In coherent society people draw more and more attention to questions of children care. It became clear for people that future of the world is impossible without healthy and well educated children which will be able to continue developing of our society. That is why there is a great number of different health care programs which main aim is to guarantee good and professional treatment for children, protection of their rights and good education. A lot of different authors devote their works to investigation of these programs, their peculiarities, history of development of certain key points and main actions in these programs. The book Child Health in America, Making a Difference through Advocacy by Judith Palfrey is devoted to investigation of the question of child health system in America, its peculiarities and key points in its history. The second chapter is devoted to investigation of the question of a history of a child health advocacy. It states the fact that a health advocacy has been a traditional component of a health care system of the USA. People always draw a lot of attention to this question and tried to guarantee children good and qualified medical services. The chapter also describes contribution which some prominent people made to this sphere. The most interesting was to read about Abraham Jacobi and Job Lewis Smith which are taken as founders of American pediatrics. They were first to understand that there is a great need in some change. That is why they created their own system which combined main principles of public health advocacy in order to create professional and effective system which will be able to provide medical services, especially for children. One of the main factors which influenced these two men was a great difference between mortality of children from poor and rich families. With this in mind, they just wanted to create system which would be able to cover all layers of society. They also tried to improve conditions under which children lived as bad water supply and some other factors led to increase of infectious diseases. Moreover, the first public health campaign was organized by these two men. It was an attempt to decrease number of cases of diarrhea that is why a special brochure was made where nine steps to avoid it were described. Another problem touched in this chapter is lack of doctors which were ready to administer medical aid for children. It really surprises how these two men managed to lay the basis for a modern medical system, facing so many obstacles on their way. The chapter also describes activity of Jane Adams and Alice Hamilton which opened the first Hull House in Chicago. This action was the crucial moment in the history of American child advocacy. The main idea of this center was to help different families which come to America from different countries. It was an attempt to improve conditions under which children had to live as very often these conditions were main factors which led to childrens death and different severe diseases.
Having read this article, it is possible to conclude that some facts in history of American child advocacy are very surprising. It is impossible to imagine that people could live under such horrible conditions. We should never let it happen again and devote many efforts to further improvement of this sphere.
References
Palfrey, J. S. (2006). Child Health in America: Making a Difference through Advocacy. American Academy of Pediatrics.