Innovative program to serve as national model
GALVESTON, Texas - The University of Texas Medical Branch Regional Maternal and Child Health Program hosted a grand opening celebration of the first Ronald McDonald CHEER! Room (Children's Health Education Enrichment Resource Room) on Oct. 26 at the Pasadena Regional Maternal and Child Health Clinic. The CHEER! Room, funded by the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Houston/Galveston, aims to provide pediatric preventive health care through education.
The Pasadena clinic is the first health care facility in the nation to offer a CHEER! Room and will serve as a model for other prenatal clinics throughout the Houston/Galveston area. A second CHEER! Room is scheduled to open next year at the Pearland Regional Maternal and Child Health Clinic.
According to Carolyn Nelson-Becker, director of the Regional Maternal and Child Health Program, the CHEER! Room has the potential for adaptation into any clinic where it is likely that young children will accompany adults to medical appointments.
The motivation for this novel program came from Pasadena clinicians who observed that mothers who came in for prenatal care were often distracted by their young children who accompanied them. This inability to focus on important prenatal information (e.g., control of diabetes and high blood pressure) could have serious implications for an unborn child.
Through grant funds, a bilingual pediatric health curriculum was developed that teaches short health lessons to children while their mothers are receiving prenatal care. These health lessons include dental care, personal hygiene, nutrition, exercise, and home and car safety, among others, and are presented in the brightly colored and child-friendly CHEER! Room by students from the San Jacinto Junior College Early Childhood Development program.
At the same time, clinicians evaluate immunization needs and help mothers get appropriate vaccinations for their children in the hopes of health promotion and disease prevention.
According to Nelson-Becker, the CHEER! Room also benefits the unborn child whose mother is receiving prenatal care. "Today's research clearly demonstrates that what happens to a child while in the womb, particularly in the critical first months, determines childhood and adult health to a much greater extent than ever previously documented," she said.
For example, mothers exposed to allergens during pregnancy may have babies at increased risk of asthma, and babies born to mothers who add more weight than normal are at increased risk of diabetes later in life. "Through this program, we are helping unborn children be born healthier," Nelson-Becker said.
She anticipates the positive impact of this pediatric health promotion program will be "huge." Approximately 2,300 children have participated in the Pasadena CHEER! Room program this year and approximately 1,800 mothers have been able to pay greater attention to the prenatal health care information that will help them have healthier babies.
"The development of this CHEER! Room speaks directly to the commitment that the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Houston/Galveston has for improved health for the children of our region," said Nelson-Becker. "We are so grateful for its generosity."
The mission of the Ronald McDonald House Charities is to create, find and support programs that directly benefit children primarily in the areas of health and education. "This is exactly what RMHC loves to do," said Debbie Adams, president of RMHC of Greater Houston/Galveston. "We're impacting children and that's very exciting; this is a perfect example of what we're all about."
To date, RMHC of Greater Houston/Galveston, with matching funds provided by Ronald McDonald House Charities/Global, has provided a total of $140,000 in grant support for the development and implementation of this program given in memory of Mrs. Joan Kroc, wife of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation.
UTMB's Regional Maternal and Child Health Program is a network of 31 community-based clinics serving low-income and uninsured women from 111 Texas counties. These clinics offer the opportunity for patients to enroll in clinical trials conducted by maternal and fetal medicine specialists that offer the latest in health care advances for prenatal care.