Infant & Child Health

Major Focus Areas

Children 1st

Children 1st is Georgia’s welcome to all children. Children 1st provides families with a single point of entry into a wide range of public health and community programs. The focus is on children ranging from birth to the age of five, because the earliest years in life are critical to a child’s development. Children 1st provides family support and addresses conditions in a child’s environment that may negatively impact that child’s overall well being. Children who are at risk for poor health and environmental outcomes are provided with a Children 1st family assessment, which usually takes place in the family’s home. Once needs are identified, Children 1st then assists the family with resources to meet their needs. Referrals are made to other programs and services to support the child and the family.

Healthy Child Care Georgia Project

Healthy Child Care Georgia is a collaborative effort among health professional; child care providers, regulatory agencies, other organizations, and families working in partnership to improve the health and well-being of children in child care settings. Information, ideas, resources and activities are shared for the purposes of promoting safe and healthy child care environments for all children, and quality child care training and accurate health and safety information for all child care providers.

Hearing and Vision Screening Program

The mission of Hearing and Vision Screening Program is to reduce the illness and associated academic failure from vision and /or hearing defects through early detection, referral and intervention. Training and technical support services are provided to public health nurses, school nurses, hospital staff and some private agencies to upgrade their professional skills in screening.

Newborn Screening for Metabolic and Sickle Cell Disorders

The Newborn Screening for Metabolic and Sickle Cell Disorders program maintains and supports a comprehensive, statewide system to assure that all newborns receive screening for seven inherited metabolic diseases and sickle cell disorders, and that health care providers comply with newborn screening legislation to help reduce deaths and disabilities associated with these diseases. The system includes: testing for these disorders by the Georgia Public Health Laboratory (at no charge); retrieval and follow-up of all infants with positive results; diagnosis and treatment; and counseling. Education and training about requirements of the newborn screening legislation, and how to meet those requirements, is available for all providers. The program is monitored for continuous quality improvement.

School Health

The mission of the School Health program is to provide education and development programs to school health personnel in order to assure high quality health care, health education and other services contributing to the health of children in the school environment.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Other Infant Death Information and Counseling

The program provides new parents and infant caretakers with health information to reduce the risk of SIDS. SIDS is the number one cause of death in infants between one month and one year of age. For this reason, it is important to focus on prevention activities related to SIDS and to support families at the time of the birth of a child.

Universal Newborn Hearing Screening

The mission of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention is to develop and sustain a comprehensive coordinated system in Georgia by which hospitals, primary health care providers, and Public Health work together to screen infants and newborns for hearing loss, to link children and families to needed follow-up and intervention services, and to share essential information about Universal Newborn Hearing Screening with parents, physicians, audiologists, and the general public.