Meet the Point of Access for Children With Special Needs of the Cortland County Health Department

Matt Brooks: [00:00:00] Good morning. I’m Matt Brooks on X 1 0 1 Always Classic in for another edition of Meet Cortland County. And with me in the studio today, it’s Marissa Mancini Public Health Educator with the Cortland County Health Department. How’s it going this morning? Good morning. How are you doing? Doing well now we have a lot to talk about because you are the single point of access when it comes to children with special needs.

Can you tell me about that role?

Marissa Mancini: Yes. I am the single point of access, which means if someone calls in with any questions about children and youth with special needs, they come directly to me and I figure out what program at the health department fits them best.

Matt Brooks: And there’s, from my understanding, three programs that, you mainly bring people to.

Marissa Mancini: Yes, we have Early Intervention, child Find, and then children and youth with special healthcare needs, which we abbreviate to Shin.

Matt Brooks: And let’s start about, I know early intervention is, I wouldn’t say the most popular, but it’s a very frequent one that our people are directed to. Can you tell me about early [00:01:00] intervention?

Marissa Mancini: Early intervention is for children, ages zero to three who might benefit from supportive services, whether that’s speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy, teacher of the deaf, whatever it might be. If. A parent has a concern, a doctor, daycare provider, they send a referral into me. I speak with the family, and we get that process started, of collecting information, scheduling intakes, and then eventually an evaluation and if necessary, services.

Matt Brooks: This is all that’s, it’s the, the services are completely free to get the child what they need.

Marissa Mancini: Yes, we do ask for the child’s health insurance information, but families never see a bill.

Matt Brooks: Now let’s move on to Child Find, because when we were going over this before the microphones returned on it, it isn’t is what it sounds like.

Marissa Mancini: Yes. Child Find is a monitoring program for children zero to three. Those kiddos who. Might benefit from early intervention services but [00:02:00] don’t quite need it yet. We just follow up with them every two to six months, see how they’re doing and if at that point early intervention seems like a fit, we get that process started for them.

Matt Brooks: Yeah, it’s like a preliminary when just, and, and it’s good to try to access these services early, but it really helps prep and makes it a lot easier down the line.

Marissa Mancini: Correct. ’cause some children during an eval, they might not need services but. Three months, six months down the line, things might change.

Matt Brooks: And lastly, you have, it’s a long name, but it’s a, it’s a great cause children and youth with special healthcare needs.

Tell me about that.

Marissa Mancini: Yes. The children and youth with special healthcare needs is a mouthful. We call it Shin, just to make it a little bit easier. And that is our. Big education and referral program, unlike the other two. This is for children use zero to age 21 and their families, and it’s kind of like I’m your own personal Google.

If there’s a community resource a family is interested in, I can help [00:03:00] connect them with that. Children with special healthcare needs is a very broad topic as well to qualify, so it could be anything from. Asthma and allergies to A DHD to autism spectrum disorder, down syndrome. It’s, it’s

Matt Brooks: really the whole, the any need is is under this umbrella.

Marissa Mancini: Yeah. It’s a very large grouping of disorders, so pretty much any child probably qualifies with that. Asthma allergies. A DHD.

Matt Brooks: And one of the ni things I think is great about your role is in, these programs can be confusing to navigate through anyway. And alright, do I qualify for this or do I go to this other one?

The fact that you, we go to you and then you can point parents and guardians and everyone in the right direction, it really helps out. And then you have these programs that just, they run the gamut of. Things that can help these children that, that need them.

Marissa Mancini: One of the big ones I’ve been able to help a family with recently was they [00:04:00] needed a new specialist.

They were going all the way to Syracuse. Wow. And it was becoming a lot for, with the driving, especially, as in the winter times here. Mom had. Work didn’t have time to make all those phone calls, so I called around to the local specialist, do you take a child this young, their health insurance, their wait list, did all that preliminary work and was able to find someone closer for mom and then followed up with her.

Were you able to get that appointment? Do you need a. A referral to the transportation program, if that’s one of the barriers to getting there. It’s not we give you this information. Yeah. And then we’re gone. We follow up, see if there’s anything else we can do to help assist you.

Matt Brooks: Now that, that is great to hear.

And we are unfortunately running a little bit outta time, but if there is a, a family, a guardian, a teacher, somebody who’s listening that’s Hey. I should really make, an inquiry or I have a question where, how do they access you? You are the, you are the point of access. How do they get you?

Marissa Mancini: We have a online form that families can fill out, right on [00:05:00] the Corland County Health Department website that goes to me.

You can send me an email at m mancini@cortlandcountyny.gov, and then my phone number is. 6 0 7 7 5 3 5 1 2 0, and that’s my direct extension.

Matt Brooks: Awesome. And lastly, and if somebody just wants to know what’s going on at the Cortland County Health Department, I know you’re working on things for 2026, is there any good places to see what’s going on?

Marissa Mancini: Our Facebook page is always a great spot to check out. We’re updating information on their daily.

Matt Brooks: All right. Thank you for joining me this morning, Marissa, on another edition to meet Cortland County. Thank you, and this is Matt Brooks on X 1 0 1. Always classic.