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Families have an unmatched impact on their child’s health, especially during the early years of life when children’s rapidly developing brains are laying the groundwork for their future health and wellbeing. To be the best advocates for their children, families need the right supports, whether they be access to public assistance programs like Medicaid and housing,…
With 2018 drawing to a close, we’re taking stock of the stories you found most engaging over the past year. From the opioid epidemic to mandated reporting to bedsharing and safe sleep, this year’s top stories tackle tough issues and are filled with passionate voices seeking to drive change in children’s health systems. Thank you for…
Too Many Missed Opportunities A single mom from Alabama with four children lacks the resources needed to correct the cause of lead poisoning in her home. Her 3-year old’s lead levels spike, requiring intensive bi-weekly treatments at a hospital that is more than four hours away. Her at-risk 5-year-old goes more than five months before she is…
Early childhood data—three words that can add stress to any effort to improve early childhood health outcomes. Stress from collecting, analyzing, sharing and reporting it. If we can find ways to mitigate that stress, early childhood data has unparalleled potential. After all, a functioning data system can help improve the quality of services that support…
DeAndre was born into a neighborhood where drug use was common, and poverty and gang violence were pervasive. He is one of too many children born into circumstances that illustrate why families need better supports and better systems. DeAndre’s grandfather, David Armstrong, is a family partner on the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Collaborative Improvement and Innovation…
“There’s a gap in our early childhood screening system,” says Dawn Alexander, M. Ed., the Preschool Expansion Coordinator for Delaware’s Colonial School District, one of the place-based communities in the NICHQ-led Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Improvement and Innovation Network (ECCS CoIIN). “My colleagues and I keep seeing 3-year-old children entering pre-school with developmental delays, and…
Too many children are losing parents and caregivers to a drug that affects millions of Americans every year. Foster care placements have risen alongside opioid use disorder and death rates, and opioid-related neonatal abstinence syndrome has skyrocketed, leaving children as the youngest casualties of a nationwide epidemic. The crisis is especially prevalent in rural and economically…
Quick Info on Vermilion Parish Parent Academies What: A series of educational sessions covering key early childhood topics Where: Schools, health centers, libraries When: After work hours, twice a month Who: Parents of children ages 0-4 How: Through a community-based, collaborative approach Parents are their child’s earliest teachers, setting the stage for a healthy future…
Before joining NICHQ as Chief Health Officer in May 2018, Elizabeth Coté, MD, MPA, spent over a decade working to improve health in vulnerable communities across the world. From rebuilding the health infrastructure of war-torn Iraq to managing the opioid epidemic in a northern Maine community, Coté’s efforts revolved around one central goal. “Every day,…
Parents are their children’s best advocates. They’re also those who navigate the systems we seek to improve. When we empower parents to partner with us, we can best understand their needs and respond with practical and powerful solutions. Nicole Hopkins, a New Jersey team lead for the NICHQ-led Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Collaborative Improvement and…