ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701270001
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
THE CHILD HEALTH INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP has been enhancing the welfare of Roanoke-area families for almost 12 years while operating on limited resources.
Once a month, in a room tucked into a corner of the ground floor of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Salem, a small group of women comes together.
They spend an hour listening to presentations about managing stress, eating healthful foods or boosting self-esteem. Then they head to a room down the hall, where they munch on snacks, chatter away about their lives and busy themselves with crafts.
They are women with children enrolled in the Child Health Investment Partnership, a nearly decade-old basic health care program for poor children in Roanoke, Salem and Roanoke, Botetourt and Craig counties.
Some of the participating families are on welfare. Others are working families who earn too much to qualify for public assistance but barely enough to pay the bills.
For these families, health care is either a late-night visit to an emergency room or an unaffordable luxury. Their children have no routine checkups with a doctor or dentist. CHIP has tried to fill the void by giving these children a "medical home."
But CHIP has been about more than ensuring that children from birth through age 6 eat right or are properly immunized. It has been about strengthening families. Enhancing the welfare of children has meant enhancing the welfare of families.
Since 1991, CHIP has held monthly parent meetings - at St. Paul's, at Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke and at St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Daleville
The meetings "have a dual purpose," said Barbara Putney, CHIP's parent involvement specialist. "One is to provide some education. The other part is socialization. Some of the moms just don't get out."
Dreama Stacy was hesitant when first invited to a meeting. She said she thought she'd be bored.
Now only out-of-town visits or illness can keep her away from the monthly gatherings, even though the younger of her two daughters has been out of the program for two years.
Stacy has become a CHIP volunteer, helping other parents walk the same line between have and have not that she, her husband and their children have walked.
"It's a program I thoroughly enjoy being around," said Stacy of Salem. "I'm giving back to them what they've given me."
Stacy came to the CHIP program when her now 10-year-old daughter was 2. She was referred by a Roanoke County Health Department employee, who was concerned that Stacy's daughter was anemic and wasn't eating right.
"They kept saying that she needed to eat more fruit," Stacy said. "I told them there was no way I could afford that. I couldn't get food stamps because I didn't qualify. They put me in touch with CHIP."
Stacy rattled off a list of ways in which CHIP has helped her. The family had been renting a house, one that "was nice but really nasty on the inside from mold and mildew," she said. CHIP helped the family find another house - and come up with a rent deposit.
Stacy said CHIP has helped with groceries and utility bills when her family was in a financial bind. They've put her in touch with other helping resources in the Roanoke Valley.
And "they've helped me build my ego up," she said. "When I first signed up, they asked what was one of my wishes and dreams. I put down that I'd always hoped and prayed to have my own home. They sort of gave me the knowledge and strength to hold on to that dream.
"Now, we're buying a home."
CHIP wants to build on those kinds of successes. But it faces the need to produce those results, for as many eligible families as possible, with limited resources.
The program has embarked on a three-year strategic plan to raise, by mid-1999, $395,000 so it can increase the number of children it serves from 1,384 to 1,750.
CHIP is operating on a $782,000 budget garnered from individuals, corporations, churches, civic groups, foundations, local government allocations and state grants. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant that provided CHIP its seed money expired last year.
Most of the $395,000 will have to come from private sources, unless the state increases its funding for CHIP of Virginia, said Eugene Derryberry, a Roanoke lawyer who is chairman of the CHIP board of directors in Roanoke.
Since 1993, CHIP (Comprehensive Health Investment Project) of Virginia - the umbrella organization for the 10 CHIP sites in the state - has been a line item in the state budget. That funding - divided among the 10 sites - was a three-year $1.5million federal grant that simply passed through the state to CHIP of Virginia.
That grant will expire this year. So CHIP of Virginia has asked the state for $1.5million for 1997-98 to replace the lost funding.
"We need the money to stabilize what we have now," said Cabell Brand of Salem, who was instrumental in starting the CHIP program in 1988. "If we get that money, then each of the 10 [sites] can continue operating at the current level. But if we don't get this state money, then we'll lose almost 10 years' work."
The Roanoke Valley CHIP program also plans, as it has most years, to ask valley governments to increase their allocations, said Robin Hammerstrom, executive director.
Roanoke has raised its allocation from $11,600 two years ago to $44,000 this fiscal year. Roanoke County has dropped slightly from $16,660 to $16,600.
Salem has gone up a bit - from $37,000 in 1994-95 to $38,000 this fiscal year - and provided a rent-free CHIP office within city limits. Botetourt County has increased its allocation from $5,124 to $5,500. Craig County doesn't make an allocation.
"It costs us about $587 per child annually," Hammerstrom said. "But no government is subsidizing any other government's children. There's still plenty of room there to pay for these kids."
The focus of the three-year plan will be on children from birth to age 4 (though CHIP will continue to serve children up to age 6) who live in families with household incomes of no more than $26,005 for a family of four. That is about $10,000 above the federal poverty level for a family of four.
"The focus is on the uninsured," Hammerstrom said.
The bulk of CHIP's clients, in recent years, has been children in families who receive Medicaid benefits, he said. CHIP could afford to take only a small percentage of children who had no insurance at all.
Uninsured children "have no place to go, and often they're still relying on the emergency room for health care or going to the Free Clinic, which is a wonderful service, but it's not open seven days a week," Hammerstrom said. "And some of these children have chronic illnesses. They need to be followed by a private pediatrician."
Once a CHIP child ages out of the program, there is little in the community to replace its services.
The Roanoke Adolescent Health Partnership operates a health center at Patrick Henry High and William Ruffner Middle schools and a community teen health center at Hurt Park public housing development, where teens can receive basic medical care and counseling free.
Laura Darling, director of operations of CHIP of Virginia, said two statewide health care programs for poor children - the Virginia Caring Program for ages 1 to 18, and Kids Care of Virginia for children from birth to age 1- went under a year ago.
"There really aren't that many transition services," she said.
Dreama Stacy said her daughter hasn't been to a physician for a regular checkup since she grew too old for CHIP two years ago. The CHIP cutoff age then was 8.
"We can't afford it," Stacy said. Her husband's health insurance covers emergency visits only, she said.
But Stacy said she is grateful for what CHIP has done for her family, grateful for how it continues to help other families.
"I've been there," she said. "I know it's a good cause. It's much more than health care."
LENGTH: Long : 145 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: JANEL RHODA/Staff. The CHIP group, which meets once aby CNBmonth at Salem's St. Paul's Episcopal Church, makes soap baskets
Thursday morning. color.