It’s challenging for even the most experienced home visitor to meet the individual needs of multiple families in various stages of pregnancy or infancy. The Partners for a Healthy Baby curricula brings together the information a home visitor needs to work with expectant families and those with young children. The series is based on research and knowledge of the importance of the prenatal and early years of life in laying a foundation for a healthy and successful future.
The Partners for a Healthy Baby Institute was created in response to a national need for community outreach health worker training and curricular materials. Our research on home visiting effectiveness has shown that the content of home visits directly correlates with program outcomes. For example, the more times our community outreach workers provided education about breastfeeding, the longer the mother’s breastfed.
The curricula helps the community outreach worker ensure that program goals are achieved by providing a planned sequence of critical topics. Few, if any, curricular resources for prenatal home visiting exist, and although there are many infant development curricula, none also focus on the entire family, integrating the mother’s and baby’s health, family and child development, personal well-being, and the latest brain research. Experience in providing an intensive six-weeks of pre-service training for community outreach workers followed by ineffective visits, showed us the clear need for a more structured approach to meeting our program goals, while balancing individual families’ needs.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to: 1. Summarize current research concerning effective home visiting practice 2. Understand the role of structured curricula in home visiting practice 3. Identify the importance of using home visitors
Keywords: Curricula, Home Visiting
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Florida State University Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employment