Community Child Health

Community Child Health is designed to orient physicians, nurses, social workers, public health officers, and allied professionals to the world of children and to help them devise practice styles and priorities in concert with the current needs of children. Palfrey's central thesis is that society has lost sight of children, and, as a result, we have done a very poor job of structuring the environment to nurture them as they grow. Ironically, communities are breaking apart just at the time when families need them the most, leaving children vulnerable, confused, and isolated. The health consequences include poor school performance, behavioral problems, injuries, early sexuality, drug and alcohol use, weapons possession, homicide, and suicide.The medical professions can have a major impact in reversing these social and health problems. Palfrey has designed this book to equip such professionals with the conceptual frame, data base, and practical tips and tools that will result in improved results in the growth and development of children. It is an advocate's manual, a cookbook for the program planner, and a guide for the child health professional seeking improvements in community child care.

"Judith Palfrey is that rare physician who sees beyond the examining table, and understands how profoundly the health of children depends on the health of communities. Community Child Health will be a major contribution to efforts to assure that even children growing up in high-risk environments will be able to become productive and responsible adults."- Lisbeth B. Schorr, Director Harvard University Project on Effective Services Author of Within Our Reach: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage, "This book offers a thoroughly sensible approach to the problems of our children--an effort to connect them to others (doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers) who might be of help to them."- Robert Coles, M.D. University Health Services Harvard University, "This landmark book should be read by everyone interested in general pediatrics and community health....Enhancing our understanding of the past and clarifying the present, this powerful book provides the building blocks and the practical guidelines with which to build a better health care future for our children."- Morris Green, M.D. Perry W. Lesh Professor of Pediatrics Indiana University Medical Center, "What an excellent overview of the problems and solutions for children and families! This wonderful volume pleads for a return to family-centered communities of all kinds....How has a society like ours come to such neglect of its future generations? This volume can point us back toward successful solutions"-T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. Professor Emeritus Children's Hospital, Boston, ?As an overview for the novice in the field, Community Child Health is a useful primer. It incorporates the family-centered values that social workers espouse and goes well beyond the traditional view of office pediatrics...Indeed, for medical students and beginning pediatricians this book would provide an excellent inroduction to community practice in the last decade of this century...this book should be a part of the libraries of social workers in the areas of maternal and child health. It would be useful supplemental reading in a maternal and child health course, as well as in broader health courses in social work.?-Journal of Social Service Research

JUDITH S. PALFREY is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and first incumbent of the T. Berry Brazelton Chair in Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School, and Associate Professor of Maternal and Child Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. She serves as the Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics at Children's Hospital in Boston.