We help maintain health and safety in child care centers!
What does that look like?
- Provide consultation and coaching on health and safety practices to help programs prevent and manage injury and infectious disease
- Develop strategies for inclusion of children with special health care needs
- Support adherence to both child care rules, regulations, and best practices
- Provide health and safety technical assistance and training
- Help facilities develop and review policies and procedures
- Facilitate referrals to community health and social service resources
- Assist programs with quality improvement strategies
Child Care Health Consultants (CCHCs) are trained health professionals with education and experience in both child and community health and early care and education. CCHCs work with early care and education programs to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate strategies to achieve high quality, safe and healthy child care environments.
Why do we do this?
Studies have confirmed that a CCHC improves the health and safety of children in early care and education programs by:
- Increasing staff knowledge of health issues in child care settings
- Increasing compliance with health and safety best practice standards
- Improving the quality of health and safety policies and practices, including handwashing, sanitation, and safe sleep practices
- Increasing the number of children who receive oral, developmental, vision, and hearing screenings and assessments
- Improving children’s access to a medical home, enrollment in health insurance, and up-to-date immunization status
- Strengthening environmental health practices
- Promoting the inclusion of children with special health care needs
