GENERAL DESCRIPTION: The Health Coordinator plans and collaborates with other coordinators and staff in the Head Start program to ensure the health and well-being of all children in the Head Start program. Will ultimately be evaluated on a combination of skills, dispositions and behaviors, some of which are related to the specific service area of this position and others that represent general expectations of all employees.

TASKS AND ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Health Coordinator integrates knowledge of evidence-based practices to promote child and family health and wellness to build a health program that:

a. Helps staff and families understand the relationship between child and family health and children’s school readiness outcomes

b. Develops strategies to address the health disparities in low income communities, particularly related to common chronic health conditions such as asthma, obesity and lead exposure

c. Engages families as leaders in building a program environment that promotes health and wellness

d. Develops community partnerships to assure that children and family’s preventive and health treatment needs are met; and that secures long-term relationships for families to providers who will support their children’s long term health and well-being

2. Assure that children with allergies, chronic health conditions, or special needs, up to date medical documentation is received and case conferences occur prior to entry.

3. Establish regular coordination and communication with the Family Engagement and Disabilities team members in order to provide more intensive support to families of children with chronic health conditions and special needs, including targeted goal setting, and assistance with building family advocacy skills to navigate community systems of care for their children

4. Work in coordination with the Family Engagement team to assure that a determination of a medical and dental home and insurance is made within 30 days of a child entering the program and a determination of the child’s EPSDT status is made within 90 days of a child entering a program.

5. Support Family Advocates to assure that all families have quality medical and dental homes, and maintain consistent health insurance coverage, if eligible.

6. Develop strategies with the Family Engagement team and parents to ensure that all children are up to date on EPSDT requirements, including receiving timely evaluation and treatment for identified concerns.

7. Establish and maintain working relationships with community partners to strengthen access to resources and training identified as priority goals in the area of health and nutrition by families.

8. Establish monitoring systems to oversee EPSDT adherence, including follow up on expired or coming due preventive health visits and follow up.

9. Provides guidance and support to Family Advocates to complete and/or participate in Individual Care Plans for children with chronic health conditions, and follow up to ensure that children’s health conditions are effectively managed.

10. Coordinate with Family Engagement, Early Learning, Mental Health and Disabilities (MHD) and Health teams to execute high quality case consultation and case conferencing systems to address the needs of children with chronic health conditions and/or special needs.

11. Supports family engagement and health staff to assist families to set individualized evidence-based goals and make demonstrable changes in family life practices linked in the research to school readiness.

12. Monitor family goal-setting, follow-up and coordination for children with chronic health conditions and special needs to assure coordination of home/school strategies.

13. Develops and aligns program wide health and wellness campaigns with agency mission; including promoting consistent family routines that support healthy lifestyles and habits.

14. Provides coaching and support to the Family Engagement team to assure the reliability of family assessment and goal progress data and to strengthen staff focus on outcomes-focused family interventions.

15. Work side by side with Family Engagement, Early Learning and Disabilities teams to support families to be fully engaged in all aspects of our program

16. Promotes, in conjunction with Family Engagement and Center Leadership, active parent engagement in the total Head Start Health Program; for example, parents as members of the Health Advisory Committee.

17. Assists the family in assuming the primary responsibility for their own health care.

18. Assists Family Advocates in linking the child/ family into an ongoing health system. Ensures that parents are involved as full partners in prevention and early intervention.

19. Works with families, Family Advocates, and health care professionals to ensure all known issues are in treatment and, once treatment has begun, that it is completed.

20. Integrates health education into the program and provides health education for parents, staff and children.

21. Design, facilitate, and participate in health related trainings per Head Start/Early Head Start and local and state requirements.

22. Promotes environmental health and safety practices.

23. Ensures that the health and safety of children is maintained through teaching children and parents preventive health practices.

24. Assists in training/certification of Pediatric CPR and First Aid for staff.

25. Assists in the development and distribution of written and web based materials for children, adults and employees within the areas of: personal health, fitness, safety, nutrition and preventive health education.

26. Works in coordination with program leadership to develop and implement targeted recruitment strategies notably with outreach to health community partners.

27. Support ERSEA team in securing health requirements documentation during the application and enrollment process, including follow-up with families after entry regarding outstanding health documentation.

28. Review health documents that are required for entry to ensure that they meet the licensing requirements.

29. Work with the ERSEA team to assist families on the waitlist to secure required health documents, etc for entry into the program.

30. Proactively support Family Advocates and families to obtain outstanding health items that would exclude a child from the program per licensing.

31. Coordinates with Center leadership to assure that Family Engagement, Health and Early Learning teams work together to assure on-time daily attendance of all children, and to implement strategies to reduce chronic absence.

32. Support the Family Engagement and ERSEA team with monitoring chronic absenteeism for children with acute and chronic health conditions.

33. Develop and implement an annual screening plan for controlled screenings.

34. Coordinate with internal and external resources to develop a plan to assure all children are up to date for EPSDT.

35. Establishes effective health emergency procedures, including methods for handling suspected or known child abuse; conditions for short-term exclusion and admittance; medication administration procedures; injury prevention measures; and hygiene procedures.

36. Conduct Health & Safety Audits as outlined by program’s policy and /or state licensing requirements in, but not limited, to immunization, medication, first aid supplies, health concerns, allergies, etc.

37. Compiles and analyzes data on the effectiveness of the health service component.

38. Tracks the provision of all child health and developmental services and ensures that follow-up services are received in a timely manner.

39. Implements a comprehensive system of services for preventing health problems, and intervening promptly when they do exist.

40. Ensures all confidentiality requirements are met and those who need information can access it.

41. Maintain accurate electronic and hard copy records and case notes to support positive child and family outcomes. Assure that all Health related items documents/information is accurately captured and documented in electronic and hard copy records.

42. Complete data entry for health related items as required and support the Family Engagement and Health team with data entry as needed.

43. Record, monitor and follow up on health items for reporting requirements.

44. Submit reports as needed and requested, such as monthly summary tracking reports, etc.

45. Support the Family Advocates in assuring that all health related PIR data is up to date in the data system.

Supervision

• Supervises assigned department personnel. Includes the following responsibilities, but not limited to: hiring, training, scheduling, evaluating, and ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and the completion of all work performed by direct reports.
• Educates direct reports on all department and agency policies and procedures.
• Meets with assigned staff at least monthly to identify and resolve problems, manage projects, track goals, and review work processes and procedures.
• Represents team and/or department at meetings, events, and training as required.

EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION, SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Sciences in Nursing.
• RN preferred
• At least three years’ experience working with diverse families in low income communities on health and wellness interventions, including evidence-based strategies to reduce health disparities, with supervisory responsibilities
• Background and understanding of child preventative health, including EPSDT requirements for
• children 0-5
• Bilingual Required- translation and interpretation( language(s)- program specific).
• Maintain certification in CPR and First Aid.
• Physical exam and background checks are required for this position.
• Travel required locally or long-distance up to 10% of the time for work-related meetings and functions.
• Must have a valid driver’s license and reliable transportation.
• Ability to interact effectively with people from diverse backgrounds
• Strong leadership skills with excellent written and oral communication skills. Ability to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing
• Demonstrated computer literacy skills, using MS Office applications and other basic data systems including internet navigation
• Must be honest, dependable and able to meet deadlines
• Self-motivated and able to work independently

DISCLAIMER:

The information presented indicates the general nature and level of work expected of employees in this classification. It is not designed to contain, nor to be interpreted as, a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, qualifications and objectives required of employees assigned to this job.

Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.