The 2010 North Carolina Child Health Report Card, released in late October, shows an overall improvement in health and safety of children in North Carolina, but also expresses some concerns that progress made in the past few years could be reversed in the future due to the current economic difficulties.

The North Carolina Institute of Medicine and Action for Children North Carolina work together to compile the information. The report measures progress in 14 different areas from 2004 through 2009, but the data reflects outcomes before the recession and the dramatic reductions in the 2009 and 2010 budgets.

About one in nine children, or 11.5 percent, do not have health insurance, and 22.5 percent of North Carolina's 2.2 million children continue to live in poverty, the report shows.

The report also concludes that the picture would be even worse if not for dramatic increases in children’s coverage through public health programs set up over the last decade. Investments have increased enrollment in public health insurance programs to over 1 million children.

“That is what is so critical about public health, because we have nurses in the daycare centers and nurses in the schools; we have social workers and visiting nurses. So, we are that safety net,” said Betty Braxton, human resources director for the Cabarrus Health Alliance.

“We get calls daily from school nurses,” said Suzanne Knight, who works in pediatric services for CHA and serves as head of the Cabarrus Child Fatality Task Force.

An initial draft of the Cabarrus County 2010 Health Status Report sites assistance to more than 400 children in getting health insurance through donations, totalling more than $19,000, to the North Carolina Health Choice Insurance Fund.

CHA also serves those without health insurance.

“We have different fee scales for different programs, so a sliding scale fee is what we use,” Knight said.

Public health department like the Cabarrus Health Alliance have a hand in educating and serving the community in several areas including obesity, breast feeding and child fatality.

“We have lots of programs and services,” Braxton said.

North Carolina is ninth in the nation in 2009 for immunization rates among children 19-35 months. The immunization program is one of the most popular programs available at CHA.

The report also addresses infant mortality rates, which are at a historical low.

In Cabarrus County, the rate for infant mortality is 5.2 per 1,000 live births, which is lower than the state number of 7.4 in 1,000 live births.

“As an agency we are working with the community to address what we call the environmental changes that we need to make,” Braxton said.“The challenge that we always face in public health is for the public to understand what our role is, and how we protect the community, and in this case particularly children.”