Students at Wright Middle School hold up the pedometers given to them during the kickoff of this year’s Live It! Go for the Red, White and Blue program. (Photo by Susan Urmy)
Meet to explore child abuse prevention efforts
The Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt is set to host the Tennessee Home Visit Forum later this month.
The first-of-its-kind meeting will bring together relevant government and private sector entities to discuss streamlining Tennessee's child abuse prevention efforts.
“There are a number of groups providing services, especially home visitation services, to prevent child abuse and neglect, and each group is interested in learning from others what they are doing and how they can do better,” said Christopher Greeley, M.D., medical director of the Child Maltreatment Program at Children's Hospital.
“There is an agreement among all these groups that it is important to try to coordinate services and set a common vision for long-term improvements in rates of child abuse and neglect in Tennessee.”
Groups participating include Vanderbilt's Nurses for Newborns, Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee, the Tennessee departments of Health and Children's Services, and a metro group called HUGS among others.
The meetings are open to Vanderbilt staff, faculty and other interested people. The Tennessee Home Visit Forum is sponsored by Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee, Children's Hospital, the Division of Maternal and Child Health, the Tennessee Department of Health, Parents as Teachers and the Children's Hospital Alliance of Tennessee (CHAT).
Meetings are Jan. 31 from 1:30 to 5 p.m. in the Wadlington Conference room and Feb. 1 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the First Tennessee Theater in the Children's Hospital.
For more information, contact Janet Hardin at Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee at janet.hardin@pcat.org or call 383-0994.