Project Description:
HealthyCHILD is a partnership among Children’s Hospital, the UCLID Center at the University of Pittsburgh, and Head Start to provide behavioral healthcare support to young children (age 0-8) by providing teachers, caregivers, parents and administrators with consultation, intervention, mentoring/education and technical assistance. HealthyCHILD is unique in that it provides on-site consultation and support on-site within the child’s classroom, and sometimes in the home. The Northern Panhandle HealthyCHILD specializes in the needs of children with challenging or atypical behaviors, and developmental delays/disabilities.
The operational feature of the HealthyCHILD model is a mobile team composed of interdisciplinary healthcare professionals who are both generalists and specialists. The Northern Panhandle team is composed of a developmental school psychologist, developmental/behavioral healthcare consultant, an interagency liaison, the child’s teacher, and the child’s parent(s). A developmental pediatrician offers consultation to the team.
HealthyCHILD Services are based on individual child and classroom needs. Services may include: direct classroom consultation about children, professional development training and mentoring of staff,
technical assistance, observational assessment, direct service, diagnosis, referral, and parent-
professional team meetings based on program needs-assessment.
On-site, in-vivo training on healthcare issues in the classroom or home setting
Ongoing classroom visits and consultations by developmental consultants regarding changes in classroom climates that will improve child health, development, behavior and adjustment.
Modeling of healthcare strategies for teachers, caregivers and parents.
Written Developmental Healthcare Plan of individual goals and strategies to meet the physical and behavioral needs of referred children.
Written consultation summary report with diagnosis to gain access to behavioral health/mental health wrap-around services
Collaborative meetings between parents, agency staff, and school personnel.
Support at transition meetings to advise on childrens’ entry into kindergarten and first-grade.
Linkages with community resources, various health and human service agencies (e.g., early intervention, wrap-around mental health) and public schools.
Provision of written resources about developmental healthcare.
HealthyCHILD supports have four major objectives: (1) Promoting children’s success in all types of early care and education settings including Head Start, early intervention, early care and education classrooms, and family child care; (2) increasing the skills of teachers and caregivers through both preventive and supportive healthcare strategies; (3) providing consultative and direct services to children with a range of behavioral health concerns and acute and chronic medical conditions; (4) identifying the impact of the child’s healthcare needs on performance and early learning in the early childhood setting.
Keyword(s):
observational assessment, atypical behaviors, in-home consultation,
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Disadvantaged Circumstances, Geographic Areas, Rural/Remote
