Child Development Telephone Information Line
This service complements a practice's medical information/emergency line with a resource for questions about child development or behavior issues. Healthy Steps Specialists are available to answer questions about day-to-day worries a parent may have, such as concerns about breast feeding, a baby's crying, or a toddler's temper tantrums. Some practices have an established call-in time for the Child Development Telephone Information Line, but most have found that a private answering machine where mothers and fathers can leave messages or questions to be answered within 24 hours works best. Other practices provide their Healthy Steps Specialists with pagers so that they can respond immediately when mothers and fathers call. This is especially helpful for those practices serving families without telephones in their homes. Any medical questions are referred to the medical line.
Click here to view or download the protocol for the Child Development Telephone Information Line.
The Healthy Steps services were originally developed as program requirements for use in the national evaluation phase of the program. In order to ensure the integrity of the evaluation, all sites needed to implement Healthy Steps in virtually the same manner. Because evaluation concerns will not affect new practices beginning Healthy Steps operations, these practices will have considerable flexibility in shaping their Healthy Steps programs. New practices should therefore use these protocols as guidance in their decision making.