Muskingum University Hosts Children’s Healthcare Discussion

NEW CONCORD, Ohio – Muskingum University recently hosted Groundwork Ohio’s ‘Roadshow Listening Tour’ that furnished a platform for area childcare experts to discuss avenues for improving early childhood development.

Groundwork Ohio’s Advocacy and Engagement Managing Director Brittany Boulton explained how the child advocacy organization travels across the state listening to childcare experts specify their needs toward addressing the challenges that children are facing.

“This is one stop of 14 that we’re doing on a statewide listening tour and that’s a really important part of our public policy making process. So we’re working to gather input from stakeholders around the state. And from there we’ll create a report at the end of the summer that we’ll share with the Governor’s administration as well as the state legislature as they go into their budget making process next calendar year,” Boulton said.

The information session featured speakers from local schools, government and nongovernment organizations, along with area healthcare providers. 

Muskingum Valley Health Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. Danielle Roberts noted that focused healthcare specializations can sometimes overlook the overall wellness of children. She viewed the occasion as a networking event and an educational opportunity that allowed the attendees to become more aware of healthcare resources that are available in the community. 

“One of the biggest things I think we’re struggling on the tail end of Covid is mental health access. You know the children in our community are struggling and we struggle as physicians in trying to connect them with those resources in a timely fashion. You know we have some of that infrastructure in place but they might be waiting for three months and we all know with mental health that… that’s a clock that you know we don’t want that time to run out and we need to act quicker in certain situations,” Roberts said.

Groundwork Ohio’s ‘Roadshow Listening Tour’ will visit Portsmouth on June 20th and Athens on July 16th. For more information about Groundwork Ohio, you can visit them online.