Primary Care Committee
It’s no secret that kids (and even most adults) hate getting shots. And most don’t like going to the doctor much, either. So maybe it’s no surprise that, even though most parents know that vaccinations and regular well-child visits are necessary for healthy children, too many adolescents miss their annual checkups and required immunizations.
Davidson County has excellent rates for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) for children until age 10, when the rate plummets to 59%. And in 2011, nearly 42% of seventh-grade students in Metro Nashville Public Schools had not received their required immunizations by the first day of school.
The Alignment Nashville Primary Care Committee is working to make sure these children don’t miss important preventive care. In 2011, the Primary Care Committee released the Healthy Family Handbook Resource Guide, available online and in print, with information about health insurance, immunizations, primary care providers, well-child checkups, mental health services, dental health, exercise, nutrition, and more. Originally developed in 2010 as a tool for parents of adolescents (ages 10-14), the handbook was reformatted this year to make it applicable to all ages.
Baptist Healing Trust, HCA Foundation, Ingram Foundation, and United Way provided funding to produce and distribute approximately 15,000 copies of the handbook across Nashville during March-May 2011 in partnership with the Nashville Public Television’s NPT Report: Children’s Health Crisis documentary series.
The largest quantity of handbooks (4,875) were distributed by TENNderCare Outreach workers, who conduct targeted outreach in Davidson County with face-to-face contact with more than 70,000 parents, caregiver and children each year in locations such as the DHS office waiting area, Family Resource Centers, WIC clinics, pediatric clinics, various agencies serving our immigrant and refugee populations as well as nearly all of the Metro public schools. Other large distributors included Nashville Public Library (3,000), Metro Nashville Public Schools (3,500), United Way Family Resource Centers (1,700), Nashville Public Television (1,000), Summit Medical Center (300), Metro Public Health Department (250), Early Head Start (100), and YMCA – Urban Services (75).
Next
To increase EPSDT/well-child checkup and immunization rates, the Primary Care Committee plans to:
- Use the Invitation to Participate (ITP) process to conduct a community-wide marketing/outreach campaign during the spring/summer of 2012 to encourage parents to get the required vaccinations for their sixth-grade students before they begin seventh grade.
- Partner with providers across the city to provide “fast-track vaccination clinics” in provider offices. These clinics can also provide a well-child check-up at the same time to increase EPSDT rates among the targeted populations.
Results
“I picked up a copy of the Healthy Family Handbook Resource Guide* recently at my son’s school. This is an excellent resource for new parents, young parents, parents with¬out good access to healthcare information.” – MNPS parent
That praise is the typical reaction to the handbook, as shown by an online parent survey to gather information about the capacity of the manual as a tool for families, the importance of the sections of the manual, and the utility of the forms provided for parents. All of the parent respondents agreed or strongly agreed with each statement below:
- I believe the Healthy Family Handbook would be helpful to ANY family.
- I found information in the Healthy Family Handbook that I have been looking for.
- I will tell my friends about Healthy Family Handbook .
- The handbook helped me to understand what preventive care my child needs.
The committee also conducted an online TENNderCare Outreach Worker survey; 100% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that:
- I believe the Healthy Family Handbook would be helpful to ANY family.
- The Handbook allows me to provide information to families on a wider variety of topics than I can cover without it.
- I am confident that the Handbook will help families understand what preventive care their children need.
- I will use the Handbooks for outreach during Home Visits.
For more information, contact: Anthony Johnson, America’s Promise Collaborative Coordinator.
