Advocacy and Special Programs

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=118 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="120c0ba1egerdp.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000066" FACE="GeoSlab703 Lt BT" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="_"><U><B>HOME</B></U></A></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Garamond" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Garamond" >   </FONT><B>C</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Garamond" ><B>HILD</B></FONT><B> H</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Garamond" ><B>EALTH</B></FONT><B> S</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Garamond" ><B>ERVICES</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>  </B><B> </B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Advocacy and Special Programs</B></div> <div> Anne Phillips, Director<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000066" FACE="GeoSlab703 Lt BT" > </FONT></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=362 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> Advocacy and Special Programs</div> <bR> <div> An important part of Child Health Services' mission is advocacy.  Advocacy activities implemented by CHS focus specifically on children living in poverty, but also include advocacy efforts designed to impact the health and well-being of all children living in New Hampshire.  CHS has an impressive record of leadership on a range of child health issues, including the development of high-quality and affordable pre-school and child care options, community water fluoridation, and access to reproductive health care services for adolescents.  The CHS Board of Directors remains committed to this component of the agency's work through the establishment of the board/staff Advocacy Committee, and has approved a set of advocacy goals for the agency.  The following activities demonstrate some of the ways that CHS staff work on behalf of our clients and all the state's children both inside and outside our agency's walls:</div> <bR> <div> Covering Kids and Families</div> <div> In 2002, Child Health Services became the lead agency on a project funded by Robert Wood Johnson's Covering Kids and Families initiative and the HNH Foundation.  Working with the NH Healthy Kids Corporation, and in collaboration with the Manchester Community Health Center and the NH Minority Health Coalition, CHS manages a team of three bilingual outreach workers who are testing strategies for better identifying children from racial, linguistic and cultural minority families eligible for the Healthy Kids health insurance program.  Once identified, the outreach workers work closely with the families to assist them with completing the necessary forms for application to the program.  Since it inception, the project has helped over 350 families obtain Healthy Kids health insurance for their children.  The project is working through hospitals, schools and community agencies and events to identify eligible families.  While currently in its fourth and final year, CHS is working to institutionalize access to health insurance for marginalized families through the Manchester Health Link project.  Health Link is an initiative of the Healthy Manchester Leadership Council that seeks to increase access to a medical home and health insurance for children in the community through a centralized referral site and limited case management for referred families.   </div> <bR> <bR> <div> Cultural Competency Committee</div> <bR> <div> Child Health Services believes that all children have the right to equal access to health care, and that the diversity of our staff and clients serves to strengthen our agency and the community at large.  With Manchester's changing demographics, more and more of Child Health Services' clients come from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds.  In order to ensure the highest quality of care, the CHS staff must be prepared to provide culturally appropriate services to these clients.  Coordinated by the agency's Cultural Competency Committee, agency-wide activities are implemented that are designed to increase the staff's cultural competency and strengthen the services that the agency provides to all clients.  These activities included an extensive and ongoing series training workshops designed to increase staff knowledge and skills around providing culturally competent services, the formalization of a set of guidelines for the use of interpreters in our programs, and the translation of a large number of the most important and frequently used forms into the four most common languages spoken by our clients.  In 2005, CHS was awarded the NH Minority Health Coalition's <B>Community Health Investment Award</B>, for outstanding efforts toward the elimination of health disparities in our community.  </div> <bR> <bR> <div> The Manchester Child Health Law Program </div> <bR> <div> Children, especially those living in poverty, often face social and economic problems that have a great impact on their health and development, but that fall outside the influence of many pediatricians.  Sub-standard housing, lack of health insurance, denial of needed income or nutritional benefits, violence, lack of access to special education services, and immigration issues all can negatively impact child health and threaten family stability in a profound way.  And despite laws designed to ensure that the poor have access to the services they need, they are often denied access to those services. Poor families and their pediatricians don't have the time or skills to negotiate with the institutions that administer these programs, nor do they have the training and resources needed to research the relevant statutes and regulations in order to determine whether the denials are legal. </div> <bR> <div>  To respond to this situation, Child Health Services has established a program designed to address this situation.   The Manchester Child Health Law Program is a collaborative project between CHS and New Hampshire Legal Assistance (NHLA) and is designed to combine the skills of pediatricians who serve low-income children with those of attorneys who can help solve civil legal issues that impact child health.  Over the past year, CHS and NHLA have worked together to begin the implementation of this important project.  With funding from the Endowment for Health, the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust, and the Manchester Regional Community Foundation, the project was launched, providing CHS staff and clients with full-time access to legal aid services from NH Legal Assistance.  These services take place within the context of CHS's comprehensive, multidisciplinary team and are often facilitated by CHS's family support workers.  The project also includes providing training to CHS staff to enhance their skills in identifying child health issues that may need the attention of an attorney.  Since the program's official launch in August 2005, the NHLA attorney has received over 50 referrals from CHS staff.  In addition, she has conducted 13 training sessions for CHS staff on a range of topics including Fair Housing laws, local welfare, special education, Children's Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF).  </div> <bR> <div> Taking advantage of NH Legal Assistance's statewide presence, CHS and NHLA will be working together over the coming year to support the expansion of this program to other community health sites, using the lessons learned here in Manchester to benefit low income children and families around the state.   </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>