Healthy Start

For everyone who believes that social service programs can make a difference when they're done right, Baltimore's Healthy Start program is a breath of fresh air.And taxpayers who rightly wonder why billions of dollars poured into urban areas over the years seem to have made little difference will welcome the common-sense wisdom of Thomas P. Coyle, an assistant commissioner of health in Baltimore City and executive director of Healthy Start, Inc."I don't think the human services community has been hard-nosed with itself about what it's doing, about what is wanted and needed in communities versus what is offered to people," Mr. Coyle says.

Father's Day comes amid a national debate on welfare reform that could set the course of domestic policy for decades. Yet there is an absence of ideas for shoring up the crucial role of fathers.So credit the Men's Services program of Baltimore City Healthy Start with the kind of approach that truly celebrates and supports the importance of fathers. It is highlighting work zTC opportunities for those who are unemployed or underemployed. This afternoon, the project is sponsoring the Fathers and Families Expo '95 in War Memorial Plaza.

Walking in from the bullpen, Orioles pitching coach Dick Bosman reminded Ben McDonald of all that was at stake. He didn't just need to hold down the American League's top-hitting team. He needed to save the bullpen for the second game of the day-night doubleheader.Fortunately for the Orioles, McDonald rose to both challenges. Rookie Mike Oquist stumbled predictably in the nightcap, lasting 2 2/3 innings, creating a 5-0 hole and absorbing a 9-2 defeat after McDonald pitched eight innings to win the opener, 10-4.

Vice President Al Gore launched a partnership yesterday between Baltimore and the U.S. Agency for International Development designed to apply here the agency's expertise in helping people mired in poverty.Speaking at a conference titled "Lessons Without Borders," at Morgan State University, the vice president referred to the efforts of the tens of thousands of health workers, literacy teachers and small business advisers sent abroad since 1961 to focus America's attention on the plight of the Third World.

It's a way for runners to get the year off on the right foot.The Renaissance AllSports Athletic Club and the Westminster Road Runners Club have been ushering in the new year for several seasons with their St. Mary's 6-Miler and Winfield Mile, respectively. And because New Year's Day falls on a Saturday this year, the Baltimore Road Runners Club will hold its Father Time Frolic 8-Miler on New Year's morning.In addition, the Howard County Striders will hold their Prediction Run 5-miler Saturday at the Locust Park Neighborhood Center.

Baltimore's Healthy Start program, which works with pregnant women to reduce the infant mortality rate, is expanding its program with the help of a $5 million annual federal grant that should help counsel about 2,000 families a year.Thomas P. Coyle, executive director of Healthy Start, said the money will allow his program to expand from the Sandtown-Winchester community in West Baltimore to two other poor neighborhoods -- Harlem Park in West Baltimore and Middle East in East Baltimore.The program, which has been in operation for three years, counsels pregnant women on substance abuse, prenatal care, nutrition and child care, said Mr. Coyle, who is also an assistant city health commissioner.

Conventional wisdom is not always common sense, and learning the distinction can make a world of difference.That's one lesson gleaned from the Baltimore Project in Sandtown-Winchester, one of the city's poorest areas. The project is the Schmoke administration's attempt to demonstrate that some simple and sensible efforts can have a big effect on Baltimore's high rate of infant mortality.Coordinated by the city health department with financial support from local foundations, the two-year-old project has worked well enough to help the city win one of 15 federal "Healthy Start" grants, designed to meet the ambitious goal of helping to lower the country's infant mortality rate by 50 percent over five years.

On opening day of the Washington Bullets' training camp in Emmitsburg, Tom Hammonds took a frightening spill under the basket, writhing in pain as he clutched his right knee.Bullets coach Wes Unseld, who had seen injuries knock the veteran forward out of his previous two camps, hovered over Hammonds, exhorting him to rise.Hammonds slowly regained his feet and walked unaided to the dressing room, where the knee showed a slight swelling. But the next day he was back, running the court full tilt.

Baltimore is one of 15 areas chosen to receive a lucrative federal grant for new programs aimed at reducing infant mortality rates.Baltimore will receive a still-unannounced share of $25 million in the federal Healthy Start program. City health officials have said the grant money could mean a dramatic improvement in prenatal care for poor women.This initial seed money will be followed next year by an additional $171 million to be shared by the various areas. The program's goal is to cut the infant mortality rate in half after five years.

Baby B and Baby C, the last of two Anne Arundel County triplets whose birth was interrupted 2 1/2 weeks ago to give them a better start in life, have finally joined Baby A in the secluded, special care nursery on Union Memorial Hospital's fourth floor.And, Dr. Norman H. Daikoku, the obstetrician who chose to go against conventional wisdom that dictates delivery of multiple births within minutes of each other, says his strategy worked.Experts agree that it's rare -- but not without precedent -- to be able to hold back labor in such cases and to deliver one baby without delivering the others.