|
Children’s
Health ~ West Virginia’s Wealth
Community Conversations on Child Health
Spawn Updated Agenda
Throughout
2006, The Healthy Kids and Families Coalition and
the the West Virginia Chapter of the American
Academy of Pediatrics met with professionals and
parents interested in the health of West Virginia
children. We shared what we have learned about the
health of children in our state and listened to the
child health concerns of West Virginians from around
Charleston, Huntington, Martinsburg, Lewisburg,
Morgantown and Parkersburg. We learned from our
meeting participants how we can support the work of
health, education and social service professionals
in communities across the state. We saw these
meetings as essential to building a network of West
Virginians who want to collaborate to improve the
health of children.
We asked meeting participants to tell us the three top
children’s health issues for their communities.
While expressions of the problems varied, the issues
identified clustered by a large margin around three
topics: 1. obesity and /nutritional concerns 2. the
cost and availability of mental health services for
children and 3. oral health. These top three were
followed closely by topics, variously stated,
pertaining to the accessibility of health care
services: from after-hours accessibility through
physical accessibility to accessibility related to
cost. The need for health education and prevention
made a strong showing. Most identified the need for
parental education, some pinpointed prenatal
education, others identified the need for direct
education of children themselves.
A few responders were concerned about perinatal issues
including low birth weight babies, lack of
breastfeeding, and newborn screening. A large number
of responders were concerned about the prevalence of
child abuse and neglect and drug abuse among West
Virginia parents. A smattering of other issues were
identified.
When asked to identify the most important child health
issues we should work together on as a state, many
responses showed respondent interest in legislation
to increase access to quality health care through
the funding of existing and new programs, especially
those related to oral and mental health for kids.
The primary health issue concerns identified among
the "three top health issues" were repeated on many
of the cards as important issues we should work on.
Our meetings with West Virginians from around the
state have allowed us to develop a Children’s Health
Agenda for the coming year.
Read our full report and agenda
here.
Download the PowerPoint presentation from the
meetings
here.
(5MB)
(In order to view this presentation, you may need to
download and install a free PowerPoint viewer if you
don't have PowerPoint already installed on your
machine.
To download the 2003 PowerPoint Viewer,
click here.)
State
Partners for Child Health
First Lady Gayle Manchin ~ Healthy Kids and
Families Coalition ~ West Virginia Chapter of the American
Academy of Pediatrics ~ Sisters of Saint Joseph Health and
Wellness Foundation ~ Sisters of Saint Joseph Charitable Fund
~WV Council of Churches ~ WVU National Center of Excellence in
Women’s Health ~ WV Community Voices
Meetings were funded with
generous support from the
Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
|
