Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Division

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Child Health

Child Health strives to optimize the physical, mental, behavioral and social/emotional health and development of all children in California. Our programmatic work focuses on upstream measures in the critical window of childhood to promote health and wellness activities and behaviors for children and their families, ensure access to routine preventive health care and developmental screenings as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and Bright Futures guidelines, and identify children who would benefit from early intervention and/or additional supports and connect them to services. MCAH adopts a life course approach to programming where early interventions in pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood set up an individual and their community for long term health and wellness in the future.

MCAH works closely with other programs and initiatives across the CA Department of Public Health as well as with external state and local partners that focus on child health to ensure collective impact across the state.