Preventing childhood lead poisoning where children live, learn and play: addressing current and emerging sources of lead exposure in king county communities - the lead and toxics program (LTP)…

Preventing childhood lead poisoning where children live, learn and play: addressing current and emerging sources of lead exposure in king county communities - the lead and toxics program (LTP) proposal, ?preventing childhood lead poisoning where children live, learn and play: addressing current and emerging sources of lead exposure in king county communities? Will reduce health inequities with community-driven interventions to prevent lead poisoning and improve linkages to developmental services for lead poisoned children through strategic partnerships with communities of color. Communities of color have long been charting the path forward on environmental justice and our program partners drive the work to prevent lead exposure in home, school, and childcare environments. The LTP proposal is designed to improve health equity among people of color, immigrants and refugees in south seattle and south king county ? An area of king county with the highest rates of poverty and elevated blood lead levels in children. Our proposed strategies are the result of more than 3 years of listening to and learning from our partner organizations, review of community health data, readiness and experience of our community partners, and coordination with local and state community health improvement initiatives. Proposed activities to prevent lead poisoning, increase blood lead testing and reduce health inequities build on the success of established community-led stakeholder groups committed to working on lead-related issues. Our partners will lead three community ?action groups?: 1) medical provider education and outreach (increase blood lead testing), 2) products (lead poisoning prevention), and healthy housing (lead poisoning prevention). Selected community leaders from these action groups will also provide input to the statewide lead advisory committee to help drive policy change and champion committee activities at the local level. Proposed strategies to improve linkages of lead-exposed children to recommended services build on king county-funded programs to integrated blood lead screening status into intake for early support for infant and toddler (esit), home visitor, and nurse family partnership program services. These service providers are well placed to provide effective referrals for blood lead testing, developmental services, and to assess lead exposure risk of the family from housing sources. The healthcare action group will work to strengthen partnerships between focus communities and medical providers to inform strategies to increase blood lead testing and increase provider education opportunities about lead risks, exposure sources, and resources for impacted families. This focused, community-driven approach will accelerate local changes to increase blood lead testing, improve access to developmental services, and prevent childhood lead poisoning from products used in focus communities. Product testing data will be shared with the CDC childhood lead poisoning prevention program (clppp) and will inform the national conversation about systems and policies needed to eliminate these products from our communities. LTP will sustain its impact by leveraging current and future initiatives in king county and continue to work with our state department of health to improve local surveillance activities and to support the work of the newly funded statewide lead advisory committee.