General Highlights Health

Surgeon General David Satcher spoke about the importance of children's health care at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences last night.

In the keynote address at a national conference hosted by Partnerships for Children's Health, a program based at the School of Public Health, Satcher stressed the importance of partnership between higher education institutions and communities to improve children's health.

"The real challenge we face...is the challenge to develop community health systems which will balance health promotion, disease prevention, early diagnosis and care for everyone," he said. "That will require a partnership, a partnership between education and the church and the home."

The Surgeon General said he has set children's health as one of the central priorities in the report "Healthy People 2010," which states the nation's health agenda for the next 10 years.

"I think it's time to put children first. There are certain things that begin in childhood that will continue for the rest of their lives," he said, citing smoking and poor health habits as examples.

In his address, Satcher said he wants to assure that every child has a healthy start in life. He called for quality pre-natal care, good parenting and safe environments.

Satcher said his second and third priorities are promoting healthy lifestyles and improving mental health care.

For every two homicides, there are three suicides, and teenaged suicides have tripled since 1950, he said.

Satcher also stressed the need to eliminate disparities in health care available to different racial and ethnic groups.

"It's a very ambitious priority," he said. "We have talked about reducing disparity for years; it is time to eliminate disparities."

Satcher illustrated his priorities with stories.

He told the audience about a two-and-a-half year-old named Elizabeth, who loved the story `The Good Samaritan.' Satcher said the child's father would read her the story and then quiz her on it. She always said the priest helped the injured man in the story. When he asked why she continually answered the question incorrectly, she said she didn't like the way the story went.

"We're adults, so we know that we can't change the stories of the past, but working together we can help to shape a different future for our children," Satcher said.

He also urged the audience to build the type of future they want to live in, telling the story of a carpenter whose boss asked him to build a final house before retiring. For the first time in his career, the carpenter built a shoddy house. The boss rewarded the carpenter for his long career by giving him the house.

"I think we're building our future. Whether it's in developing partnerships...or in pursuing Healthy People 2010 or the strategy to eliminate disparities, our attitude must be that this is our home. This is our future that we're building," he said.