Child Care Health Consultation Programs in California: Models, Services, and Facilitators

Abstract

Child care health consultation programs can address the health and safety needs for ECE programs, but they need administrative support, trained staff, and sustainable relationships with local ECE programs.

Child Care Health Consultation Improves Health and Safety Policies and Practices

“…The description of the health consultant and health advocate roles, training, and child care health consultation programs are available elsewhere. 7,10,11 Here, we address the question, what is the effect of child care health consultation on child care centers' health and safety policies and practices?…”

Health and Safety Needs in Early Care and Education Programs: What do Directors, Child Health Records, and National Standards Tell Us?

“…They reported 72% of children in North Carolina (Kotch, 2002) and 40% of children in Oregon attending ECE programs (Becker et al, 2005) had immunizations up to date. Together these studies show that there are unmet children's health needs, and that health and safety intervention programs in ECE programs are needed to follow up on positive screening tests, link children with needed services, and identify children at risk for health and developmental problems (Alkon et al, 2008; Cianciolo, Trueblood‐Noll, & Allingham, 2004; Lucarelli, 2002).…”

“…This study was part of a larger project, the Child Care Health Linkages Project (henceforth referred to as the Linkages Project), a 3‐year quasi‐experimental study of the effects of child care health consultation on child health and ECE programs' ability to meet key NHS standards (for a description of the Linkages Project, see Alkon et al, 2008). This paper reports on the comprehensive, multimethod baseline assessment of the health and safety quality of ECE programs and health of the children attending the programs in five of the 20 counties participating in the Linkages Project.…”

Quality Early Education and Child Care From Birth to Kindergarten

“…Child care health consultants are health professionals who are trained to provide technical assistance and develop policies about health issues, such as medication administration, infection control, immunization, and injury prevention. 31 Child care health consultants also can provide developmental, hearing, oral health, and vision screenings and provide assistance with integrating children with special health care needs into ECE settings. 29,32,33 The opportunities to use ECE programs to teach healthy habits (including healthy food choices, increased physical activity, and oral health practices) should not be overlooked.…”