Healthy Families. Healthy Families for Southwest Virginia Is a Voluntary Program That

Healthy Families. Healthy Families for Southwest Virginia Is a Voluntary Program That

Healthy Families.Healthy Families for Southwest Virginia is a voluntary program that provides support to first-time parents by means of home visits. Parents can access the program in the hospital at the time of the baby’s birth, by requesting a Welcome Baby home visit, or through their OB office or other community referral as a prenatal participant. The program offers support based on the parent or family’s strengths.

Healthy Families home visitors answer questions that new parents often have, offer community support and resources, and provide up-to-date information on child health and development. Home visitors promote positive parent-child relationships and promote healthy childhood growth and development through specialized curriculum and interactive activities. Through Parent Workshops, families can interact with other young families while receiving parent information/education and participate in fun activities.

The target population is first-time at-risk pregnant women/first-time parents living in Norton and the counties of Wise, Lee, Scott, and beginning October 1st will include Dickenson county; who will be screened by OB/GYN nurses or other service providers when they first visit area medical offices, or other agencies providing services to prenatal women. Post-natal at-risk first-time parents will complete the screening process while admitted, in participating hospitals, for delivery of baby. The program will continue in expanding the number of referral sites, in order to access underserved populations within our region, such as minorities, parents with disabilities, and families with substance abuse issues.

Home visits will be either once or twice a month, (depending upon family risk factors), using the Partners for a Healthy Baby and Parents As Teachers prenatal curriculum until the baby is born. When the baby is born, the visits will become weekly, for at least six months and Parents As Teachers and San Angelo curriculums will be used. Post-natal families receive long-term home visiting services a minimum of three, and up to five, years, with the frequency of the visits decreasing as the family stabilizes. Healthy Families is strength-based. Home visitors are taught to observe each family’s individual strengths, discuss family strengths with the family, and build on their strengths. The home visitor provides education on child development and utilizes a variety of methods and interventions to increase positive parent-child interaction.

Program goals include good health outcomes for the target child and family, positive parent/child relationships, increasing school readiness for the child and encouraging/monitoring child development. The program utilizes several standardized instruments to monitor a variety of child and family outcomes. The program uses Ages and Stages to determine child development level and monitor target children for delays. Children with suspected delays are referred, with parent’s permission, to early intervention. The HOME (Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment) instrument is used to measure a number of environmental and social factors which can impact healthy child development and learning and results can be used to help guide family services. KIPS, Keys To Interactive Parenting Scale, is used to measure parent-child interaction and results may also be used to guide services to promote positive parent-child interaction. Ages and Stages, HOME and KIPS are performed routinely, at age-specific, scheduled times throughout participation in the program. Immunizations and medical homes are also tracked for the child/family. FSWs encourage families to establish a medical home for themselves and their child and they remind parents when immunizations are due for the target child, assisting with locating or providing transportation. In addition, each family completes an Individual Family Support Plan (IFSP), which lists the families’ goals and steps to achieve them. The IFSP includes what the FSW can assist the family with so that they can achieve their goal. This plan is reviewed at least every six months, and each step is celebrated. The IFSP helps to guide services for the family. As families progress new families can be accepted into the program.

Healthy Families also provides an opportunity for volunteers to be of service to young families. For further information contact Janie Dockery or Patty Roberts @ 276-523-4202 or email or .