In 1990 a Maternal and Child Health project was initiated to create Bright
Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children and Adolescents.
This document is unique because it views health comprehensively, taking into
account physical well-being, mental health, cognitive development and social
efficacy. While the guidelines foster a partnership between professionals and
families, and address issues of great concern to families, they are written by
and for medical professionals. The task of NPCMCH, together with Family Voices,
is to transform their content to be of use to families.
About Bright Futures
Bright Futures Children's
Health Charter
Prenatal & Infant Guidelines (prenatal - 9months)
Early Childhood Guidelines (1 - 4 years)
Middle Childhood Guidelines (5 - 10 years)
Adolescence Guidelines (11 - 21 years)
Sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources
and Services Administration and the Medicaid Bureau of the Health Care Financing
Administration, the Bright Futures project was initiated in 1990. Under the
leadership of Morris Green, MD, 500 health professionals helped develop
comprehensive, culturally competent, family-centered, community-based child
health supervision guidelines.
The Bright Futures guidelines represent the consensus of four
multidisciplinary expert panels who drafted the guidelines based on their review
of science and on their expert opinions. The guidelines were then reviewed by
health professionals, including child psychiatrists, dentists, educators, family
physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, nutritionists, parents, pediatricians,
policy-makers, public health professionals, and social workers.
Bright Futures is unique because it:
- views health comprehensively, taking into account physical well-being,
mental health, cognitive development and social efficacy.
- fosters a partnership between professionals and families.
- recognizes the contextual forces on the child, including family and
cultural variables as well as education and economic factors.
- integrates health services with education and human services.
- focuses on the strengths as well as on the issues of the child, family, and
community.
Throughout this century, principles developed by advocates for children have
been the foundation for initiatives to improve children's lives. Bright Futures
participants have adopted these principles in order to guide their work and meet
the unique needs of children and families into the 21st century.
Every child deserves to be born well, to be physically fit, and to
achieve
self-responsibility for good health habits.
*
Every
child and adolescent deserves ready access
to coordinated and
comprehensive preventive, health-promoting, therapeutic,
and
rehabilitative medical, mental health, and dental care. Such care is best
provided
through a continuing relationship with a primary health
professional or team,
and ready access to secondary and tertiary levels of
care.
*
Every child and adolescent deserves a nurturing family
and supportive relationships with other significant persons who provide
security,
positive role models, warmth, love, and unconditional
acceptance.
A child's health begins with the health of his parents.
*
Every child and adolescent deserves to grow and develop
in a physically
and psychologically safe home and school environment
free of undue risk of
injury, abuse, violence, or exposure to environmental toxins.
*
Every
child and adolescent deserves satisfactory housing, good nutrition,
a
quality education, an adequate family income, a supportive social network,
and access to community resources.
*
Every child deserves quality
child care
when her parents are working outside the home.
*
Every child and adolescent deserves the opportunity to develop ways to cope
with stressful life experiences.
*
Every child and adolescent
deserves the opportunity to be prepared for parenthood.
*
Every child
and adolescent deserves the opportunity to develop positive values
and
become a responsible citizen in his community.
*
Every child and
adolescent deserves to experience joy, have high self-esteem,
have
friends, acquire a sense of efficacy, and believe that she can succeed in life.
She should help the next generation develop the motivation and habits
necessary for similar achievement.
Last Updated 8/21/96
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