Healthy Steps

Healthy Steps Services
Healthy Steps at Miami Beach Community Health Center is a program funded by the Children’s Trust. This program focuses on the importance of the first three years of life. The Healthy Steps specialists emphasize a close relationship between health care professionals and parents in addressing the physical, emotional, and intellectual growth.

Healthy Steps Program provides the following services:

Enhanced Well Child Care
A team consisting of a Pediatrician/pediatric nurse practitioner and a Healthy Steps Specialist conducts well child office visits. The visits are intended to answer questions mothers and fathers may have about their children's development, as well as to administer physical exams and upcoming developmental stages. The Healthy Steps team should be able to recognize family health risks, such as postpartum depression, substance abuse, smoking, and domestic stress. Parents are also made aware of early literacy.

Child Development Telephone Information Line
This is a service line where Healthy Steps Specialists are available to answer questions about child development or behavior issues.

Home Visits by Healthy Specialists
Home visits are designed to educate mothers and fathers and their children about safety, development and family relationships. Parents frequently feel more comfortable expressing concerns about their children’s development at home. The Healthy Steps Specialists can provide information on how to encourage children’s intellectual and emotional growth. In addition, Specialists perform a safety check in the home so parents can prevent common household accidents. Safety kits are given to the families at this time.

Written Informational Materials for Mothers and Fathers that Emphasize Prevention
These materials provide families with information, and suggestions about a child’s development and behavior. This is a way of helping parents identify changes in their child’s behavior.

These materials, are available in both English and Spanish, include:

Quick Check Sheets-Link letters
Parent Prompt Sheets
Parent Handouts

Child Development and Family Health Checkups
The child development and family health checkups are a set of questions, and activities that the Healthy Steps Specialists use to help parents understand the child’s development, and the importance of safety at home.

The checkups help detect early signs of developmental or behavioral problems; identifying family health risks that may have an effect on the child’s development.

Parent Support Groups
These meetings are held at Miami Beach Community Health Center once a month. Facilitated by Healthy Steps Specialists and a pediatrician, the meetings offer social support as well as interactive learning sessions for the families. Parents are educated on discipline issues, nutrition, and CPR and safety issues at home.

Linkages to Community Resources
The Healthy Steps program at Miami Beach Community Health Center provides families with community resources that includes information on child care programs, as well as on programs for substance abuse, counseling, domestic stress, and housing. In addition, referrals to different agencies are provided to families depending on their specific needs.

For more information about the Healthy Steps Program at Miami Beach Community Center, please call (305) 538-8835 Ext 1343 or 2205