By: Kimberly Martini-Carvell Recognizing the importance of innovation in promoting children’s healthy development, the Help Me Grow® National Center (National Center) and Connecticut Children’s Advancing Kids Innovation Program (AKIP) partnered to organize and implement the inaugural 10K Innovation Challenge at the 2017 Help Me Grow National Forum. We invited the 28 Help Me Grow affiliates…
Connecticut Children’s Office for Community Child Health Strengthens Clinical Care Delivery
By: Paul Dworkin, MD Connecticut Children’s Office for Community Child Health (the Office) is a national leader in developing and supporting innovations to strengthen families and community programs to promote healthy development and help children reach their full potential. However, our work is also having a measurable impact inside our hospital walls through innovations that…
Reflections on the 8th Annual Help Me Grow Forum
By: Kimberly Martini-Carvell The Help Me Grow® (HMG) National Forum provides an opportunity for HMG affiliates from across the country to come together to share their work, network, and learn from others, including key experts in the field of early childhood. Approaching the Forum this year, I recognize that we find ourselves at a critical…
An Impressive Reminder That All Measures Matter
By: Paul Dworkin, MD and Erin Cornell, MPH A recently published article, Protective Prevention Effects on the Association of Poverty With Brain Development by Brody and colleagues, in the January issue of the journal, JAMA Pediatrics, has stimulated and even challenged our thinking on strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to promote children’s healthy…
Introducing Connecticut Children’s Advancing Kids Innovation Program
By: Jacquelyn M. Rose, MPH Have you ever wondered why, with so many bright people who have so many great ideas, it seems like some problems just never seem to get solved? We did too, especially when it comes to promoting children’s health. Now, we are setting out to change that. Connecticut Children’s Office for…
Overcoming Adversity
When Veronica Rosario moved to Connecticut in 2015 with her two sons, she felt overwhelmed and struggled to acclimate to her new surroundings. Rosario’s husband passed away after battling cancer and her youngest son was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy just one year after that. “When my husband passed, my mother-in-law said, ‘If you need anything,…
A Look at Our Community Child Health Learning Collaborative
Our new learning collaborative designed to explore best practices with regards to strengthening families and promoting healthy development is off to a great start! Connecticut Children’s Office for Community Child Health launched the collaborative with eight other children’s hospitals to showcase the value-based work that is already being done to keep children from needing medical…
Strengthening Families by Enhancing Protective Factors
By: Susan Roman, RN, MPH Connecticut Children’s Center for Care Coordination (the Center) is committed to strengthening families and communities. The Center has fully embraced the Strengthening Families framework, developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), based in Washington D.C. The framework is a research-informed approach which enhances protective factors in…
A Call to Restore State Funding for Help Me Grow
Paul Dworkin, MD, delivered the following testimony to the Connecticut state legislature’s Appropriations Committee on February 21, 2017, urging lawmakers to restore funding for Connecticut’s Help Me Grow® program. Dr. Dworkin also wrote an opinion article on the same topic that was published in the Connecticut Mirror. Dr. Dworkin piloted the developmental screening, identification and…
Outstanding Achievements in Pediatric Research
By: Paul Dworkin, MD We’ve made remarkable strides in pediatric research in recent decades, and we know that even more impressive advances are on the horizon. Of particular interest to those of us who work at Connecticut Children’s Office for Community Child Health (the Office) are evidence-informed practices that strengthen families to promote children’s optimal…
New Learning Collaborative Shares Lessons in Community Child Health
By: Eminet Gurganus, MPH Connecticut Children’s Medical Center launched Connecticut Children’s Office for Community Child Health (the Office) in 2012 to optimize the health of children by engaging all sectors that are critical to child and family well-being, rather than focusing solely on treating diseases and disorders. In the years since, our work has enhanced…
Help Me Grow Praised in Federal Report
A new joint policy statement, released by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, includes a recommendation for states to adopt a centralized intake, screening and referral process similar to our Help Me Grow® system model. The report, which encourages greater collaboration between federal home visiting programs and federally-required state early intervention…
