Speaking Out For Children
Dr. Mok’s Notes - March 2006
To advocate for someone means to speak out on their behalf. As healthcare professionals and as citizens interested in children’s health, we have an opportunity to advocate for all children in our region by voicing our support for kid-friendly laws, policies and programs dealing with health issues. We first have to understand what works to make life healthier for children, then we have to find an effective voice to convince others to join in the process of building safer and healthier communities.
One important concept that symbolizes the goal of many advocacy efforts is the idea of a “medical home.” What is a medical home, and how is it important to healthcare of children?
The concept of a medical home for every child evolved from the often complicated and confusing process that families with severely ill or disabled children had to negotiate in order to get the care and services their children needed. Getting the right diagnosis, treatments, medications, specialty care, therapies and school setting for these children is made much easier when everything can be coordinated through a primary care site that really knows the child and family and can speak the language of medicine, insurance, education, as well as the language of the child. But, in a sense, every child has special needs – each child grows and develops in a unique way and needs the same kind of individual understanding and support that a medical home can provide.
A medical home is generally considered to be a primary care practice where a child can get all the health maintenance, preventive care and anticipatory guidance that they need to stay healthy. A medical home also addresses the acute and chronic illness care a child might require for any pediatric or adolescent medical disorder. In a medical home, the goal is that the child and family are cared for by the same clinicians and office staff for a long period of time so that the care becomes efficient, effective, convenient, and includes a high degree of trust and open communication. The medical record then becomes as complete as possible, making possible a regular review of immunizations, growth and development, as well as performance in school milestones. Although hospital care or behavioral healthcare may not be provided by the medical home clinicians, they should be coordinating, reviewing and contributing whenever possible to these important aspects of healthcare for children and teens.
Recent efforts in the Colorado legislature to “streamline” government health programs for children have taken the medical home concept into account. Unfortunately there are still not widely accepted agreements about how this concept should be made a reality for all of Colorado ’s children. Many practical problems remain in terms of improving culturally competent care skills, solving continuous coverage issues, encouraging family compliance etc., in order to make this concept a driving force in the care of children in the Rocky Mountain region. We can help to make the medical home a reality for all children by believing in the concept, which is supported by a growing body of evidence, and by demanding that all children have the right to face life’s challenges with the best health possible.
If you are interested in becoming an advocate for children, you can sign up for the Grassroots Network sponsored by The Children’s Hospital. You will learn how easy it is to stay informed and contribute to better health and safety for kids.
If you are interested in learning more about the medical home concept, you can attend The Childrens Hospital Ethics Conference on April 7th, which this year is entitled A Medical Home for Every Child: Ethics, Law and Policy .
- Dr. Stefan Mokrohisky
