Forum: Policies can keep kids healthy

BY MICHELE COREY and JANE ZEHNDER-MERRELL

December 15, 2007 04:00 am

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The Kids Count in Michigan report released last week shows we as a state cannot afford to continue the status quo for children and families. Unless Michigan acts more decisively over the next few years the state will fail to meet many of the national standards for healthy children, families and neighborhoods.

Michigan's lack of progress toward the national Healthy People 2010 targets suggests that our policymakers must rethink their priorities. The message of the 2007 Kids Count report is very basic: Children, families and communities need to be healthy. Their health reflects the conditions in which they live, and the resources available to support them. Public policy decisions directly affect those conditions and resources.

The 18 targets examined in this report reflect conditions for children in Michigan and its communities from infancy through adolescence. The news isn't good. The 2007 Data Book shows that Michigan rates worsened in the areas of child abuse and neglect, low birth-weight babies, overweight high school students and a companion problem of too few kids exercising vigorously on a regular basis.

Furthermore, successes were not universal. There were substantial disparities by race, with African American children facing double the risk of Caucasian children, and sometimes more, on almost every indicator.

The targets Michigan has achieved are areas that have received priority attention in the Legislature and by communities across the state: fully immunizing our toddlers, teen pregnancy and physical fighting among high school students. The message is clear: When we put resources behind reaching a target, we see some success.

Locally, the data book found that more children are living in poverty now compared to a few years ago in every northwest Michigan county. Because living in poverty places children at higher risk for other negative outcomes, this is clearly of concern. However, there is cause for celebration throughout the region, and hope for more success.

For example, Grand Traverse County has already achieved the Healthy People 2010 target for teen pregnancy and the rate of young children hospitalized for asthma. The share of child victims of abuse and neglect remains better than the target, but vigilance must be maintained to turn around the worsening trend between 2000 and 2006.

How can Grand Traverse County meet other targets by 2010? Here are two examples:

1. Accelerate the trend of improvement and ensure that 30 more moms are provided prenatal care in the first trimester of their pregnancy.

2. Turn around the trend toward more low birth-weight babies, and provide a foundation of support to 25 more moms before and during pregnancy so that their babies will be born at a healthy weight.

These are reachable targets for Michigan and for the Traverse City area. But we must work together as a state with help from Gov. Granholm and our legislators and as a community to reach them. Our children -- the future of our state -- deserve this attention.

The Kids Count in Michigan Data Book is available on the Web at: www.milhs.org.

About the authors: Michele Corey is director of community advocacy at Michigan's Children, which provides intensive technical assistance and support to local community groups. Jane Zehnder-Merrell, a senior research associate at the Michigan League for Human Services, has been the Michigan director of Kids Count since 1994.

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