the lower 25%. This means that he will have a hard time copying sentences from the board onto his paper." At this point the father burst into tears and the mother explained that they had received a call from the boys teacher while they were in the car driving to this appointment. She said "the teacher was upset with our son because he refused to copy a paragraph from the board onto his paper". Our data collection methods give insight into root causes of mental health concerns that aren't typically discovered or connected.
How we will make the lives of those who suffer from depression better
The median age of onset for mood disorders in children is age 13. According to Thomas Insel, the former head of the NIMH, "These are chronic disorders of the young. If they are not treated early they can become chronic lifelong conditions." We have a unique evaluation model, an integrated treatment model including physical, behavioral & rehabilitation care and a broad range of treatment pathways. Our integrated approach focuses on the child within the family & the family within the community. By providing a variety of creative & complimentary solutions, we help unlock the potential of each child while enhancing the well being of families. We use the word SUCCESS to describe our services and remind us of our mission which is at the center of everything we do – every child, every time.
Innovation Details
Intellectual Property Summary
We are in the process of filing provisional patents for 4 systems and methods.
Clinical Information
The clinical model, practice model and team model are all grounded in a "lab" inspired conceptual framework. We believe that the best solutions are co-created by experts and families who are given permission to "try and fail and try again" or "try and succeed and share" new solutions for health. We opened with a well developed diagnostic suite that includes established physical health, genetic, cognitive and psychosocial metrics described in scientific research from the fields of genetics, psychiatry, psychology and medicine. Our recommended strategies and interventions are all evidence based from their discipline of origin such as occupational therapy or cognitive behavioral modalities. We have created a "Succes Plan" template that uses both industry standard progress measures such as the PHQ9 as well as our own evaluation tools that we are currently testing.
Regulatory Status
Nothing at this time
How we will use the funds raised
We are currently self sustaining from commercial insurance revenues only. As a boot strapped start up using my family resources to open, we are now faced with self funding an expansion. Currently this leaves no money for research, development of our model to scale or for the validation of our self created tools so that we may share with others. Money raised will specifically be used in those three identified areas.
Thank You
Children's Integrated Center for Success (CICS) started at the intersection of science and life and a desire to help others. My daughter has Autism, Anxiety, ADHD and Depression. I've been a Nurse Practitioner in mental health & primary care for 30 years combined. I have worked hard to follow developing science & to use it to help my daughter understand herself & be successful. I was frustrated with a fragmented healthcare system that didn't see the full picture of my child. The culmination of our experiences sparked the insight that I could do the same with others, but I would have to build it myself. This is the founding story of CICS.
Every day I see kids who are struggling in school, social life, or within their family. These kids & their families come in totally defeated, feeling no self-worth, with depression and anxiety, at a complete loss. One of the most powerful experiences I have is when we review the data set and for the first time a child and their family feels "known". Everyday I am asked, why doesn't everyone have this? Everyday parents cry in my office because they feel they finally understand their child and have hope for creating positive changes. This is something important to share. Our motto is "Every Child, Every Time" we need your help in order to make that a reality.
