Practical application of the Children's Health Checklist

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child stands as the highest international legal source for the basic principles and standards constituting the rights of children, attuned to the importance of traditional and cultural values. Many of its 41 articles speak directly or through implication to the way in which health services for children are organized and delivered. The presenters originally designed the Children's Health Checklist as a tool to evaluate infant and child health programs against the components of the Convention related to health and development, but also proposed that the checklist could be used as a critical step in assuring that the rights of individuals are addressed in population-focused public health planning. This paper will present the results of the pilot of the Children's Health Checklist with a cross-section of state infant and child health program consultants. This group was asked to use the checklist to rate statewide child health programs and provide examples to justify their ratings. Additionally the group commented on the applicability of the checklist for determining priority activities, setting goals, and directing quality improvement efforts in child health programs and made suggestions for its use as a strategic tool to engage stakeholders and influence policy or systems change.