Health for kids: What to do

Members of 58 families gathered last Saturday at St. James Family Center to take part in a program designed help take better care of their children's health.

Mernell King, a Head Start child education program director from Missouri, told the audience that she and others worked to form the Health Care Institute to improve health care education for families. The institute is sponsored by Johnson and Johnson, Inc., and the University of California at Los Angeles, where King had gone to school.

King had once served a Head Start program family who had a sick child. The parents didn't understand illnesses well enough to know that the child needed to be hospitalized until it was too late, and the child died, she said.

She and others subsequently formed the institute and developed the educational curriculum designed to improve understanding of illness and when to go to a doctor. Participants should be able to diagnose illnesses better, treat them or seek treatment, and avoid costly, time-consuming trips to hospital emergency rooms, she said. Children will miss less school time, and parents will save time and money, she said.

At the heart of the program is a family health book. Presenters from St. James staff led the participants in an exploration of the book and showed them how to find sections about illnesses their children might have.

They went through commonly held beliefs about medicine, such as, "Feed a cold; starve a fever," and how the beliefs might or might not be scientifically sound.

"It you don't know, you have to ask a doctor or nurse," said Carol Carver, current health service director of the family center and a trained nurse.

The facilitators also discussed and demonstrated thermometers--there was a free digital for each family, and they discussed the best way to give accurate doses of medicine--a medicine dispenser, not a dining spoon.

Participants left with bags of health care supplies donated by local businesses and service clubs.

As part of the program, St. James staff will survey participants in coming months to learn how they were able to use the book and information. The responses will be forwarded to UCLA for refinement of the program.