To promote Louisiana's  Early Steps  intervention program, CommunityCARE

recruited parent liaisons to share their personal stories at provider offices.  Parent

liaisons discuss the importance of developmental screening and share personal stories.

For example, one of the liaisons shares her experiences of having a daughter with

developmental disabilities. When her daughter was born, there was no program like

Early Steps that could come into the home and work with her daughter. The parent

liaison describes how she had to drive two hours, twice a week to take her daughter

to therapy with her two year old son in tow. Physicians have responded very posi 

tively to this personalized outreach that validates the need for quality and timely

screening and referral.

CommunityCARE's provider outreach efforts have contributed to more consistent

referrals and provider tracking of referral rates. 

Bright Futures

Bright Futures, initiated by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau over a decade ago, is dedicated to

ensuring that every child deserves to be healthy, and that optimal health involves a trusting relationship

between the health professional, the child, the family, and the community. As part of this initiative, Bright

Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents (2nd Edition), was devel 

oped to provide comprehensive health supervision guidelines, including recommendations on immuniza 

tions, routine health screenings, and anticipatory guidance.  In the upcoming 3rd Edition, each age stage

(infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence) is divided into 11 themes. These themes

can be found at the beginning of each age stage and are carried throughout each well child visit. The

themes are:

  Promoting child development

  Promoting family development

  Promoting mental health and emotional well being

  Promoting nutritional health

  Promoting physical activity

  Promoting oral health

  Promoting healthy sexuality

  Promoting safety and injury prevention

  Promoting community relationships and resources

  Transitions

  Physical examination and screening tests

The new revised guidelines will be available at http://brightfutures.aap.org/web/.

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