White County children’s healthcare forum to address options and questions Sept. 19

What can parents do to insure the health of their children? What healthcare resources are available to families with children in White County? These questions will be the topic of the White County Children’s Healthcare Forum, to be held on Thursday, Sept. 19, at the Roy Ash Building in Cleveland.

The free event, open to the public, will feature several specialists who are actively engaged in assuring access to healthcare for the county’s youngsters.

Among the panelists will be Stefanie Ashlaw, statewide director of Peachcare for Kids, Georgia’s low-cost children’s health insurance program. Peachcare for Kids covers the full range of benefits for residents under 21, including dental, vision and mental health care. Costs are affordable, with income caps ranging from $30,850 for a single parent with one child to $63,603 for a family of four. Monthly premiums range from $11.00 to $72.00 depending on the number of children and a family’s income, with children under six receiving coverage at no cost. Co-pays run from 50 cents to $12.50, with an average of two to three dollars. There is an out-of-pocket maximum set at five percent of a family’s yearly income.

Also appearing at the forum will be Dave Palmer, public information officer for the Georgia Department of Public Health, which supervises White County’s Public Health Clinic on Helen Highway. Palmer will be joined by the clinics’ Nurse Manager Cindy King. They will discuss services available at the clinic for both children and expecting and new mothers, including pregnancy tests, breast-feeding workshops, periodic wellness checks, and child immunizations. Palmer will bring attendees up to date on some troubling recent disease outbreaks and the importance of timely immunizations in combatting them, and will share the Department of Public Health’s latest recommendations on emergency preparedness.

Finally, White County Schools social worker Lindsey Oliver will discuss some promising new initiatives being undertaken by the school system to meet mental health issues increasingly being identified among our community’s students.

Attendees will have an opportunity to engage the panelists in a question and answer session, and also to meet and greet after the formal portion of the meeting is concluded.

The Roy Ash Building is located at 153 East Kytle St. in Cleveland, behind United Community Bank. The White County Children’s Health Forum kicks off at 6:30 p.m., with light refreshments to follow.