Center for Occupational Science-Based Leadership Training in Pediatric Occupational Therapy

Dr. L. Diane Parham, Principal Investigator (1997-2002)

Abstract:

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Maternal and Child Health Bureau, this grant responds to recent statistics which indicate that in the United States mothers and children often fail to receive basic health care services. This lack of care has led to unacceptably high rates of teen pregnancy, low birth weight, infant mortality, inadequate maternal and child nutrition, maternal substance abuse during pregnancy, and HIV positivity in mothers and their infants. These problems, in turn, increase the risk of disability, chronic illness, difficulty in school, and delinquency in later childhood. The resulting burgeoning need for services, in combination with marked inequalities in the availability of health care across different ethnic and socioeconomic strata, calls for the recruitment and training of health professionals who will fulfill leadership roles both in the development and administration of community-based care programs for at-risk mothers and their children and in the enactment of needed health care policy changes.