Head Start Health

Head Start Health Services

National Head Start Health Services Institute is an institute to help children with their health in Head Start. Their focus was to have full focus on the Head Start Program Performance Standards and to emphasize health as a major part of a comprehensive Head Start program. The institute also covers program planning and community assessment with regards to the importance of well-child care, the connection between health and school readiness, and the important role of parents and community partners in keeping children healthy and ready to learn. The health service

emphasizes on integrating health into the curriculum. The role of Head Start in accessing health services and establishing a medical home. The staff within the Health Service includes Head Start and Early Head Start Directors, Health Services Managers, Health Services Advisory Committee Members, and parents. The purpose of the Head Start is to increase the knowledge and skills of local program Health Services leaders and directors so they can go back to their agencies with a shared vision and commitment to improve the health of children, families, and staff in Head Start. Head Start's federal-to-local guidance and funding structure under the Department of Health and Human Services is a formula that works for children in poverty. Head Start, as it exists today, is dedicated to preparing at-risk children for a better tomorrow. Head Start has been guided by the belief that poverty is not just an occurrence; rather, it is a state within which unpleasant complexities can hinder the successful development of children. Head Start recognizes that these children's development depends upon a varied and comprehensive approach. With meeting the needs of children in poverty as its goal, Head Start Ð'-- with its Program Performance Standards Ð'-- is guided by regulations to ensure provision of services that best offset the grim realities of poverty.

A major way that Head Start accomplishes its goal is through health services. The health services Head Start provides are sound investments in America's poorest children. They increase poor children's ability to perform in school, reduce the likelihood of untreated illness and suffering, help eliminate health problems that will prevent poor school attendance in subsequent years, and increase the likelihood that poor children will grow up to be healthy, productive members of society. Regrettably, these valuable health services will be reduced or even eliminated if Head Start is block granted to the states. If states gain control of Head Start and Head Start Program Performance Standards are no longer required, close to one million at-risk children will suffer.

While some might argue that health care resources are available, the prevailing reality is that resources and services frequently do not reach children in poverty. Low-income children are less likely to have access to health insurance and good health education. Low-income children are less likely to receive medical care and attention. In fact, children from low-income families with no insurance are more than three times as likely to be without a regular source of health care. Even more alarming Ð'-- children in low income families tend to have poorer health compared to children in high income families. When considering the development of poor children and their future success, the reality is disturbing. The Head Start formula of federal-to-local control, however, through the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), has taken a central role in addressing the problem.

The Head Start Program embraces a proactive approach, which provides needy children access to health care. Head Start is currently guided by the Head Start Program Performance Standards, which incorporates a broad health plan that includes medical, dental, nutritional, and mental health services. These health services are available to almost one million of the nation's most vulnerable children in Head Start through DHHS. Because Head Start was developed with the conviction that children in poverty are less likely to receive health care and that children must be healthy and well nourished in order to learn, the founders of Head Start created a system that would increase these children's chances for success by decreasing their risk factors. It is for this reason, among many others, that it would be a risky and radical scheme to give states control of Head Start and remove the requirement that guarantees health services to these children.

Head Start's approach is a sound method of helping America's poorest children. Unlike the obdurate plan to block grant Head Start to the states, Head Start with its current formula recognizes the interrelationship between each of the developmental domains. For poor children, the development of one or more domain is often neglected. Head Start's approach, therefore, ties each domain − physical, social, emotional, and cognitive − closely together. The creators of Head Start understood that children in poverty generally lack needed health care, which can neglect and hinder the development of a child's physical, social, emotional and/or cognitive progress.

This is critical because development (or difficulty) in one domain can limit or facilitate development in others. A hungry child, for example, will have difficulty concentrating, which will impair his ability to comprehend, and a child with undetected visions problems will have difficulty reading. While vision and hunger are two impediments to learning, the actual list of health-related impediments to learning is extensive. Research repeatedly demonstrates that health issues are a principal hindrance to learning. Healthy, well-nourished children are more ready to learn and can take better advantage of educational opportunities. Poor nutrition has been linked to lasting (impaired) cognitive development and school performance. These facts alone send a wake-up call that Head Start's health services are critical to the success of poor children. To remove or de-emphasis these services will deny our nation's most vulnerable children of what they need, good heath care.

Consider the Head Start child in Dallas, Texas, who was tested for anemia and had an unhealthy hemoglobin gm/dl of 7.0, but through Head Start health services now, has an encouraging hemoglobin gm/dl of 10.7. Another Head Start child had a large inguinal hernia but did not qualify for Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), yet because of Head Start's efforts, the preschooler received the necessary surgery to repair the hernia. Consider the Head Start child in Wilsonville, Oregon, who appeared quiet and withdrawn. Head Start's health services revealed that