Here is an overview of Healthy Families America, an initiative to establish a voluntary home visitor system for new parents to help their children get off to a good start.

WHY IS HEALTHY FAMILIES AMERICA NEEDED?

Research over the last two decades has consistently confirmed that providing education and support services to parents around the time of a baby's birth---and continuing for months or years afterward----significantly reduces the risk of child abuse and contributes to positive, healthy, child-rearing practices. Families receiving this type of intensive home visitor service also show other positive changes such as consistent use of preventive health services, increased high school completion rates (for teen parents), higher employment rates, lower welfare use and fewer pregnancies.

Programs that work with new parents stand the greatest chance of success for several reasons:

• New parents are eager and excited to learn about caring for their babies.
• They model positive parenting practices before bad patterns are established.
• Most physical abuse and neglect occurs among young children under the age of two.
• Almost all child fatalities due to child maltreatment occur among children under the age of five with approximately 44 percent occurring to infants under the age of one.
• The most important time for children to be immunized from childhood disease is during the first two years of life.
• The most critical brain development occurs during the first few years of life.

WHAT IS THE HEALTHY FAMILIES AMERICA INITIATIVE?

Recognizing the potential for home visitation for new parents, Prevent Child Abuse in America (PCAA), in partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities, launched Healthy Families America (HFA).

At its inception, HFA drew largely from existing research and the knowledge and experiences drawn from a program begun in Hawaii called "Healthy Start." As the HFA initiative has evolved, examples of good practice have come from a growing number of communities. HFA is an initiative that promotes positive parenting and child health and development, thereby preventing abuse and neglect.

Over the past several years, states across the country have embraced the critical elements of HFA and are working toward implementing statewide home visitation policies and programs. The critical elements of HFA represent the field's most current knowledge about how to implement successful home visitation programs.

WHAT IS NEEDED?

We know that to successfully reduce child abuse and neglect, programs must be:

• INTENSIVE: Meeting with families on a regular basis.
• COMPREHENSIVE: Addressing a range of issues relating to parents and other stressful issues.
• LONG-TERM: Over a three- to five-year period.
• FLEXIBLE: In responding to families' needs.
• CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE: In understanding and working within a family's cultural norms.

CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION PROGRAMS SAVE MONEY

For every $3 spent on prevention, we save at least $6 that might have been spent on child welfare services, special education services, medical care, foster care, counseling and housing juvenile offenders. Thus, for less than half the cost society currently spends treating and managing the consequences of child maltreatment, we could implement a comprehensive, voluntary system of home visitation to prevent child abuse and neglect. HFA services cost an average of $3,500 a year per family versus $10,000 for one year of foster care for one child. As a society, we must decide whether we will pay to prevent child abuse now or suffer greater financial and emotional costs later.

HOW DOES THE CABELL-WAYNE HEALTHY FAMILIES AMERICA SITE WORK?

Cabell-Wayne Healthy Families America was initiated in 1996 as a project of the Cabell-Wayne Family Resource Network and is implemented by the TEAM for West Virginia Children. The TEAM initiated the state's first HFA project in Cabell County and expanded into Wayne County in 2001.

The Healthy Families America home visitor (known as a Family Support Worker) spends time with pregnant women and new parents, talking about their hopes and concerns surrounding parenthood. Families can receive services until their child is 3 to 5 years old. During home visits, there is an emphasis on helping the family identify their individualized goals.

Time is spent helping the family to:

• Access health care and obtain a medical home both prenatally and for the infant.
• Obtain information on child development and developmental screenings.
• Work on goal setting and problem solving.
• Access appropriate community resources.

Home visitors collaborate with other organizations providing services to families so as to wisely use scarce resources, provide a comprehensive array of services to families, and avoid duplication of services. Families are also offered opportunities to mee with other parents during group activities.

For more information, call Michelle Proctor at TEAM for West Virginia Children at: (304) 523-9587 ext. 309 or e-mail team@teamwv.org.

FOR MORE

For more information on National Healthy Familes America, visit their website at:
www.healthyfamiliesamerica.org