Maternal & Child Health Programs

Cascade City-County Health Department provides services to women of childbearing age, infants, and children. Many services are based on a sliding fee scale, including Well Child Visits and Home Visits.

The Maternal Child Health Program administers the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant (MCH BG) in Cascade County. The MCH BG is funded under Title V of the Social Security Act. the MCH BG has, as its general purpose, the improvement of the health of all the mothers and children consistent with the applicable health status goals and national health objectives.

Early Childhood Coalition

City-County Health Department is an active member of our community's Early Childhood Coalition (ECC), in which various local agencies and providers work together to meet the needs of young children and their families in Cascade County.

Child Find Days

In collaboration with other ECC members, City-County Health Department will be offering quarterly "Child Find" days, beginning Spring 2013. During these events, our staff will provide developmental screenings for children 0 to 5 years free of charge. The assessment process of Child Find provides knowledge of normal development and discovers children who need intervention to address their special needs. When children ages 1 to 5 with physical, cognitive, social, and/or emotional challenges receive appropriate medical, therapeutic, and/or psychological services they are more successful and confident when entering Kindergarten, which gives them a better opportunity to succeed throughout their lives.

Free Infant Hearing Screening

The Cascade City-County Health Department, in partnership with the Montana Department of Health and Human Services (DPHHS) Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention Program, is now providing free hearing screenings for infants and children.

This is one or two pilot projects that have been implemented by the Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention Program to provide additional hearing screening resources to families who choose not to have their babies delivered in hospitals or are unable to return to their baby's birth hospital to receive needed follow-up screenings. The goal of this project is to ensure that all babies born in Cascade County have access to newborn hearing screenings before one month of age and receive any needed referrals to an audiologist by three months of age for diagnostic testing.

At Risk Infants

Also, infants and children who are identified as being at risk for hearing loss due to their medical history or developmental delays will be ensured access to affordable hearing screening services. It is important that children with these risk factors are monitored regularly for hearing loss because hearing loss can occur at any age and does have implications in a child's ability to communicate and learn. The earlier a hearing loss is identified and the child gets intervention, the less chance there is of developmental delays.

These screening services are available at the Cascade City-County Health Department and through home visiting services at no cost.

For more information, please call 406-761-9888.

Fetal Infant Child Mortality Review (FICMR)

As a part of the MCH Block Grant, Fetal, Infant, and Child Mortality Review (FICMR) is a local and statewide effort to reduce preventable fetal, infant, and child deaths by making recommendations based on lessons learned from reviews of the deaths. The prevention of fetal, infant, and child deaths is community responsibility. The FICMR process identifies critical community strengths and weaknesses. Information is used to identify preventable causes of death and allows for education within the community.