Home visitation services to pregnant and parenting women have increased nationwide since the Hawaii Program. Family Network is a home visiting program located in the Martha Eliot Health Center in Jamaica, Massachusetts. It was developed in response to the high infant mortality and morbidity rates in the city of Boston among African-American and Latino women. The Family Network Program is a credentialed Healthy Families of America. It provides case management, health education, advocacy, as well as pregnancy and parenting support services to high risk pregnant and parenting women. The program is comprehensive and multidisplinary in its approach. The staff is comprised of family health advocates, nurses, a psychologist and a program manager. Risk is determined by homelessness, domestic violence, isolation, history of substance abuse, or non-adherence to clinic appointments. Families are accepted prenatally or during early infancy and followed until the child is three years of age. From the prenatal period until the child is six months old, the advocates provide intensive weekly home-visitation. Subsequently, it is decreased to biweekly or monthly. Each family receives case management and coordination. The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate the outcomes achieved for the clients served, by the team. Outcomes to be measured will include immunization rates, breastfeeding rates, birth weights and reported child abuse neglect cases as compared to the regular Health Center.
Learning Objectives: 1. Identify high-risk pregnant and parenting women, and assess their barriers to health care services. 2. Develop a program model comprehensive to the needs of high-risk women. 3. Analyze the effect of the program on promoting outcomes, and decreasing the identified barriers to health care and social services
Keywords: Home Visiting, Case Management
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: N/A
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.