Family Connects
Contact
3710 University Dr,
Suite 310,
Durham, NC 27707
info@familyconnects.org
Universal nurse home visiting for newborns and their families is our priority at Family Connects International. We have made it our mission to strengthen connections for families with newborns and link them directly to health and community care resources. Learn more about Family Connects International today!
In our last blog featuring FCI Voices, Family Connects Pierce County shared their journey to certification through Family Connects International. But what is the role of community partners and why is the work they do imperative to ensuring equitable care for every family and newborn? In this blog, we will learn from FCI’s Acting CEO Jenny Jensen, MSN, MPH, RN, just how important community partners and nurses are to providing postnatal care, including detecting birth defects and connecting all families to needed resources.
What role do our community partners and nurses play in detecting birth defects and providing resources for healthy families?
When we do a home visit, we get to spend 1.5-2 hours with families. We are fortunate to not be rushed like you often feel in a clinic environment, so there’s plenty of time for families to share their concerns and for us to do a very thorough exam. For example, I once detected an unusual heart sound during a Family Connects home visit and notified the baby’s pediatrician, who ended up referring the baby to a cardiologist. Family Connects nurses are also experts on community resources and benefits, like care coordinators for babies with complex medical needs and early intervention services for those with developmental delays. If families are interested, we will help them connect with these services.
How does FCI’s universal home visiting model contribute to equitable outcomes for every newborn?
Family Connects is available for every family. We know that everyone needs support when they bring home a baby, whether it’s help with physical recovery, breastfeeding, dealing with postpartum depression, or accessing practical needs like food and diapers. Family Connects support is tailored to the needs, priorities, and preferences of each family.
What is your vision for FCI and its community partners? Where do you hope to see FCI going to expand its universal care approach?
I want FCI to continue to develop innovative ways to provide high-quality support for our community partners. That is what helps to enable our partners to provide innovative and high-quality support for families and communities. I am incredibly proud of our organization and the ways that we are continually improving our matrixed support for partners. In just the past year we have enhanced our customized database, launched webinars and annual awards programs, developed a policy dashboard, and instituted regular nursing office hours. As we innovate, I am committed to being responsive to the requests and priorities of our community partners.
I think the next phase of universal care is to not only offer Family Connects to every family in a community but also offer Family Connects to every community! We are operating in a few dozen counties and cities across 19 states, but most Americans do not yet have access to Family Connects. We need policymakers, health systems, and payers to commit to a new system of care in the fourth trimester that provides access to evidence-based nurse home visits for all families.
Thank you, Jenny! Interested in launching a Family Connects Partnership? Visit FamilyConnects.org today to learn more!
This Friday, February 2nd, Jennifer Jensen will be presenting alongside Lori Sprecher and Pilar Olivo (Family Connects Frederick) at the 2024 National Home Visiting Summit! The 60-minute workshop session, “Redesigning Postpartum Health Care to Include Universal Nurse Home Visits.” Register today to attend!
According to Gallup, nurses remain the most trusted professionals for the 22nd consecutive year. In Gallup’s 2023 Honesty and Ethics poll, 78% of adults in the United States report that they believe nurses have high ethical standards and are honest. At Family Connects International we are committed to ensuring that every newborn receives equitable care. Our evidenced-based, universal, nurse home-visiting model offers support to families with newborns. Family Connects nurses visit the home approximately three weeks after birth and connect families with the community resources they need. Learn more about our universal model through our webinar series.
The Community Alignment Advisory Board (CAAB) meets quarterly on the third Tuesday of the month.
If you are interested in sharing your site’s work with hospital engagement, volunteer to participate in the panel. Email EmilyRose@familyconnects.org to sign up to speak or for more information about the CAAB.
Tuesday, October 22: 3:00PM EST
Tuesday, January 21: 3:00PM EST
Tuesday, April 15: 3:00PM EST
Tuesday, July 15: 3:00PM EST
Connect via the link: https://familyconnects-org.zoom.us/j/87169435107?pwd=TloRkbX2vCf64zexkz7wbTLCoMX9X9.1
Meeting ID: 871 6943 5107
Passcode: 803649
Universal Home Visiting for newborns and their families is our priority at Family Connects International. We have made it our mission to strengthen connections for families with newborns and link them directly to health and community care resources. Learn more about Family Connects International today!
Last November, Washington-Pierce County became a certified Family Connects Community Partner. In this post for our blog series “FCI Voices for Universal Newborn Care”, we will learn from Pierce County about the importance of certification in their own words.
When we launched Family Connects Pierce County in March 2021, we really had no idea if the program would take or what impact we could truly have on families in our community. What we did know, is that we were confident in our local leaders’ decision to choose a reputable national program able to respond to Pierce County’s enduring child welfare crisis, and confident that our implementing agencies were capable and equipped to deliver the program effectively. Achieving certification means so much to us in Pierce County. As the only Family Connects site operating in Washington State, certification adds credibility to our program. When families feel like they can trust a program and trust our nurses, they will seek the postpartum care they need and deserve, and we can provide the most comprehensive wraparound support to them.
Our road to certification felt very much like a rollercoaster. As soon as we felt like things were moving along well, we would be humbled by a hiccup requiring a swift change in course to respond and redirect. Our implementation specialist was right there with us from the start, and we honestly could not have achieved as much as we did so early in implementation without her thoughtful feedback, knowledge of our unique community, attention to detail, and moving data. When FCI transitioned to a nonprofit and assigned a new implementation specialist, we felt equipped to pivot and continue to support our families with the best postpartum support knowing we built a strong foundation. We are grateful to FCI for their grace in answering our questions and supporting our team along the way.
I would encourage interested communities to first really center the community’s voice in deciding if this program is a right fit for them. Once you’ve achieved that decision, hop on the rollercoaster, and enjoy the ride. There is beauty in the journey, and for us, that beauty has been learning with and from other Family Connects sites, which has only bolstered our local Family Connects program. We have especially found beauty in the families we’ve served, who have trusted us wholeheartedly with a completely new way of thinking about postpartum and the fourth trimester. Without them, there would be no Family Connects Pierce County.
Thank you, Pierce County, for sharing your experience and for providing resources and home-visiting care throughout the year! Interested in launching a Family Connects Partnership? Visit FamilyConnects.org today to learn more!
“They don’t really feel like just nurses coming out to your house,” Rosson said. “The way they speak is more encouraging, and they just make sure you’re OK,” Family Connects Union County participant Hannah Rosson shared in a recent story that ran in both the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the El Dorado Times “Program in south Arkansas provides free nurse visits to mothers with newborns.”
Family Connects Union County, located in El Dorado, Arkansas, is a certified Family Connects partner and nurses have been providing visits in their community since 2019. Arkansas state house Representative Julie Mayberry introduced HB 1103 in 2023, which directs the state Department of Health to establish a universal newborn home nurse visitation program and required health plans to cover the services offered by the program.
Read the full story here: https://www.eldoradonews.com/news/2023/dec/27/program-in-south-arkansas-provides-free-nurse/
Learn more about Family Connects Union County: https://www.arhomevisiting.org/modelname/fcuc/
Family Connects
Contact
3710 University Dr,
Suite 310,
Durham, NC 27707
info@familyconnects.org