Throughout 2023, members of the NC InCK Team collaborated with the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) to create a training module that educates on supporting children’s unique needs in a family-centered way. NC InCK’s participation in this NC AHEC training series (which is available for free statewide) was an exciting opportunity to share our expertise on child and family health beyond NC InCK’s five Medicaid counties (Alamance, Durham, Granville, Orange, and Vance).
Beyond introducing the audience to NC InCK, the training focused on two areas that are both challenging to navigate and fundamental to pediatric health: food security and early childhood development and education. The training is intended to educate community health workers and other family-serving professionals across North Carolina about:
- The importance of food security to children’s long-term health and well-being
- Critical resources that promote food security and ensure access to early intervention services and high-quality early childhood education programs
- The importance of high-quality, developmentally appropriate early childhood education to children’s long-term health and well-being
- Best practices in helping families navigate application and enrollment processes for federal nutrition programs, early intervention screening programs, and childcare/early childhood education services
If you are interested in learning more or taking the training for yourself find the course catalogue here or register at this link.
Authors:
Eleanor Wertman, MPH: Eleanor is the Care Integration Director for North Carolina Integrated Care for Kids (NC InCK). She holds an MPH from UNC Gillings School of Public Health and has a background in healthcare quality improvement and value-based care. Before joining the InCK team, Eleanor worked for UNC Population Health, where she developed programs to address UNC patients’ nonclinical barriers to health and implement systemwide social drivers of health screening. She now leads the implementation of the NC InCK care management model and the NC InCK alternative payment model.
Josie Hatley, MPH: Josie is the Associate Director for Strategy and Operations for NC InCK. Josie holds an MPH in Maternal, Child, and Family Health, along with a Certificate in Innovation for the Public Good from UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Josie works to understand the systems that impact children during early childhood within the context of the families, caregivers, and communities around them.