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Child Care Health Consultation

Health and safety are leading indicators of child care quality. Strategies to improve quality in child care include meeting health and safety standards and providing additional child care staff training through the use of child care health consultants (American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP], 2002).	REPORT - June 2011  Parent/Guardian Evaluation of Quality Child Care for Children with Special Needs        2011 Report Highlights REPORT - June 2010  Child Care Provider Needs Assessment       2010 Report Highlights
A child care health consultant (CCHC) is a health professional who has an interest in and experience with children, has knowledge of resources and regulations, and is comfortable linking health resources with facilities that provide education and social services. The role/activities of CCHC’s may include: Teaching providers and parents about health & safety Assessing providers and parents’ needs for health & safety training Meeting on-site and providing telephone assistance Health assessment and referral activities Developing or updating policies & procedures Reviewing providers and children’s health records Managing care and providing resources for children with special health care needs Consulting with children’s health professionals Interpreting standards or regulations and providing technical advice, separate and apart from enforcement.   Source: Caring for Our Children, 3rd Edition The Nebraska Early Childhood Comprehensive System (ECCS) effort, Together for Kids and Families, incorporates strategies to support the development of sustainable infrastructure for child care health consultation to improve the health and safety of child care environments for all children. The Child Care Health Consultation workgroup within Together for Kids and Families has studied the evidence for child care consultation making effective impacts on child well-being, and the policy and systems development needed to make health consultation services available to child care providers statewide.  Work products of the group include: Child Care Prepared Fact Sheets prepared to educate professionals in child caring programs regarding certain health and safety topics ​CHILD CARE PREPARED for asthma ​ ​CHILD CARE PREPARED for diabetes ​CHILD CARE PREPARED for food allergy  ​ ​CHILD CARE PREPARED for mrsa ​CHILD CARE PREPARED for seizures ​ ​Car Seat Recommendations ​CHILD CARE PREPARED to prevent transmission of bugs ​ ​CHILD CARE PREPARED for emergency and disaster preparedness Comparative matrix of models for Child Care Health Consultation which have been used in Nebraska in various settings; State by state comparison of CCHC for Nebraska and neighboring states; CCHC Supportive Evidence summary document describing available evidence from several models which supports either (a) the significance of safety and health issues in child care settings, or (b) the effectiveness of CCHC intervention in improving health and safety issues in child care settings; Report entitled “the Cost of Doing of Nothing”;  Additional CCHC Resources: http://www.education.ne.gov/oec/ectc.html  Documents in PDF format require the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded for free from Adobe Systems, Inc. Perinatal Child & Adolescent Health Lifespan Health Page  Health & Wellness Page