HealthySteps: Assuring Better Child Health and Development

Developmentally, the first five years of a child’s life are crucial. If children do not get support for healthy development early on, these children and their families may experience serious challenges down the road. Assuring Better Child Health and Development, or ABCD, was established in Colorado in 2006 to address these needs. As a statewide nonprofit, they are focused on improving the lives of Colorado children through the early identification of developmental needs. Within this nonprofit is a program called HealthySteps. This program is the only program of its kind that places a child with a development specialist within a pediatric primary care team. Their mission is to align and mobilize pediatric and community partners to improve early childhood developmental outcomes.

Listen to child development experts discuss the HealthySteps program

In this episode, Melissa Buchholz, state director for HealthySteps in Colorado, and Susan Burton, manager of practice improvement for HealthySteps, join us to discuss HealthySteps –– a one-of-a-kind program that places a child with a development specialist within a pediatric primary care team. Their mission is to align and mobilize pediatric and community partners to improve early childhood developmental outcomes.

Melissa Buchholz is the state director for HealthySteps in Colorado, a licensed clinical psychologist and an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Susan Burton is the Manager of Practice Improvement for HealthySteps and offers clinical quality improvement and provides trainings on child development and HealthySteps implementation.

In this episode, our experts discuss:

• How the HealthySteps program works
• Evidence-based research behind the 3-tiered prevention model
• How child development specialists work with families
• How primary care providers can implement the program at their practice
• What types of patients would benefit from HealthySteps
• The return on investment from incorporating the model