Child Health and Safety

The Child Health division of DCS works to ensure that the health care needs of the children served by DCS are met through a variety of efforts: 1) Child Health Nurse Consultants monitor and support custodial children, and connect families to health related resources; 2) Safety Nurses provide technical assistance to CPS investigators; 3) The Safety Team reviews child deaths or near-deaths, and, in collaboration with Safe Systems group at the University of Kentucky, advises DCS on system improvement; and 4) Health Advocacy ensures custodial children’s health needs are met via enrollment in TennCare, accessing additional health resources, and ensuring payment for health services. The majority of services focus on custodial children; some services help with non-custodial children.