Head Start Partner Takes the Scare Out of Health Care

posted 3/11/19 -- Who’s afraid of brushing their teeth? Not Head Start students! Thanks to some special visitors, students at LCCAA’s Griswold Road and Cascade centers learned that health care doesn’t have to be scary.

Juniors and seniors from the Medical Health Technology program at Marion L. Steele High School in Amherst brought their “Take the Scare Out of Health Care” program to Head Start. They discussed dental health, vision health and hearing with the preschoolers while wearing fun costumes and, literally, getting on the level of the little ones.

“As health professionals, you are constantly doing patient education,” said Kim Haney, who teaches the program. “I try to expose them across the lifespan.”

“I learned so much from this experience,” said senior Madison Martin. “I learned how to teach information to a pediatric group, which is the profession I want to go into. It taught me to adjust certain things to make sure they understood what I was saying.”

Other high schoolers found the Head Start students to be full of both joy and questions.

“I think the children were really engaging,” said senior Chloe Yuhasz. “They all seemed super interested in learning the things we taught to them.”

Natalie Nowicki, also a senior, said the experience changed her mind about pediatric work.

“I really enjoyed working with the children at Head Start,” she said. “I always thought kids, especially that age, I didn’t like. But I quite enjoyed it and I’m interested in that age category now.”

Haney said MHT is a “huge career exploration program” which currently includes 35 students. Many students will continue on to a health care career, some will discover it’s not for them. Some will hone in on a specialty based on working with different age groups.

“Hospitals want their staff to have the soft skills to teach people about health care,” Haney added.

Meanwhile, they explore topics ranging from teaching 3-year-olds to brush their teeth to encouraging their classmates to stop vaping to making sure resources for sexual assault victims are known throughout their school.

“I look at my class as the public health department of our school,” Haney said.

Head Start provides all students will screenings in vision, hearing and dental health annually, according to Health and Nutrition Manager Rebecca Rodriguez. The screenings, required by federal regulations, help make sure children are healthy and ready to learn. Referrals to area physicians and public health programs are made as needed.

LCCAA Head Start is now enrolling! Click here for an application.

For more photos of the Take the Scare Out of Health Care program, please visit our Facebook page.