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Public Health On Call

783 - Diaper Insecurity And Why It Matters For Child Health and Well-Being

Public Health On Call

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

News, Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.6 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

About this episode:

Diapers are expensive. For low-income families, diaper insecurity refers to the financial, health, and economic tradeoffs they may face in trying to afford them. Evidence is mounting that giving families cash for diapers can not only help to substantially alleviate these burdens, but it could help keep kids out of the child welfare system.

Guest:

Mike Shaver is the president and CEO of Brightpoint, a Chicago-based nonprofit whose mission is to advance the well-being of children by investing in families to disrupt the systemic and multi-generational cycle of racial, social, and economic inequality.

Host:

Dr. Josh Sharfstein is vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a faculty member in health policy, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

0:05.9

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

0:16.3

If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhhhu.edu.

0:23.8

That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes.

0:31.9

This is Lindsay Smith Rogers.

0:34.2

Today, diapers.

0:36.4

Mike Shaver is the president and CEO of Bright Point, a social service agency

0:40.4

serving the state of Illinois. He speaks to Dr. Josh Sharfstein about a campaign to help families

0:45.6

afford diapers in order to improve health, financial security, and emotional well-being.

0:51.3

You will never look at diapers the same way again. Let's listen.

0:56.7

Mike Schaber, thank you so much for joining me and public health on call to talk about diapers.

1:02.8

But before we get to diapers, could you tell me a little bit about your organization, Bright Point?

1:08.3

Yeah, thank you, Josh. I'm happy to be here. I appreciate the opportunity.

1:11.6

Bright Point is a statewide organization, headquartered in Chicago.

1:16.6

We serve about 30,000 families every year throughout the state, a combination of early childhood

1:22.6

programs, behavior, health and wellness programs, and child welfare programs.

1:29.3

So how did you start to think about diapers?

1:33.3

We started thinking about diaper insecurity as a problem that we saw direct impact on in the child

1:40.3

welfare space. We know that about 90% of the removals and placements in foster care are usually

1:47.8

for causes of neglect, not abuse, and we know that most of the root causes in neglect are really

1:55.4

rooted in poverty. As we took a closer look at those issues, and we really realized the importance of having

2:04.6

access, regular access to child care programs and realized that many families can't take

...

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