Author Archive for: mac@familyconnects.org

Entries by Mac Cady

Gov. Mike DeWine (Ohio) Announces Launch of Family Connects Ohio in 11 communities with plans to reach statewide in 2024 State of the State Address

The video above has been set to play right before Governor DeWine starts speaking about Family Connects at the 39 minute mark.

“I’m also pleased today to announce that we will be launching a new pilot program in 11 Ohio counties that we’re calling Family Connects. Every new mom will be eligible in these 11 counties to receive a visit from a nurse about 3 weeks after delivering her baby. These visiting nurses can guide families to clinical or community supports, recognize when a mom and a baby may need additional help as a result of exhaustion or trouble with breastfeeding, and remind or teach new moms about how a baby can sleep safely. Similar programs that we’ve looked at have shown a track record of reducing infant mortality. In places where these programs have been implemented rates of Child Protective Services investigations have decreased by 44% and mothers have shown a 30% drop in postpartum depression and a 50% reduction in emergency room visits. In our next budget that I’ll present to you next year, I’ll be asking you for additional support to take that Family Connects program statewide.”

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2024 Community Partner Cohort Learning Series

Prepare to trade your regular TA session for something truly special 4 times this year! We are thrilled to extend an exclusive invitation to join us for these unique sessions. To ensure a seamless experience, we kindly request all Community Partners to sign up by the 1st of the month for any session that piques your interest. Once you’re on board, your usual TA session for that month will be replaced, paving the way for this exciting change that focuses on enhancing networking and learning from peers across the country.

March 18th - 1:00p.m. EST

Everything You Ever Wanted to
Know about the Fidelity
Requirements Assessment Tool

Click here for the webinar link:
https://familyconnects-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1FnPKS2PRoedzzTmC-ZXmA#/registration

June 3rd - 1:00p.m. EST

Strategies, Successes, and
Opportunities Delivering Family
Connects in Rural Communities

Click here for the webinar link:
https://familyconnects-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JKKpo9nJRCWRYzysNpykkg#/registration

September 16th - 1:00p.m. EST

Social Media 101

Click here for the webinar link:
https://familyconnects-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_P73BlO9iT56ly1kYT_DJgA#/registration

December 2nd - 1:00p.m. EST

Home Visitor Safety
Tools and Practices

Click here for the webinar link:
https://familyconnects-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0QM9FOEFSBm6BjmiIoyP5w#/registration

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Breaking Barriers: Advancing Maternal Health through Policy and Practice

Advocates gather outside of Rep. Jeff Jackson’s office after a meeting.

By: Melea Rose-Waters, MSW, Senior Policy Director, Family Connects International

 

Participants who attended the National Home Visiting Summit had a busy and productive day on Capitol Hill! From January 31 to February 2, 2024, our Nation’s Capital was filled with advocates for children and families as they attended the National Home Visiting Summit. During this part-advocacy and part-educational event, participants were given the opportunity to schedule meetings with their congressional delegation, also known as Hill visits. These meetings were organized by a state lead and guided by preparation provided by the Start Early Community of Practice on Advocacy and Policy and a strategy session the morning of the visits on January 31st. 

Family Connects International’s senior policy director, Melea Rose-Waters, organized meetings with members of Congress across different states and participated in visits with a number of advocates from home visiting models, early literacy groups, community-based organizations, and academia. We walked the halls of Congress and sat at tables together with members and staffers with a common goal: raising awareness for the need to support children and families.

Moving Upstream 

A holistic approach to child and family support begins upstream, and the United States is currently facing a maternal mortality public health crisis. The U.S. has the highest pregnancy-related death rate among developed nations and that rate rose a staggering 40% in 2021 compared to the previous year. The maternal mortality rate for Black women is nearly three times higher than the rate for white, non-Hispanic women. These stats beg the question: how is this happening in a country with one of the most advanced health care systems in the world? 

There isn’t one simple solution to prevent potential health complications postpartum, but there is certainly more we could be doing as a country today to demonstrate that the health and well-being of moms and babies is a priority. 

Family Connects: A Universal Solution to a Preventable Crisis 

Family Connects is an evidence-based program where a nurse visits families with newborns in the first few weeks postpartum. In the select communities where the service is available, it is offered universally to everyone and at no cost to the family. A visit is scheduled with the family before leaving the hospital and three weeks later, the nurse comes to the home to visit mom and baby. The visit is an extension of the medical care provided by their OBGYN and can bridge a gap between the family and an entire community system of care that is available – from childcare resources to breastfeeding support.  

Medical assessments aren’t the only areas that the nurses cover during visits. They carry with them a wealth of knowledge about the best care for moms and newborns, and they help connect families to the resources that are available to them in their communities. The program has been shown to reduce postpartum anxiety, increase the likelihood that mom attends the recommended six-week postpartum health check, and improve overall health and well-being for both mom and baby. 

In the US, infants typically visit their pediatricians several times in the first few weeks of life, yet moms are typically seen by their providers about six weeks postpartum, leaving a six-week span of zero care. For some moms, these visits are a matter of life and death.

 

A Call to Action for Policymakers and Providers 

The Washington Post featured an op-ed on August 18th, 2023 titled “Want to fix America’s maternal health crisis? Here’s where to start” that highlighted data-driven policy recommendations to provide the best maternity care. These recommendations underscore themes that maternal health experts have been saying for decades: what we’re doing isn’t working.  

Providers need to pay more attention to the health and well-being of moms during the postpartum period, prioritize equity to address maternal mortality risks that are disproportionately impacting people of color, and look to what has worked well in other countries to improve maternal health outcomes. A call to action for both policymakers and the medical community, with a roadmap of strategies that can change outcomes and support families during a vulnerable – and sometimes scary – life transition into parenting a newborn. 

A Gold Standard of Postpartum Care 

Currently, two states are bringing Family Connects statewide, and there is a scattering of communities across the country that have also seen the value in nurse visits for new moms. A national crisis like the maternal mortality rate needs innovative, universal solutions. What we’re doing isn’t enough and it isn’t working. Moms and families deserve more. Imagine what is possible with a gold standard of postpartum care that includes a holistic approach that starts prenatally and continues well into the fourth trimester – the critical time postpartum that is most dangerous for new moms, with the highest risk of maternal death occurring during the first 42 days postpartum. Family Connects nurses are saving lives. 

Want to know how you can meet with your policymakers? Stay tuned for our next blog post for Community Partners on how to organize and execute effective meetings with policymakers.

Learn more about the policy priorities for Family Connects International, the home office of Family Connects located in Durham, NC, or connect directly with us at melea@familyconnects.org.  Want to learn more about the Home Visiting Summit? Check out this blog post from Start Early on Four Takeaways from the National Home Visiting Summit. 

Bridging gaps in Chicago’s postpartum health care coverage

A city program provides free, at-home medical visits to new parents. by Katie Schulder-Battis February 13, 2024 https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/postpartum-care-family-connects/ After Kristen Nuyen gave birth to her son in September, she received a free, at-home medical visit through Family Connects, a Chicago Department of Public Health program that partners with participating hospitals around the city. Nuyen expected the standard, […]

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Family Connects at the National Home Visiting Summit

On February 2nd, FCI’s Acting CEO, Jenny Jensen, presented with Family Connects Frederick County (Maryland) at the National Home Visiting Summit held in Washington, DC. Their presentation “Redesigning Postpartum Health Care to Include Universal Nurse Home Visits” highlighted the postpartum experience and innovative health care. FC Frederick County has been a certified partner since 2023 and you can learn more about their work at https://www.frederickhealth.org/…/nurse-visit-at-home

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FCI Voices: The Importance of Nurse Home Visiting & its Role in Detecting Birth Defects

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.

Acting CEO Jenny Jensen, MSN, MPH, RN

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!

Nurses Remain the Most Trusted Professionals in the United States for the 22nd Consecutive Year!

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.

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