Nemours Health & Prevention Services

Our Community & Need

In 2004, Nemours Health and Prevention Services (NHPS) was established within the Nemours Children’s Health System to promote health and disease prevention using a population-level approach to physical and emotional wellness. NHPS has developed partnerships, working with state and community organizations across sectors to promote the health of children and their families and reduce chronic diseases. It has led efforts to shape policy and practices in Delaware school systems and expanded school policy and practice work beyond the school yard into the community; shaped state wellness policy, regulations and practices for and among early childhood and after-school providers; established county level child health coalitions; and recently launched a community-based interdisciplinary care model for children in high risk communities. NHPS works closely with the other prevention and clinical services of Nemours to achieve an integrated system of care to improve the physical and emotional health of children.

Our Solution & Our Community Partners

Recognizing that emotional and behavioral health is just as important as physical health, Nemours has embarked on work related to addressing toxic stress and adverse life experiences in its patient population. Nemours is working diligently with community partners to identify gaps and how existing resources can be collectively leveraged to help to fill those gaps. Additionally, Nemours has a dedicated team who is working to identify and implement appropriate, evidence based, trauma informed ways to better equip our health care system staff to provide consistent trauma informed care to patients and/or families presenting with signs of toxic stress.

Nemours currently has existing relationships with many national, regional, state and local governments, human services, healthcare and educational institutions that are grappling with how best to address issues related to childhood trauma. Several of those community partners have been tapped for our work with Moving Health Care Upstream. They include, but are not limited to:

• Children’s & Family First
• Christiana Care
• Delaware Department of Public Health
• State of Delaware Courts
• Delaware Division Of Child Mental Health Services
• Domestic Violence Coalition
• Delaware Department of Education
• Wilmington Community Advisory Committee
• Sussex County Health Coalition
• Trauma Matters Delaware
• Thomas Jefferson University
• Johns Hopkins University
• Wilmington University

Partners are working collaboratively to share information and educational opportunities to build the skills of practitioners, community organizations and local residents. As we move forward addressing these issues in a systematic way, Nemours will work in partnership with others to continue to identify gaps and create opportunities to improve our existing services by making needed changes in the existing system.

For More Information

If you would like more information about the upstream work happening in our community please contact Na-Tasha Williams at [email protected].

To learn more about Nemours’ work in child health promotion please visit our site.