Fall 2001
Fall 2001
by Janet Huseby
Cole Knowlden checks out the Parents Guide, a publication of UC School of Public Health. The easy-to-use guide helps users tap into local resources for parenting support and information.
Last spring, Berkeley resident Amy Knowlden gave birth to baby Cole at Alta Bates Hospital. A few days after they came home, a city of Berkeley public health nurse, carrying a Kit for New Parents, made the first of what would be three visits to the new mother and son.
"The nurse weighed Cole. She checked him over. She answered my questions - and first-time moms have so many questions," said Knowlden. "It was a great service."
The home visits and the Kit for New Parents were paid for by Proposition 10, the state initiative passed two years ago which funds health and education programs for children under five through a tax on tobacco products.
Packaged in an eye-catching and handy box, the kit, which comes in Spanish or English, "is the best parent educating material I've ever seen," says Professor Linda Neuhauser of UC Berkeley's School of Public Health.
Great care has gone into its contents: five entertaining parenting videos produced by actor/director Rob Reiner and featuring, among others, renowned pediatrician Barry Brazelton and entertainers Gloria Estefan and Jamie Lee Curtis; 13 parenting pamphlets; a child's cardboard counting book; and a copy of the Parents Guide, produced by UC Berkeley's School of Public Health.
As project director of the Parents Guide, Newhauser worked with dozens of parent and community groups, such as West Berkeley's Through the Looking Glass, an organization devoted to parenting with disabilities, to include "advice parents want as well as 'community wisdom,'" Neuhauser said.
The information provided by the Parents Guide is easy to use and understand. What makes the guide unique is its ability to help readers tap into local resources for advice and information. Each topic has a section called "Where To Find Help" keyed to phone listings in the 
local Yellow Pages or on the Internet.
"I'm new to the area," said Amy Knowlden who recently moved to Berkeley from Dallas. "I've kept the guide because of the contact numbers. It's good to have all the resources to call in one place."
A recent six-county evaluation of the Kit for New Parents showed that 89 percent of parents reported using the kit within the first six weeks of receiving it. User rates for Latino parents were even higher - 95 percent - perhaps reflecting a dearth of parenting materials available in Spanish. The results, reports Neuhauser with pleasure, are "through the roof."
In late September, California will begin distributing the kit to every new mother through a variety of local agencies. Alameda County's home visits began last November with a pilot program at Summit, St. Rose and Alta Bates Hospitals. The county's goal is to have a public health nurse visit every new baby at home regardless of the parent's economic status. "The strength in this program," said Janice Burger, deputy director of the Alameda County Children and Families Commission, "is that it is not just for poor or 'at risk' parents, it is for every mom."
The program is one of several funded by Alameda County's share of Proposition 10 money - $20 million in the first year out of $700 million collected statewide. The county has distributed grants to childcare providers to improve facilities and materials, awarded stipends to infant and pre-school providers, and developed an intensive "family support team" in addition to its ground-breaking universal home visit program for new mothers and infants.
"There has never before been serious money for prevention," Burger added, "For people working in public health, it is a dream come true."
Much of the information in the Parents Guide is also available online through the Wellness Guide at www.wellnessguide.org. For information about the state program, call 1-800-KIDS 025 (English) or 1-800-50-NINOS (Spanish).
TOP
NEXT
PREVIOUS
