Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #121584

Joan Yengo¹, Donna Klagholz, PhD², Meghan Weidl³, Ebony Copeland³, and Denise Day³. (1) Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care, 2333 Ontario Road NW, Washington, DC 20009, 202-483-8319 ext 321, jyengo@maryscenter.org, (2) Klagholz Associates, LLC, 766-B Walker Road, Great Falls, VA 22066, (3) Family Support Worker, Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care, Inc., 2333 Ontario Road NW, Washington, DC 20009

Healthy Families DC, part of a national model of home visitation programs under Healthy Families America, provides assessment services and intensive, home visitation prenatally through age five using Family Support Workers. Family Support Workers are often members of the community who have an understanding of the needs of their neighbors as well as knowledge of resources to meet those needs. While HFDC has demonstrated success, the program also documented outstanding needs. For example, in 2000, over 150 women and over 200 men in their caseloads were identified with mental health needs that extended beyond the core services of the program. Typcially these families experience high levels of stress resulting from poverty, isolation, lack of social supports, acculturation issues, low educational attainment, and unemployment. The resulting impact of these issues on child development required additional support. The primary objective of the SESS project was to build upon the existing HFDC services and enhance families' access to behavioral health services. In addition to the supports offered by the Family Support Worker, HFDC offered an in home mental health provider who reflected the culture and language of the family. Families receiving the HFDC program with the mental health supports were compared with families who accessed agency health and social services only. The results demonstrated success in the reduction of mental health symptoms as well as an increase in social supports, especially when the primary worker was of the same cultural background and spoke the same language of the participant.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants should be able to

(
• describe how community home visiting programs can be used to help identify and address behavioral health issues; (2)explain the importance of using Family Support Workers from the community to the success of the program, and (
• develop a plan for using this approach in their community.

Keywords: Community Health Promoters, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.