155789 Strategies use for home visitation for adolescent mothers

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Pam Patterson, RN, BSN , Neighborhood Services Division, City of Houston, Department of Health and Human Services, Houston, TX
The Houston Department of Health and Human Services (HDHHS) developed and implemented the Healthy Families Healthy Futures (HFHF) program based on the national model of Healthy Families America (HFA) in August 2006. The purpose of HFHF program is to prevent child abuse and neglect by providing intense home visitation by trained staff. Approximately three million cases of child abuse and neglect are reported to Child Protective Services (CPS) annually. Despite these reported cases, more than half of the fatalities from child abuse are often unknown to CPS. As many as three children die from child abuse and neglect each day.

The goal of HFHF is to promote positive parenting skills, educate the family on child health and development, and prevent child abuse and neglect in families that are overburdened and at risk for poor outcomes. In order to achieve these goals, families enrolled into HFHF are visited by trained staff weekly for three years. The home visitor incorporates the Growing Great Kids curriculum using two basic steps. The first step is to engage the family through education on positive parenting skills. The second step is to screen the target child for development delays (4 months – 3 years) with a questionnaire.

As this program is ongoing, lessons learned are currently being implemented into the program. One critical lesson learned thus far is the importance of training staff and providing them with specific tools to assist families with crisis management.

Learning Objectives:
ƒæ Discuss the basic principals of home visitation ƒæ List the communication skills needed to engage families ƒæ Articulate creative ways to approach a family¡¦s strengths in order to improve parenting skills

Keywords: Health Education Strategies, Maternal and Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.