Preserving a precious resource; coordinated efforts improve opportunities for Tennessee's children

Food and Nutrition, Jan, 1987 by Dawn K. Sadler

Preserving A Precious Resource...

"A few years ago, we were hearing alot about the preservation of our natural resources. However, we were hearing very little about our most precious resource--one we often take for granted, and that is our children," says Susie Baird, coordinator for a special effort in Tennessee known as the Healthy Children Initiative.

The Healthy Children Initiative hadits beginning in 1980 when Governor Lamar Alexander convened a task force on mental retardation. In 1981, this task force made 27 recommendations to improve health services for children in Tennessee.

These recommendations gave impetusto the creation of the Governor's Task Force on Healthy Children. Designed to assure that every child has the opportunity to be born healthy and to grow up healthy, the task force included representatives from public and private agencies and was headed by the Governor's wife, Honey Alexander.

"Basically, what the task force didwas to look at existing services for children, see where they needed to be expanded or better coordinated, and look for new ways to teach parents and children about good health," say Baird.

As a result of the task force's work,additional state support has been provided for a variety of services and activities. Tennessee's Healthy Children Program is a good example of how health care and food assistance agencies can work together to enhance the quality of children's lives.

Starting with

healthy mothers

The first step toward ensuringhealthy children begins with healthy mothers. In 1982, Tennessee successfully established a statewide prenatal care program. On average, there are about 65,000 deliveries in Tennessee each year, and county health departments--working with private physicians and hospitals across the state--provide prenatal care for about 13,000 of these women.

"Many of the women wouldn't receiveprenatal care if it were not available through the health departments," says Baird. "A special focus of the statewide prenatal program has been encouraging pregnant women to begin care at the earliest possible opportunity.

"Research shows that women whobegin prenatal care in their first trimester are less likely to have a low birthweight baby," Baird adds. "Low birthweight is one of the leading factors in infant mortality, mental retardation, and other handicapping conditions."

Prompt enrollment of eligible patientsin USDA's Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has been a priority of the prenatal program.

WIC is one of two USDA supplementalfood programs operating in Tennessee. The other program is the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), which provides packages of USDA-donated foods.

The state of Tennessee receives approximately$3,349,000 monthly from USDA in support of these two programs, enabling the state to serve more than 92,000 low-income women, infants, and children monthly.

"Through these programs and othernutrition counseling and education efforts, we encourage our prenatal clients to eat right," says Baird. "This, along with other educational activities, helps assure the mother that she is doing everything possible to have a healthy baby."

Regular followup

is also stressed

In addition to focusing on good prenatalcare, Tennessee is also working to make sure medical followup and nutrition guidance are available during children's earliest years.

The state has implemented an infantfollowup program, which has two major goals. One is to make sure that as many children as possible have a consistent source of preventive health care and a place to go when the child is sick. When possible, this is a private physician office; but if a physician is not available, partnerships between local health departments and private physicians are established.

The second goal is to providefollowup services to children with special needs. "The infant followup program is designed especially for infants who are at risk because of low birth weight or other medical problems," says Baird. "By following up on certain infants after they leave the hospital, we can be sure they continue to receive the health care they need as they grow."

The followup is done by the localhealth department working in cooperation with medical home physicians. In some areas of the state, specially trained workers visit the parents and children in their homes. In other areas, nurses perform the followup in the clinic.

Whether it occurs in the clinic or inthe home, infant followup workers teach parents how to cope with the demands of children whose medical problems or handicaps require special treatment.

Teaching parents how to take careof their baby, both physically and emotionally, is another component of the infant followup program. Parents learn about various services available to them for their baby not only through the health department but through other agencies as well.

Since low birth weight and slowweight gain are problems for many of these infants, workers teach parents about good nutrition and give them suggestions for feeding their babies. In some cases, the worker may determine the mother and child are eligible for WIC or CSFP and will help them apply.