Health care system in the domain of Early Childhood Intervention

Inspired by the current state of Early Childhood Intervention in the Republic of Croatia and the needs of families, the Croatian Associationfor Early Childhood Intervention has initiated development of a unique database of the Early Childhood Intervention servicesat the national level. Creating a database aims to provide easy access to comprehensive and reliable information about services inthe fi eld of Early Childhood Intervention provided in the Republic of Croatia in the preschool education, health care and socialwelfare systems. This paper presents data obtained in the public and private health care institutions in order to get an insight into thecurrent state of service delivery in the fi eld of Early Childhood Intervention all over Croatia. Data were collected through questionnairein the form of Internet application. The sample consisted of 41 public health care institutions and 32 private institutions registeredin the health care system. Results indicated abidance of centralization of institutions that provide services in the fi eld of EarlyChildhood Intervention within the health care system in the City of Zagreb. At the same time, no statistically signifi cant diff erenceswere found among counties and diff erent kinds of disabilities, professionals and services provided. Comparison between public andprivate health care institutions showed the structure of the employees as well as the type of services at private institutions to becloser to the contemporary concept of early intervention. Namely, their focus is on the child and their parents rather than on themotor aspect of the child’s development. Private sector brings what public sector does not off er, but parents have to pay for servicesin the former.

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