There is now a robust evidence-base to show what happens to children in the early years has consequences right through the course of their lives. Investing in prevention and early intervention is critical.
A children’s health check is one way of detecting emerging problems and risk factors, and offering treatment early in life.
In his editorial piece featured in the Medical Journal of Australia, Professor Oberklaid looks back at the development of the Medicare-funded Healthy Kids Check for four-year-old children and the recent piloting of the Expanded Healthy Kids Check in 2012.
The Expanded Healthy Kids Check is a chance for parents to talk with a health professional about their child’s health, development and wellbeing when their child is aged between three and a half and five years old.
Professor Oberklaid admits prevention and early detection is a “hard sell to government and there are many challenges in its implementation”.
He has called for the primary health care system to be “at the heart of efforts to refocus the health system towards prevention and early intervention” and for the “government to persist with the ongoing review and informed evolution of the child health check.”
Read the full editorial: Prevention and early detection in young children: challenges for policy and practice.
More information:
- Read Dr Tim Moore’s evidence paper: Understanding the nature and significance of early childhood: New evidence and its implications
- Read Professor Oberklaid’s blog post: Better educational outcomes: Start early
- Watch Professor Oberklaid’s talk about the importance of the early years in the online forum: Putting a value on early childhood education and care in Australia