HEAD START®

Well-Child Health Care: Making It Happen

Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community

Table of Contents | Preface | Introduction | Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3
| Continuing Professional Development | Resources

Introduction

Overview

Purpose

Many of us think of health care as something we need only when we are sick. But "well-care" can keep children and adults healthier by preventing disease and catching health problems sooner. Everyone in Head Start—families, staff, and health care providers—plays an important role in promoting health. Through advocacy and collaboration building, the health care system can be changed to best meet the needs of the community it serves.

Well-Child Health Care: Making It Happen can help Head Start staff:

• Develop a partnership between families and providers at a "medical home," where children have a continuous, ongoing source of accessible medical care.
  
  
• Evaluate the quality of their program's screening and exam practices and communication with parents, and thereby develop strategies for improvement.
  
  
• Understand and explain the importance of well-child health care to other staff, parents, and the community.
  
  
• Support parents in obtaining follow-up services for identified health needs and track provision of well-child services.
  
  
• Develop strategies to work with parents to advocate for needed health services and build collaborations among existing service providers to improve access for children and families.

Audience

This guide can be used by all staff; with a special importance for those staff members with responsibility for health services or building community partnerships around health issues.

Note:

Trainings should be conducted by staff or consultants who are well-trained and experienced in health education, medicine, nursing, dentistry, or another area of public health or clinical care. The trainer or coach must be well-versed in the Early and Periodic, Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) requirements of your state. He or she should be provided with background materials such as the appendices, fact sheets, and publications listed in the Resources section.

Performance Standards

The Head Start Program Performance Standards require grantees and delegate agencies to attend to well-child health care in many ways. These include:

• Following a timeline for screenings and examinations, linking a child to a "medical home," and bringing a child up-to-date on immunizations.
  
  
• Providing link-ups with prenatal care, delivery services, and postpartum care for pregnant women.
  
  
• Tracking each child to ensure that immunizations and regular well-child exams are kept up-to-date and that follow-up plans for identified conditions are carried through.
  
  
• Providing mental health services for Head Start children and supporting mental wellness by providing staff and parents with education on mental health issues.
  
  
• Encouraging and supporting the active leadership of parents in their children's health care.
  
  
• Providing families with comprehensive information on available community resources and assisting parents through education to become well-informed, effective health care consumers.
  
  
• Supporting and encouraging parents to advocate for change in the health care system where needed—making it more responsive to their needs.
  
  
• Taking active steps—as Head Start staff members—in forming collaborative alliances among existing community resources to streamline delivery of services and promote access for families.

Orientation to the Guide

This guide, Well-Child Health Care: Making It Happen has eight sections:

• Module 1: What Is Well-Child Health Care and Why Is It Important?
  
  This module covers the importance of well-child health care and linking a family to a "medical home." It also teaches participants skills in reviewing health records and communicating identified needs to parents.
  
  
• Module 2: Partnerships in Ongoing Well-Child Health Care
  
  This module covers the importance of supporting parents as health care consumers by accessing the available services in their communities. Screening skills will be sharpened for Head Start programs that have decided to perform screenings on-site.
  
  
• Module 3: Advocacy, Action, and Access
  
  This module covers the importance of reaching out into the community for collaborations that could improve delivery of services to children and families, and advocating for change where services are missing. Participants will also learn the jargon of the health care system.
  
  
• Continuing Professional Development
  
  
• Resources
  
  
• Appendix A: Recommendations for Well-Child Health Care (pdf/ 171 KB)
  
  
• Appendix B: Well-Child Health Care Fact Sheets (pdf/ 166 KB)
  
  
• Appendix C: Blank Records & Forms (pdf/414 KB)
  
  

Module Sections

Each module provides learning opportunities for workshops (12-25 people) and coaching (two-three people) sessions. Each module has the following sections:

• Outcomes: The skills to be acquired by staff who participate in a module's activities.
  
  
• Key Concepts: The main ideas the module covers. These sections can be used as handouts or overheads.
  
  
• Background Information: Elaborates on the Key Concepts. This section can be used as a coaching resource or as an outline for a presentation to a group. Background Information sections can also be used for handouts or as overheads in workshop sessions.
  
  
• Questions for Discussion/Reflection: Listed at the end of each Background Information section. These questions can be used to initiate discussion in workshops and coaching sessions, or serve as prompts for staff journals.
  
  
• Learning Activities: Build the skills needed to achieve the module's outcomes. Managers can choose to use workshop activities, coaching activities, or a combination. Activities should be adapted to a group's size and composition: the management team, staff from one component area, or staff and board members together.
  
  
• Points to Consider: Issues listed at the end of each activity to keep in mind or to use as discussion prompts while working through the activity.
  
  
• Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice: Additional activities to reinforce the expected outcomes and help to transfer skills from the training sessions to the work setting.
  
  
• Handouts: Included at the end of each module. Trainers should reproduce the handouts as needed for participants.

Definition of Icons

Coaching - A training strategy that fosters the development of skills through tailored instruction, demonstrations, practice, and feedback. The activities are written for a coach to work closely with one to three participants.

Workshops - A facilitated group training strategy that fosters the development of skills through activities which build on learning through group interaction. These activities are written for up to 25 participants working in small or large groups with one or two trainers.

Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice - Activities assigned by the trainer immediately following the completion of the module to help participants review key information, practice skills, and examine their progress toward expected outcomes of the module.

Continuing Professional Development - Follow-up activities for the program to support continued staff development in the regular use of the skills addressed in a particular training guide. They include:

1) opportunities tailored to the participant to continue building on the skills learned in the training; and

2) ways to identify new skills and knowledge needed to expand and/or complement these skills through opportunities in such areas as in higher education, credentialing, or community educational programs.

AT A GLANCE

Modules	Activity	Time	Materials
Module 1: What Is Well-Child Health Care and Why Is It Important?	Activity 1: What If There Were No Well-Child Health Care? (W)	20 - 30 minutes	Key to Activity 1 (For Trainer Only)
	Activity 2: What, Why, and How of Screenings and Exams (C)	45 - 90 minutes	Appendix B
	Activity 3: The Well-Child Health Care Fact Game (W)	30 - 45 minutes	Question & Answer Key (For Trainer Only)
	Activity 4: The Importance of Well-Child Health Care and a Medical Home (C)	30 - 45 minutes	Handout A
	Activity 5: Sam's Story Part One - Assessing Need (W)	20 - 30 minutes	Handout B
	Activity 6: Reviewing Health Records (W)	30 - 60 minutes	Handouts C: Parts 1-5 Appendix B
	Activity 7: Explaining the Meaning of Screenings and Exams, and Ensuring Follow-up (W)	45 - 60 minutes	Handouts D-1 and D-2 Appendix B
Module 2: Partnerships in Ongoing Well-Child Health Care	Activity 1: Locating Services in Your Community (W)	30 - 45 minutes	Handout E; Performance Standards Section 1304.20
	Activity 2: Taking Inventory of Screenings and Exams (C)	20 - 30 minutes	Handout F
	Activity 3: Everyone's Role in Well-Child Health Care (W)	30 - 60 minutes	Handout G
	Activity 4: Exploring the Challenges (C)	30 - 45 minutes	Handout H
	Activity 5: Well-Child Health Care Dilemmas (W)	30 - 60 minutes	Handout I
	Activity 6: Sam's Story Part Two - Supporting Parents (W)	30 - 60 minutes	Handout J
	Activity 7: Observing is Screening (C)	60 - 90 minutes	Handout K
	Activity 8: Program Planning (W)	30 - 60 minutes	Handout L Appendix B
	Activity 9: Keeping Up - Tracking Health Services (W)	60 - 90 minutes	Handout C (from Module 1) Handout M; Appendix A Key to Activity 9 (For Trainer Only)
Module 3: Advocacy, Action, and Access	Activity 1: Sam's Story Part Three - Advocating for Services (C)	60 - 90 minutes	Handout N
	Activity 2: Pathways to Care (W)	45 - 60 minutes	Handout O
	Activity 3: Services for Children (C)	30 - 60 minutes	Handout O
	Activity 4: JUMP: Jargon Used by Medical Providers (W)	30 - 60 minutes	Handout P Handout Q

 

(W) = Workshop Activity

(C) = Coaching Activity