New Tools Make Using Bright Futures Guidelines Easier

Coming Soon!
The Bright Futures Family Pocket Guide
I
n the same way that Bright Futures:
Guidelines for Health Supervision of
Infants, Children, and Adolescents, Third
Edition informs pediatricians and other
child health care practitioners about the range of
health issues children face, the Bright Futures Family
Pocket Guide will do the same for parents and other
caregivers.
Families want and need much of the same information
used by their health care practitioners, but the
Guidelines — largely developed for health
professionals — may prove too detailed for many.
The Family Pocket Guide, developed by Family
Voices, seeks to solve that problem by translating
the highlights of the guidelines into “family-friendly”
language, and organizing the information in such a
way that families and other care givers can easily refer
to it later, as they need it. The Family Pocket Guide is
being updated to complement the latest edition of the
Bright Futures guidelines, which were released
in 2008.
Not only will the updated Family Pocket Guide
give families access to the wealth of Bright Futures
information, but it also encourages and fosters
the relationship between family and health care
practitioner by allowing them to share a common
language. For example, the Family Pocket Guide is
organized by the 4 Bright Futures age groups or stages
of development (infancy, early childhood, middle
childhood and adolescence) and provides a framework
for families to plan their health supervision visits,
from an initial pre-birth visit through late adolescence
(0 to 21 years).
The Appendix contains helpful checklists on a wide
range of child development topics, information about
screening tests, and useful resources for families about
topics such as organizations and resources for children
with special needs.
“We want families to be good partners at the [health
supervision] visits,” said Betsy Anderson, Director,
Family Voices IMPACT. “Families carry out well
child care for their children every day. What we put on
the table, whether we encourage our children to brush
their teeth, all of these relate to Bright Futures and
health promotion.”
Ms. Anderson explained that there are 2 angles to the
updated Family Pocket Guide. The first is to provide
answers to families’ common questions and concerns
by covering such topics as:
How to choose and work with a health care
practitioner
How a child grows from birth to age 21
What will happen at each health care visit and
what the family will need
What to expect when a child gets older
Resources for more information on important
topics, including diversity issues and special needs
Bright Futures for Families is a
national initiative of Family Voices
through which families and communities
promote and improve the
health and well-being of children of
all ages.
The organization offers resources for
families based on the award-winning,
federally supported Bright Futures
initiative, developed through the
support of public health, non-profit,
and corporate organizations.
Visit Bright Futures for Families online
at www.brightfuturesforfamilies.
org.
The second is to present the information based on
child developmental stages Ms. Anderson explained.
Because children don’t develop at the same rate or
do everything at a set age, the Family Pocket Guide
is designed to alleviate parents’ anxiety and focus on
age, while alerting them to potential developmental
delays that they may not recognize, such as delayed
walking or lack of eye contact.
The organization is aiming for release of the Family
Pocket Guide in the fall of 2009, with a version in
Spanish to follow.
Family Voices is also updating its “Bright Futures for
Families Theme Sheets,” which families can download
for free from www.brightfuturesforfamilies.org. Like
the Family Pocket Guide, these information sheets are
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