1.3 COMMUNICATE YOUR ROLE
Health departments oversee a variety of programs that promote safe, stable, and nurturing environments and relationships for children – this primary prevention role is a significant contribution to addressing child maltreatment in your state. It is important to communicate this to stakeholders and policymakers.
Programs that prevent abuse and neglect before they occur are as important as interventions and services for children who experience maltreatment. Communicate the critical role you play as experts in, and implementers of, primary prevention programs. Additionally, essential public health services
that your health department can provide will help to enhance all child maltreatment prevention efforts in your state. Services you can provide as a health department to enhance prevention efforts include:
- Gather data on child and family health and well-being - from sources such as prevention programs/services, hospitals and emergency departments, vital statistics, behavioral and school-based health assessments.
- Direct service provision - home visitation programs, assuring anticipatory guidance in well-baby visits, linking at-risk families to services (e.g., mental health or substance abuse treatment, parent training, early intervention for children with disabilities).
- Identification of at-risk populations - identify children with developmental delays or other risk factors.
- Informing policy - for example, evidence shows that hospital-based abusive head trauma (shaken baby) prevention programs (Pennsylvania Abusive Head Trauma Prevention Program) for parents is an effective strategy for reducing child maltreatment.
- Convening stakeholders - leveraging existing structures, such as the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Initiative (ECCS), to convene child maltreatment stakeholders for action.
- Social marketing/education campaigns - educate the public about the connection between child maltreatment and long-term negative physical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes.
Consider
- What agency has the lead for child maltreatment prevention in the state? What is your relationship with this agency?
- How does the health department contribute to child maltreatment prevention efforts in your state (e.g., access to children and families, providing and synthesizing data)?
- What state mandates, if any, establish or support the health department role (e.g., home visiting state funding, shaken baby prevention education legislation)?
- What other mandates establish opportunities to take a role in child maltreatment prevention (e.g., designated lead for the Federal 2010 Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program )?
2. Resources