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Interprofessional Education Project

Seeing the Warning Signs

An Interactive Cross-System Child Wellbeing Experience

What happens when everyone sees a piece of the story—but no one sees the whole picture?

Children and families often interact with multiple systems, including:

  • Education
  • Healthcare
  • Behavioral health
  • Disability services
  • Courts and family services
  • Child welfare
  • Domestic violence services
  • Tribal partners
  • Families and caregivers
  • Community resources

Each system may hold an important piece of information.

The challenge is recognizing when those pieces belong together.

Enter the Interactive Experience

The Case

Can You See the Whole Story?

You are about to meet Jayden.

Jayden is a fictional 12-year-old child. No single professional has his entire story.

Different people and systems see different pieces of what is happening.

The goal is not to diagnose Jayden or find one hidden “correct” answer. The goal is to notice information, identify missing perspectives, connect patterns appropriately, clarify responsibility, and determine what follow-through may be needed.

Begin the Experience
  • Notice.
  • Connect.
  • Clarify.
  • Respond.
  • Follow Through.

Project Principle

Nothing you saw was necessarily wrong.

It may have been incomplete.

Cross-system problems can occur when information remains isolated within individual professions, agencies, organizations, or relationships. Seeing the whole picture requires communication across appropriate boundaries while respecting privacy, autonomy, lived experience, professional roles, and the child and family’s voice.

Framework Preview

The Cross-System Framework

Eight steps that move a concern from a single observation to shared, documented follow-through.

  1. Step 1: Notice the Signal

    Recognize a concern or warning sign.

  2. Step 2: Connect the Pattern

    Link information across people and systems when appropriate.

  3. Step 3: Trigger Team Review

    Engage the right people to review and assess.

  4. Step 4: Clarify Roles

    Confirm who does what and who owns the next action.

  5. Step 5: Communicate with Structure

    Use shared communication tools such as Ask-Clarify-Link and SBAR.

  6. Step 6: Assign Next Steps

    Agree on actions, leads, and timelines.

  7. Step 7: Document Follow-Up

    Record decisions, actions, and outcomes.

  8. Step 8: Close the Loop

    Confirm follow-through and adjust the plan as needed.

Checkpoints Throughout the Framework

Voice and Autonomy

Voice Check

Have we heard directly from the child, family, and people whose lives are affected by the decision?

Autonomy Check

Are we responding to concerns while preserving as much choice, dignity, participation, and ordinary life as possible?

In Development

Experience Coming Next

The interactive experience is being developed. When it is ready, visitors will encounter Jayden’s story from many different perspectives, such as:

  • School / Teachers
  • School Nurse
  • School Counselor
  • Primary Care Provider
  • Diabetes Specialist
  • Behavioral Health
  • Law Enforcement
  • Family Court
  • Child Welfare
  • Disability Services
  • Tribal Partners
  • Domestic Violence Services
  • Family / Caregivers
  • Jayden

How the experience will unfold

  1. Participants initially receive incomplete information from one perspective.
  2. They make observations about what they notice—and what they may be missing.
  3. They encounter additional information held by other people and systems.
  4. They apply the cross-system framework to decide how to connect, communicate, and follow through.

This is not a right-or-wrong quiz

The eventual experience is designed to reflect on a participant’s process, not to score a single answer. It will look at:

  • Recognition
  • Connection
  • Communication
  • Inclusion of lived experience
  • Role clarity
  • Assigned responsibility
  • Follow-up
  • Closing the loop

Evaluation & Future Direction

From Learning Experience to System Learning

The long-term goal is to examine more than self-reported confidence. Future evaluation may explore observable changes in how participants recognize warning signs, connect fragmented information, identify missing perspectives, clarify responsibility, communicate across systems, and close the loop.

  1. Educational Framework
  2. Interactive Experience
  3. Observable Response
  4. Evaluation
  5. System Learning
  6. Stronger Coordination

Poster & Presentation

Academy of Teaching Scholars Education Week

Poster #7

Seeing the Warning Signs:An Interprofessional Child Wellbeing Case Review to Strengthen Cross-System Communication and Accountability

Podium Presentation
Event
Jerry Vannatta, MD Academy of Teaching Scholars Education Week
University of Oklahoma College of Medicine
Author
Tracie Chapman, MSW Candidate
University of Oklahoma
Oklahoma LEND Long-Term Trainee
Interprofessional Educator Foundations Program Participant

Educational Notice

This educational experience uses a fictional case and is intended for education, discussion, and systems learning. It is not a clinical, legal, child-protection, diagnostic, or emergency decision-making tool.

This version does not collect names, medical information, disability status, employers, or any other personally identifiable information.

The Poster Starts the Conversation.The Experience Continues Here.

Seeing the Warning Signs is being developed as a living educational project. Future versions will allow participants to experience fragmented information across systems, practice structured communication, examine responsibility and follow-through, and help identify opportunities for stronger child- and family-centered coordination.

Pilot Version 1.0 | 2026

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