Children’s Health
Children’s Health Working Group
Chair Maria Finnegan
Objectives:
Protect the emotional and physical health of young children in the face of a warming climate
Develop strategies for climate-informed pediatric care
Advocate for adoption of positive climate and health policies by child healthcare organizations, such as NH AAP
Engage the broader child healthcare community, including trainees and early-career healthcare workers in climate action
“As a pediatrician dedicated to improving children’s health, I am very much aware that climate change is causing significant medical issues for our children. This is a problem pediatricians now face in their offices every day and not just something for our future. In addition, the recent United Nations IPPC report warns that unless we act now, climate change will become irreversible.”
- George “Skip” Devito, MD
CHICKs, the Climate and Health Initiative for Caregivers and Kids, is a new program of the NH HWCA Children’s Health Working Group.
CHICKs is a grassroots, cross-sector and community-integrated program, under development, to protect the emotional and physical health of young children in the face of a warming climate. Critical to the programming success of CHICKs is a coordinated and regional messaging campaign to close the awareness gap around the impact of climate change on the health of the developing child. This work begins by listening to and building relationships with children, family members, teachers and those organizations that children interface with in their community.
What We’re Reading Now:
“Climate Change, Fossil-Fuel Pollution, and Children’s Health”
The New England Journal of Medicine, Frederica Perera, Dr.P.H., Ph.D., and Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D., 2022