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Director's Message
Jan. 26, 2007
To: All DHS employees
From: Bruce Goldberg, M.D., Director
"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." ~James Baldwin
This week started with a legislative hearing and presentation by Gov. Kulongoski about the Healthy Kids Plan, a proposal to provide all children in our state with health insurance. This is an important ingredient if we are to give Oregon's children the ability to grow up in safe, healthy and nurturing environments.
I've talked before about how important I believe it is for all children to have access to high-quality medical and dental care. To me it's a "no-brainer." If we are a just society, a caring society, then we must ensure a safe and supportive environment and a basic level of health care for our children, their parents and for all others in need.
The welfare of children involves more than health insurance, however. If we are going to talk about providing a safe, caring and supportive environment for all children, then we need to think about what we're doing not just in our separate program-specific areas, but as part of a larger issue that looks at what kids need to thrive and succeed.
This legislative session offers an excellent opportunity to discuss the broader needs of children and how we as an agency and a state can work together to meet those needs.
Important actions that promote the welfare of children include not only implementing the Healthy Kids Plan, but also reauthorizing the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF), a program that provides financial and other supports for more than 30,000 of our poorest children; fully implementing CAF's new child safety model; working to reduce substance abuse among parents, which is behind more than 60 percent of foster care placements; ensuring that high-risk infants and their parents receive the right services and community resources; increasing the number of low-income expectant mothers who receive nutrition and health screenings through WIC; and promoting the use of dental sealants among children. And that's just a sampling of everything required to improve the welfare of our children. There is much, much more. Really!
These many programs and services cross division lines within DHS and involve many community partners. They also extend well beyond our agency. Children also need an excellent education, safe communities and, most importantly, their parents need living wage jobs. For that reason we cannot focus just on our individual programs. To help children thrive and succeed, we need to collaborate with others and work seamlessly to deliver services.
This legislative session has started with a focus on children. At the same time, we must remember that children are not the only vulnerable group who need assistance, nor can they be the only focus of this kind of comprehensive approach. As this session unfolds, we also need to recognize that giving children safe and healthy environments cannot be done at the expense of seniors, individuals with physical or mental disabilities, other vulnerable groups, or the types of programs that prevent illness and help all Oregonians be as healthy as possible.
During the next few weeks I will discuss other key issues we have before this Legislature. For now, the focus has been on children, but there are other important topics we will be addressing this session. I'll discuss more of these in the weeks ahead.
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