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Primary Care/General Pediatrics
Community Health Programs
While high quality clinical care is vital to the children of our community, so is proactively addressing major threats to our children's health today -- problems such as infant mortality, chronic illness including diabetes and asthma, obesity, domestic violence, and intentional and unintentional injuries of children.
Over the past 15 years, the Department of Pediatrics has created a Community Pediatrics Program in partnership with the Washington Heights community. Pediatricians advocate for improving disparities in children's health outcomes in the local community. In turn, the community and its leaders are now active partners in healthcare service delivery to children and families. Our pediatricians work side by side with community agencies to develop important initiatives that affect clinical practice and bring about institutional change.
Future pediatricians are taught the skills to understand community health and to work collaboratively with their communities. All Pediatric residents receive extensive training in principles of community health, cultural competence and advocacy skills through our Community Pediatrics Program, which includes:
Center for Best Practices in Childhood Obesity Prevention at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital has been selected by the New York State Department of Health as one of three State Centers for Best Practices in Childhood Obesity Prevention. A five-year $1.3 million state grant will fund efforts to identify and implement effective ways to reduce the number of obese and overweight school-aged children in the northern Manhattan community and statewide. Nationally, more than 15 percent of children are overweight, and the childhood obesity rate has nearly tripled since 1970. The number of obese and overweight children in medically underserved urban environments is even greater, including close to half of all school-aged children in Washington Heights.
The Center for Best Practices at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital will involve close collaboration with local community organizations, building upon ongoing programs and developing new interventions for children to serve as models across the state.
Best Beginnings is an early childhood support program that promotes positive parenting, the health of children and their mothers, and economic self-sufficiency for families. More than 1,500 Washington Heights families have participated since it was founded in 1994. Best Beginnings is a partnership between the Division of General Pediatrics and Alianza Dominicana, a non-profit community development organization that partners with youth, families and public and private institutions to revitalize economically distressed neighborhoods.Columbia University Head Start provides comprehensive child development and family support services for over 300 children from birth to age five, as well as to their families in partnership with the Mailman School of Public Health Department of Population and Family Health.
Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and the Injury and Violence Prevention Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital develops and implements programs that prevent childhood injury, working collaboratively with five community-based organizations.
Healthy Schools Healthy Families was launched in 2004, with a three-year federal grant of over $2.2 million to the Division of General Pediatrics in collaboration with Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. The Healthy Schools Healthy Families initiative reaches medically under-served children in Northern Manhattan. This school-based collaboration was designed to partner health professionals with school staff and community organizations to assess the needs of children and families and to mobilize resources to address those needs. Today, the program serves some 5,000 children in seven elementary schools (kindergarten through fifth grade) in Washington Heights, West Harlem and East Harlem.
Healthy Schools Healthy Families seeks to cultivate healthy lifestyle behaviors, including physical fitness, good nutrition, and regular doctor visits among school children and their families. In addition, the program is helping to improve the health of children by facilitating access to preventive, primary and specialty care, health insurance and social services. addresses a diverse set of issues including immunizations, mental health, and obesity prevention.
Lang Youth Medical Program recruits 7th graders from local intermediate schools and brings them to the Hospital regularly for a six-year science enrichment program. The mission of the Lang Youth Medical Program is to inspire, support, and motivate young people representative of the neighborhood surrounding Washington Heights to realize their college and career aspirations, especially in the health sciences.
Project STAY (Services to Assist Youth) provides comprehensive services to high-risk and HIV-infected adolescents and young adults. The program has been providing care and counseling for the past 10 years.
Reach Out and Read, since 1997, has enabled over 200 pediatricians and healthcare providers in our Ambulatory Care Network practices to give out more than 100,000 books to 50,000 economically disadvantaged children, many of who are from linguistically isolated families.
Domestic Violence Screening and Intervention, a training initiative developed in collaboration with community partners, is now a standard of care for our pediatricians, with referrals made to community-based organizations serving victims and their families.
Families Together and Project DOCC (Delivery of Chronic Care) form a network of experienced volunteer parents who provide mentoring and support to parents of children with special health care needs.
WIN-ABC for Asthma and the Start Right Coalition are collaborations with community partners and the School of Public Health Department of Population to address asthma and immunizations.
Contact
- Primary Care/General Pediatrics
- (212) 305-6227
