Overview
PurposeOrientation to the Guide
Audience
Head Start Program Performance Standards
Definition of Icons
At A Glance
Understanding Communicable Diseases
OutcomesHandout A: Who Has Had This Experience?
Key Concepts
Background Information
Questions for Discussion/Reflection
Activity 1: Who Has Had This Experience?
Activity 2. What Do We Think?
Activity 3: Working with People with Diverse Beliefs
Activity 4: How Communicable Diseases Spread
Key to Activity 4 A: Communicable Disease in Children
Key to Activity 4 B: How Communicable Diseases Spread
Activity 5: Spreading Germs
Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice
Handout B: What Do We Think?
Preventing Communicable Diseases
OutcomesHandout C: Hand Washing
Key concepts
Background Information
Questions for Discussion/Reflection
Activity J. Hand Washing. Doing It Right
Activity 2. The Art of Gloving
Activity 3. Checking Up on Infection Control
Activity 4. Why Is Everyone Sick?
Key to Activity 4. Why Is Everyone Sick?
Activity 5. Let's Have a Picnic
Activity 6: Promoting Fresh Air
Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice
Handout D: Gloving
Handout E-l: Hand Washing Checklist
Handout E-2: Diapering Checklist
Handout E-3: Cleaning & Disinfecting Checklist
Handout E-4: Food Handling Checklist
Handout F-1: Why Is Everyone Sick?
Handout F-2: Why Is Everyone Sick?
Handout G: Air Quality
Recognizing & Managing Communicable Diseases
OutcomesHandout H: Daily Health Check
Key Concepts
Background Information
Questionsfor Discussion/Reflection
Activity 1. The Daily Health Check
Key to Activity J. Does the Child Look sick?
Activity 2. Assessing the Child Who Is Ill Twenty Questions
Key to Activity 2. Crystal's Story
Activity 3. What Would You Do?
Key to Activity 3: Managing Communicable Diseases:
Ten Steps to Consider
Activity 4. Handling an Outbreak
Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice
Handout I: Symptom Record
Handout J: Does the Child Look Sick?
Handout K: When a Child Is Too Sick to Attend
Handout L: What Would You Do?
Handout M- 1: Handling an Outbreak
Handout M-2: Handling an Outbreak
Continuing Professional Development
Books & Manuals
Videos
Newsletters
National Organizations
Communicable Disease Fact Sheets
Chicken Pox
Colds and Flu
Conjunctivitis
Cytomegalovirus
Fifth Disease
Giardiasis
Hand, Foot, and Mouth Syndrome
Head Lice
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Herpes
HIV/AIDS
Impetigo
Infectious Diarrhea
Measles
Meningitis
Mumps
Pertussis
Pinworms
Ringworm
Roseola
Rubella
Scabies
Streptococcal Infections
Tuberculosis
The spread of communicable diseases is a fact of life in Head Start. Illnesses spread because children have close contact and naturally explore their environment by touching and putting things in their mouths. The demands of supervising children, wiping noses, diapering, preparing meals, and tending to injuries make practicing good hygiene all the time challenging for staff and parents.
When their children are sick, parents often feel caught-they want to care for their sick children, but they might lose their jobs if they miss too many days of work. Children may be brought to school sick, increasing the spread of illness and the burden on staff.
The spread of communicable diseases in Head Start has a big impact on the health and well-being of children, families, and staff. Victor tells his story:
"My son Ivan has been so sick since he started school in September. He's had a constant cold and one ear infection after another. He's been on antibiotics all winter long. They're saying that all the ear infections might damage his hearing, so the doctor is talking about surgery to put tubes in his ears to stop the infections. Several other children in the class are in the same situation. I only wish there was something we could do to keep the kids healthier."
The spread of communicable diseases can be reduced. This guide, Preventing & Managing Communicable Diseases, helps inform Head Start programs about steps they can take to prevent and manage communicable diseases more effectively. Communication and cooperation must be established among program staff, parents, and health professionals. Programs must develop clear health policies and a plan for teaching staff, parents, and children about communicable diseases.
The concepts and activities in this guide build on each other. For a comprehensive approach, users should proceed from the beginning to the end. However, the learning activities can be adapted to your own situation. For example, you may adapt a workshop activity to coaching or insert stories from your own program.
Training materials are effective only when they are applied to the everyday work setting. Knowledge and skills that are developed in training must be supported by follow-up activities. The guide contains sections entitled "Next Steps" and "Continuing Professional Development" to help users design long-term learning plans.
This guide was developed with the assistance of many Head Start programs across the country. We would like to thank the Head Start staff and parents who discussed the challenges that they faced in dealing with communicable diseases, shared their stories, participated in trainings, and provided feedback on the activities. We appreciate the feedback provided by the Head Start Bureau, Regional Offices, Technical Assistance Support Centers (TASCs), Resource Access Projects (RAPs), and National Training Contractors (NTCs). We especially value the detailed review and input provided by the guide's development team of Head Start staff and health professionals.
We hope that Preventing & Managing Communicable Diseases helps you develop a partnership among Head Start staff, parents, health professionals, and children to deal with communicable diseases effectively and create a healthier Head Start.
Purpose
The purpose of this guide is to improve the skills of Head Start staff and families in dealing with communicable diseases. The guide addresses attitudes toward communicable diseases, how to reduce the spread of disease, and how to recognize and manage illnesses more effectively. Since communicable diseases are the most common cause of illness, this guide aims to help Head Start keep its children, families, and staff healthier.
Audience
Designed for all Head Start staff and health consultants
who work with Head Start, this guide is particularly helpful for classroom
teachers and aides who are responsible for preventing the spread of disease,
recognizing when children are sick, and responding to illnesses. Activities
can be adapted to teach children and parents about communicable diseases.
The guide also gives program directors, health coordinators, and consultants
guidance as they develop health policies and monitor the program's practices
in preventing and managing communicable diseases.
Performance Standards
Head Start staff from wide variety of functions need
to learn about communicable diseases. Head Start Program Performance Standards
require administrators to develope health policies to prevent and manage
communicable diseases in their programs. Classroom staff and food service
personnel must follow practices to prevent, recognize, and manage illnesses.
They also need to teach children to work effeciently with parents around
communicable diseases.
Orientation to the Guide
The Preventing & Managing Communicable Diseases guide has six working sections:
- Module 1: Understanding Communicable Diseases
- Module 2: Preventing Communicable Diseases
- Module 3: Recognizing & Managing Communicable Diseases
- Continuing Professional Development
- Resources
- Appendix: Communicable Disease Fact Sheets
- Outcomes define what participants will learn from the module.
- Key Concepts are the main ideas conveyed in the module. These sections can be used as handouts or overheads.
- Background Information elaborates on the Key Concepts. It can be a resource for coaching or a guide for a group
- resentation.
- Questions for Discussion/Reflection are at the end of each Background section. They can initiate discussion in workshops or coaching sessions or serve as prompts for staff journals.
- Activities are practical exercises that reinforce the key concepts and help participants develop their skills. Some activities refer to Handouts for participants at the end of the module.
- Points to Consider summarize the main issues that the trainer or coach should try to elicit through the activity. They are listed at the end of each activity.
- Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice are additional activities to follow-up what participants learned through the module. They are listed at the end of each module.
Coaching
A training strategy that fosters the development of skills through tailored instruction, demonstrations, practice, and feedback. The activities are written for a coach to work closely with one to three participants.
Workshops
A facilitated group training strategy that fosters the development of skills through activities which build on learning through group interaction. These activities are written for up to 25 participants working in small or large groups with one or two trainers.
Next Steps:
Ideas to Extend Practice
A facilitated group training strategy that fosters the development of skills through activities which build on learning through group interaction. these activities are writtern for up to 25 participants working in small or large groups with one or two trainers.
Continuing Professional Development
Followup activities for the program to support continued staff development in the regular use of the skills addressed in a particular training guide. It includes:
1) opportunities tailored to the participant to continue building on the skills learned in the training; and
2) ways to identify new skills and knowledge needed to expand and/or complement these skills through opportunities in such areas as in higher education, credentialing, or community educational programs.
At A Glance
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Communicable Diseases
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Communicable Diseases
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Recognizing & Managing
Communicable Diseases
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