April 2009

From the Director:

As the Director of the Child, Adolescent and School Health (CASH) Unit, which is the Unit that produces this e-newsletter, I would like to dedicate this cover article to Connie Carroll-Hopkins, our Director of Early Childhood Initiatives. Connie is retiring from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) in May with over 30 years of public health experience. This article is a celebration of her professional journey that captures so many aspects of the ten essential services of public health.

Public Health Essential Service #7: Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable.

Connie began her career in public health at Tri-County Health Department, where she worked as a public health nurse, first providing home visitation services for women and children, and then, as a pediatric nurse practitioner, providing primary health care services in the health department’s Well Child and EPSDT Clinics.

Public Health Essential Service #3: Inform, educate and empower people about health issues.

As the Manager of Employee Health Services for Longmont Foods, Connie assessed and treated work-related injuries and illnesses, provided employee health and safety training, and administered screening programs, such as hearing and immunization clinics.

Public Health Essential Service #9: Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility and quality of personal and population-based health services.

Connie then moved onto work for Colorado Access, where much of her work focused on quality assurance issues related to meeting identified health care needs through the health plan.

Public Health Essential Service #4: Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems.

Connie joined CDPHE in 2004, as a Nurse Consultant in the Office of Local Liaison, providing technical assistance to 17 local public health agencies. In 2007, Connie transitioned into the role of the Director of Early Childhood Initiatives and, after only two years, Connie has left her mark on CDPHE’s early childhood efforts.  Connie has successfully mobilized community partnerships to support several statewide initiatives, from strengthening health and safety in child care, to increasing the quality of early childhood developmental screening and referral processes, to promoting the integration of health into local early childhood systems-building efforts.

While it is impossible to capture over 30 years of work in a few brief paragraphs, this is an attempt to acknowledge that, in all of these roles, Connie has made important contributions to the field of public health. I, personally, and CDPHE, collectively, celebrate her as a true public health champion.

In This Issue:

	Early Childhood Health Initiatives:   The Early Childhood Health Integration Initiative is an exciting effort to help improve health outcomes for Colorado’s young children.  The Colorado Trust has partnered with Colorado’s 31 Early Childhood Councils and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to launch this five-year initiative to improve health outcomes, including physical, oral and behavioral health, for children birth to eight.   Read More
	Adolescent Health Initiatives: National teen birth rates have been in the news lately, having increased in the last two years after a 14-year decline.  The good news is that the uptick in teen birth rates has not been evident in Colorado, and Colorado’s rate of 38.2 is several points lower than the national rate.  Read More
	Hot Topics and Research: The Smart Meal Program identifies menu items that are lower in fat, saturated fat, calories and sodium and includes components such as beans, whole grains, fruits or vegetables. Participating restaurants display window decals depicting the Smart Meal Seal, identify menu items with Smart Meal logos, receive staff trainings on the process and purpose of the program and participate in quarterly meetings with other Smart Meal restaurants.  Read More

Great News!  

 A new resource is available to those using the Growth and Development Cards.  Go to our new Child, Adolescent and School Health Web site and click on Growth and Development Cards Section.    Click on any of the age groups below 3 years of age.  The first choice will be the actual Growth and Development card and will be titled (age group) Basics.  The second choice is titled Extended Content.  Once you click on this link, you will find the age appropriate Growth and Development card with active links.  Each bulleted topic can be opened and contains additional information including, variations of the information and active resource links.

Please note that we have all ages, breastfeeding through 18 years of age available in the Growth and Development cards, but you will find the expanded information and resources only on the cards through 2 years of age.  We hope to have all the age group cards populated in the near future.

It is our hope that you will find this new resource useful and user friendly.  Please e-mail us with feedback and any issues that you might encounter navigating this exciting new resource.  This new resource would not be possible without the great work and dedication from Nancy Donnelly, Jeff Scott, Barbara Ritchen and many other experts in child development, health, nutrition and safety.