2011 AMCHP and Family Voices National Conference ... - HRSA

2011 AMCHP and Family Voices National Conference: Welcome Plenary and
MacQueen Memorial Lecture
02/13/2011 Omni Shoreham, Washington, D.C.
within our group we are striving to assure more children and families have
access to high-quality early childhood development services. More
importantly we're working to -- trying to do it by tearing down silos within
our own groups, Head Start, early Head Start, Office of childcare and now
home visiting which we co-administer with our colleagues at HRSA which
I have greatly enjoyed as my primary activity coming into the
administration. My main focus is health and Phyllis pointed out
something interesting to me. She said I didn't know they were hiring
pediatricians there and I said yeah, I'm the only one. And I said and I'm
trying to remind HHS of that on a regular basis. We're a health agency.
When you think about the long and storied tradition of health in our
programs, particularly Head Start and I have to throw this in there for
those of you involved with Head Start out there I'm a Head Start child.
When I was here before it was from Head Start and back again, which is
great when I worked with the Head Start bureau. But we really are
striving to tear down the silos and work more horizontally to increase the
effectiveness and efficiency of the work that we do for our youngest
children. My main focus is, of course, health. We have some targeted
areas that we're primarily interested in. It doesn't mean we aren't doing
work in other areas but these are some of the things we're trying to raise
the profile. Obesity prevention among our young children. You saw
earlier is a very important and critical piece to later poor health outcomes
if we don't address it early. Improving developmental and behavioral
screening practices. Asthma prevention, particularly as it relates to second
and third hand tobacco smoke. Injury prevention, of course including
abuse and neglect. And health literacy which we feel like will be a
tremendous aid in helping our parents become much more effective
advocates for their children and we've seen in some programs you can
drive down emergency room visits and have significant cost savings as