Addressing Drivers of health
Uniting For Kids’ Health and Care
Children’s health is affected by many factors — physical, mental, and emotional, among others. We’ve made investments to address these drivers and are working across sectors to enable opportunities for children everywhere to access coordinated care and services for better health outcomes.
Food As Medicine
USDA MyPlate Partnership
Our National Office of Policy and Prevention ensures children and families have access to nutrition information and healthy foods. Now, as the nation’s first health system to become a USDA MyPlate National Strategic Partner, Nemours Children’s Health and Nemours KidsHealth® are collaborating with the USDA to promote healthy eating.
USDA Nutritionist Yetunde Akingbemi, MPH, RDN, believes everyone can see themselves in MyPlate.
Partnering to Grow Children’s Health
The Ginsburg Institute at Nemours Children’s Health, 4Roots Foundation and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida teamed up to plant a garden at the Bradley-Otis Family Branch in Orlando, Florida to support nutrition, healthy lifestyles, and learning.
Can Grow Garden
The Can Grow Garden at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware, is accessible to families, visitors, associates, and volunteers. It teaches kids about fresh veggies through fun recipes and nutrition education. Each spring, a planting party includes 1,500 tomato plants as giveaways, and in the fall, a harvest party distributes 200 pounds of produce.
Blessings In A Backpack
Nemours Children’s Health, Jacksonville, continues its partnership with Blessings in a Backpack to provide weekend meals for students at Andrew A. Robinson Elementary. Each Friday, students go home with a backpack filled with essential nourishing food to support healthy development and minds. Associate volunteers throughout our organization help supply more than 500,000 meals for children and families annually through Nemours Cares activities.
Mental Health
Innovative Mental Health Pathways
In recent years, there has been a notable rise in mental health issues among children. Across the country, significant barriers, such as high costs and a shortage of providers, combined with increased demand, can result in wait times of six months or more for mental health services. Teams across our health system are working to create solutions that ensure families receive timely support, including making policy recommendations, creating pathways to increase access, and delivering programs to educate parents and professionals.
The Pediatric Acute Telemental Health (PATH) Program provides North and Central Florida families with video visits for children ages 2 through 17 with mental health needs. The innovative program, funded in part by a 5-year $1.75 million grant, is designed to meet the growing demand for pediatric behavioral health services. Through face-to-face video visits, PATH offers children short-term care with a licensed mental health provider within a week for issues such as ADHD, behavior problems, depression, and anxiety. The team of professionals, including psychologists, treatment providers, and care coordinators, provides assessment and treatment recommendations, crisis intervention, referrals, and brief treatment options that include strategies to help families cope.
“We know that children are struggling and more often than not, long waiting lists keep them from getting an appointment, making the problem worse. We want parents to know that they are not alone during challenging times and that through PATH they can get help quickly.”
— Amanda Lochrie, PhD, Licensed Psychologist and Division Chief,
Psychology, Nemours Children’s Health, Jacksonville
Many families struggle to receive a timely diagnosis of autism and face long waits to see specialists. Nemours Children’s primary care practices throughout Delaware found an innovative way to relieve that stress. Each week, Nemours Children’s psychologists offer testing and screening within our 14 neighborhood primary care locations. Since August, the team has completed 193 evaluations.
The Central Florida Behavioral Health Hub is part of the statewide Florida Pediatric Behavioral Health Collaborative working to improve access to mental health services for children and young adults up to 21 years of age throughout Brevard, Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties.
Along with improved access to crucial services, families report that the hub has forged strong connections between providers, patients, and their families..
Care Coordination
Free care coordination to connect children to mental, emotional, behavioral, and developmental health care services, regardless of insurance, and a primary care provider near where they live and relevant to their needs
Case Consultation
Weekly case consults and quarterly provider training on mental, emotional, behavioral, and developmental health topics, plus tips for helping families improve skills and strategies
Parent Training
8-week parent session (STEP UP) administered by Nemours Children’s medical residents trained specifically in offering the education
Research commissioned by The Elizabeth Dole Foundation revealed much higher incidences of social isolation, anxiety, depression, and trouble in school experienced by military and veteran caregiving children and teens also known as “hidden helpers.” In response, Nemours became the first pediatric health system to join the Hidden Helpers Coalition.
A Leading Advocate for Hidden Helpers
- Working with Epic, the nation’s leading electronic health record developer, we created and launched the “Military and Veteran-Family connected” feature, which includes a field in each patient’s electronic medical record to help providers identify children in military or veteran families during registration to better meet their needs.
- We also designed a three-part professional development training, available for health care providers and care teams across the U.S., to increase understanding and support for Hidden Helpers.
Maternal & Infant Health
Policy & Advocacy
Each year, about 700 women die from pregnancy complications, and an average of two babies die every hour. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. Our experts are working with state and federal leaders to improve access to quality maternal health care and better understand the causes of prematurity and maternal health risks.
Pennsylvania
Funding Newborn Kits and Education
With support from our Delaware Valley government affairs team, Pennsylvania House Bill 2137 passed in June 2024, allowing distribution of postpartum and newborn care kits to help ease financial stress and educate new parents.
Florida
Telehealth Maternal Health Care Program
Our Florida government affairs team helped secure $23 million through Senate Bill 7016 to expand a maternal telehealth program to 15 regions. This free program offers prenatal and postpartum telehealth services for women throughout their pregnancy and up to one year after birth, including screening and treatment for pregnancy-related complications, referrals to care and wrap-around services, connection to medical devices, and health literacy information.
United States
Maternal Mental Health Advocacy
Each year, 800,000 families struggle with maternal mental health challenges. In July 2024, our Federal Affairs team hosted the 5th Annual Cindy Pellegrini Maternal & Child Health Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C., partnering with March of Dimes and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago to push for greater investment in maternal mental health and prematurity programs.
United States
MOMS Who Serve Act
The MOMS Who Serve Act was among the bills for which our team advocated during the annual Cindy Pellegrini Advocacy Day. It was signed into law as part of the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act in December 2024. It will create a program to improve mental health care for pregnant and postpartum members of the Armed Forces and their spouses during the perinatal period.
Literacy
Celebrating 20 Years of Nemours Reading BrightStart!
What began in 2005 as a pilot study in Duval County, Florida, to help children with dyslexia, has become a nationwide early literacy resource for children from birth to age 5 across 38 U.S. states.
Designed by our specialists in neuroscience and early childhood education, the program includes validated screening, professional development for intervention, and ongoing support for parents to ensure every child receives a bright start to reading readiness and literacy — the #1 predictor of adult health outcomes.