Keystone Children & Family Services
Capital Area Head Start News
Capital Area Head Start partners with UCLA/Johnson & Johnson to train Head Start parents to handle children's common ailments
Medicaid could save millions of dollars annually if Head Start parents are provided with easy-to-understand health care guidance, according to a first of its kind study by the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Institute. Capital Area Head Start, a program of Keystone Service Systems, Inc., was recently selected by the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Institute to participate in this new training program that educates parents on ways to properly manage the health needs of their children and thereby reduce unnecessary emergency room and clinic visits.
The goal of this program is to educate 12,000 Head Start families nationwide by the end of 2005. Researchers at UCLA estimate that each emergency-room visit costs an average of $200 and clinic visits $30. This means that the program (Medicaid) could potentially save $2.4 million annually in direct costs associated with unnecessary emergency room and clinic visits.
“Head Start parents, like all good parents, want only the best for their children. Our studies show that by raising the health literacy of Head Start parents, they could immediately apply that knowledge to become the first line of defense in taking care of their children’s health,” said Ariella Herman, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer of Operations and Decision Sciences at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and lead investigator of the studies.
Head Start families who participated in the health care training program reported a 37% drop in visits to health care providers and a 48% decrease in emergency room visits in the six months following the training. In addition to a decrease in visits to health care providers and emergency rooms, there are many other benefits related to this study. Some of the benefits include: increased awareness of health warning signs, better understanding of common childhood illnesses, better communication with the child's primary care physician, fewer absences at school, fewer absences at work, and, most of all, increased parent confidence related to caring for their children.
"We are excited and honored to be selected to participate in this training program and expect to see positive outcomes for our Head Start children, families, and the community" says Jo Pepper, Executive Director Capital Area Head Start and graduate of the Head Start – Johnson & Johnson Management Fellows Program at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
To learn more about the Head Start program and obtain contact information click here.
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