Editor’s note: This commentary is by Rick Davis, who is the president of the Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children.
[I] recently read two poignant opinion pieces about Vermont’s health care system. In a piece titled “Affordability is health care’s challenge,” Dr. John Brumsted, CEO of the University of Vermont Health Network, argued that achieving affordability depends upon better coordinated care among all providers and greater investments in primary care, prevention and wellness. In another commentary titled “Home visiting, a first step for a healthier future,” Mary Kate Mohlman, director of Health Care Reform for the Vermont Agency of Human Services and Jolinda LaClair, director of Drug Prevention Policy at the Vermont Agency of Human Services, advocated for support of home visiting as a critical prevention strategy and a way to support the health and well-being of families and their babies from the beginning.
Research backs up Brumsted’s and Mohlman and LaClair’s statements, showing that quality prevention strategies offer the highest rate of return on our health care dollars while contributing to both affordability and a healthier future.
When we discuss health care affordability and a healthier future for Vermonters, we should also recognize that child care providers, the well-trained professionals who are often our children’s first teachers after parents, contribute significantly to the healthy development of Vermont’s children and the well-being of families. In Vermont, 70 percent of children under age 6 have all of their parents in the labor force and are likely to need child care, spending as much as 40 hours a week in a child care setting.
While the child care system does not reach all families with young children, it is the only system that reaches a large proportion of young children and their families on a daily basis. This consistency of care coupled with the strong relationships child care providers have with both the children in their care and their parents — relationships based on trust — makes high-quality child care an especially effective approach to enhancing the health and well-being of our youngest children and their families. Child care professionals are well-positioned to encourage good nutrition, physical exercise and healthy social and emotional development starting at a young age. It is essential care at the right time in a beneficial setting.
We know from brain science that 90 percent of the core development of a child’s brain occurs before age 5 and that healthy brain development can help prevent chronic disease and lead to better lifelong outcomes for both physical and mental health. Child care professionals contribute to healthy brain development in these critical early years.
Trusted child care professionals are also important resources for parents. In Vermont, many of our high-quality child care providers are trained in “Strengthening Families,” an evidence-based approach that contributes to family resiliency. It is this two-generational approach that best leads to healthy outcomes for both children and families.
Brumsted’s call for greater investments in primary care includes pediatric and family practice care. Pediatricians and family practice physicians are some of the most trusted professionals in the health care system. But why stop there? Good medical care happens in a doctor’s office, but good health happens in a community. We can and should be doing even more to coordinate and leverage existing systems and community partners — including high-quality child care programs — to reduce health care costs while also ensuring quality, holistic care for all Vermonters.
Coordination among pediatricians, family practice physicians, home visiting professionals and child care providers is smart business. We should move toward the day when pediatricians and family practice physicians refer patients to home visiting and child care; when home visiting professionals refer families to pediatricians and child care; and when child care providers refer families to home visiting and pediatricians.
Once we reach this level of coordination among all providers and follow sound research by making strategic investments in prevention and early intervention, we will achieve affordability and a healthier future for Vermont.
