Press Clips - Family Connects International

Family Connects is called out in the 2023 National Governors Association’s Annual Meeting

The National Governors Association’s 2023 Annual Meeting is being held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, from July 12th – July 14th. The Annual Meeting is an opportunity for Governors to share best practices and work together to solve the problems our states, and our nation, are facing. This year includes a session on Improving Infant and Maternal Health.

Family Connects is the only program called out by name in the Governor’s playbook developed by First Lady Murphy, First Lady of NJ and 2022-2023 Chair of the National Governors Association Spouses Program.

Click here to visit their website.

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FCI Receives Foundation Support from Valhalla

FCI is proud to announce that the Valhalla Foundation has awarded FCI a grant. The Valhalla Foundation has been committed to improving childhood readiness, among other significant causes, and acknowledges the impact that FCI has on communities and families in the States. FCI would like to thank the Valhalla Foundation for their generous support! With Valhalla’s support and organizations like Valhalla, FCI can continue to provide equitable support to newborns and their families nationwide.

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FCI Receives Foundation Support from Duke Endowment

FCI received a grant from Duke Endowment! The Duke Endowment has assisted people and communities in the Carolinas since 1924. This grant received from the place-based funder supports FCI’s leadership, providing quality assurance and sustainability for the North Carolina and South Carolina Family initiatives. This award is evidence of the tangible impact of FCI on the Carolinas and nation. FCI would like to thank Duke Endowment for their generous support!

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Family Connects in Greenville Makes The News (video)!

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Starting Early

By the Burke Foundation ● Apr 07, 2023

Welcome to Starting Early. Every other week, we spotlight new reports, useful news, engaging interviews with people doing important work, and interesting takes on maternal health and early childhood development issues.

Having a new baby is a huge life transition. Every family needs support during this time. Home visiting is one of the best ways to do so, by pairing expectant and new parents with a designated support person – a nurse, social worker, or early childhood specialist — who lifts up the innate wisdom of each family and offers individualized, strengths-based support.

In the news: Last December, Congress reauthorized the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program and doubled its funding – gradually increasing it to $800 million. MIECHV supports 20 evidence-based home visiting models.

The partnership between families and home visitors, built on a foundation of trust, supports healthy parent-child relationships, and encourages positive family health, development and overall well-being. All of these factors ultimately lay a strong foundation for a child’s health and success, so with this latest win, more children will have the opportunity to thrive. — Kelly Woodlock, Start Early’s vice president, national home visiting

In 2021, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation offering universal newborn home visiting to all families – which means that every parent in the state with a new baby will receive one free nurse home visit.

Read on and click the links to go deeper.

1 big thing: Home visiting provides new parents a great start

Home visiting is free, voluntary, and provided in the family’s home or another location of their choice. Participating families are more likely to:

Attend pediatric well-visits
Receive screenings and referrals for developmental delays and school readiness
Have fewer ER visits
Experience less child abuse and neglect

Home visiting programs meet families where they are through a variety of approaches from clinicians to early childhood specialists. Here are a few examples:

Nurses: Nurses provide home visits for the Family Connects and Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) programs. Family Connects, a universal program, provides 1-3 nurse visits starting about 3 weeks after birth. NFP nurses serves first-time, income-eligible pregnant individuals. These regular home visits start before 28 weeks of pregnancy and continue until the baby is 2 years old.
Innovative staffing models: Parent as Teachers (PAT) in St. Louis offers a community doula program centered on eliminating Black maternal mortality. PAT affiliates in Massachusetts hire staff with lived experience with substance use disorder to better connect with parents affected by it.
Wraparound services: Other programs, including Early Head Start and Head Start and AVANCE, offer home visits alongside early childhood classes and such other services as health education and community resources.

Why it matters: The “fourth trimester”— the time right after giving birth — is a transformative period. Home visiting provides critical support for babies and birthing people, who don’t always get the attention they need post-birth.

Yes, but: Lots of innovative, peer-to-peer programs don’t make the list for federal funding and fathers are often left out. There is more to be done to comprehensively serve families.

2. Bringing care home: New Jersey’s universal newborn home visiting program

Family Connects Mercer County nurses.

Since 2021, the Burke Foundation, New Jersey Department of Children and Families, Trenton Health Team, and the Central Jersey Family Health Consortium have partnered on the first universal newborn home visiting pilot in New Jersey. Offering at least one free visit to all families who deliver at Capital Health Medical Center, the pilot uses the Family Connects model, where nurses provide supportive guidance, answer questions about newborn care, and connect families to community resources.

Offering home visits to every family can reduce the stigma associated with existing referral-based home visiting programs.

By the numbers: By December 2022, the program’s nurses made more than 400 home visits and 850+ referrals to community resources. The initiative recently held its first Community Convening with almost 50 nonprofit leaders to share learnings and challenges from the pilot and grow the system of support for families in the first 1,000 days.

Families deeply appreciate their home visits with Family Connects Mercer County, sharing:

Navigating the healthcare system: “My nurse helped me sort out all the NICU stuff, medical insurance and pediatrician information. She was so helpful at that moment with just having given birth and a baby at the NICU. I didn’t feel strong. She helped me feel much better.”
Getting critical care: “I fell into postpartum depression with my first child. For me, it was nice to have help this time around. To know where to seek help in case I fell into postpartum depression again.”
Needing support: “I wish I had this service when I had my 2 other children. To know that even after leaving the hospital there will be someone to help you and make sure you and baby are fine is wonderful.”

What’s next: New Jersey starts rolling out the expansion of universal newborn home visiting later this year. Partnering with the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, the Burke Foundation is centering parent voices in the rollout and bolstering the nursing workforce to help all New Jersey families thrive.

🎧 What they’re saying: New Jersey parents feel it’s critical that home visitors provide culturally-competent care and address maternal mental health, according to outreach to hundreds of families of color and focus groups conducted by Kivvit – a strategic communications firm.
🩺 Building and supporting a diverse nursing workforce: New Jersey faces a severe nursing shortage, which is one of the biggest barriers to the program’s rollout. What’s more: 58% of New Jersey’s nurses are white despite 55% of New Jersey babies being born to parents of color. Spanish is the second most common spoken language — highlighting the need for a bilingual, culturally-competent workforce. We worked with EY-Parthenon to determine the best approaches to recruit and retain nurses of color – making sure New Jersey’s nursing workforce aligns with the people they are serving.

3 questions with nurse leader and public health advocate Essence Sutherland

Essence Sutherland, nurse manager for Family Connects Mercer County

We talked with Essence Sutherland, nurse manager for Family Connects Mercer County. A nurse for over 13 years, she became passionate about home visiting while working for the Nurse-Family Partnership. Previously, Essence practiced midwifery. Here are highlights from our conversation:

What does a Family Connects home visit look like?

Family Connects home visiting provides short-term compassionate, trauma-informed, non-judgmental care coupled with connections to community support and resources. Nurses see clients 2 to 3 weeks postpartum, mostly in clients’ homes, though telehealth is an option. Nurses do an in-depth maternal and child health assessment — a full “head to toe” of mother and baby. There’s also a series of screens, including for depression and partner violence, and one for substance abuse. We talk about SIDS prevention, safe sleep, and what to do if the baby experiences colic. And we talk a lot about parent and child behaviors: how to act around your child, how to recognize baby cues. The goal is to increase positive parenting behavior and enhance the parent-child relationship.

One of the most important parts of the visit is connecting clients with resources, hence the name “Family Connects.” We provide referrals during the visit, then follow up a week later.

What barriers prevent people from having a home visit? Have you faced barriers to implementing the program?

For us, one barrier was getting word out about our program. We recently held a meeting with invited community partners in Mercer County to help promote the program. Everybody should be on the same page in recognizing the goals and benefits of home visits — to better serve clients and advance maternal and child health.

When we started the visits, we didn’t anticipate the many undocumented clients that would enroll and need a variety of resources. We help connect them to health insurance, employment resources, and child care services.

How do nurses develop clients’ trust?

Family Connects has a diverse team of nurses from the community who recognize the issues clients face. For example, our three bilingual, Spanish-speaking nurses connect with and relate to our clients on a totally different level. One was a community health worker before she was inspired to attend nursing school. Speaking to clients in their language, in a way they understand, opens the door to trust.

Many in the BIPOC community distrust the medical system because of the history of experimentation in Black and Brown communities. Having someone come to your home — someone that looks like you and who recognizes the struggle — opens a window for trust as well.

Home visiting gives you the opportunity to meet the client where they’re at because the client is the expert on their own life.

The roundup

Learn about upcoming events, new funding opportunities, and jobs in maternal and infant health and early childhood:

Sound the alarm: New National Center for Health Statistics data shows US maternal mortality at its highest level since 1965. Black mothers are the most affected. Learn more here.
From data to action: Advocates for Children of New Jersey is hosting community conversations to review Trenton Kids Count 2023 data and brainstorm ways to serve the needs of Trenton children. The next conversation, April 19, will focus on juvenile justice and crime. Click here to view the report and register to attend.
Advancing birth equity: The Perinatal Health Equity Initiative will host the Birth Equity Conference in Newark, NJ, May 19-21. Sign up here.
Supporting doulas: Register for HealthConnect One’s Birth & Beyond Summit in College Park, MD, June 20-22.

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Chicago can become a model for reforming public health

What is needed is a rock-solid moral and financial commitment by elected officials in Illinois to continue to support public health. That includes pre- and post-natal care.

I was pleasantly surprised by a Chicago Med episode earlier this year that highlighted #FamilyConnectsChi, a program that was piloted at Rush Medical Center. The scene opens with an indignant physician demanding funding for this program, which provides home visits for mothers and babies during the critical first six weeks postpartum.

The program aims to improve maternal health, which is one important marker for public health.

Maternal mortality in Illinois emerged as a serious concern in 2018, with the inaugural release of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report.

Even though I am a maternal-child and community health specialist, I was astounded by the statewide trends in maternal and pregnancy-related deaths. Non-Hispanic Black women experienced six times the risk of death compared to their white counterparts. Even accounting for chronic health conditions like obesity, nearly three in four pregnancy-related deaths (72%) were deemed preventable. In an updated report in 2021, four in five pregnancy-related deaths (80%) were deemed preventable.

To address the problems, IDPH recommendations included expanding home visiting programs, especially early in the postpartum period, which led to the adoption of the Family Connects International program in Chicago.

Home visiting has been proven to be effective for nearly half a century, with significant benefits to the health and lives of first-time moms and their children who are affected by social and economic inequality. The return on investment is significant: For every dollar spent on these efforts, at least $2 are saved on future spending.

The adoption of home visiting programs could be a powerful model for other preventative efforts — for example, programs to address chronic health issues like diabetes, heart disease, etc. — that could improve public health overall.

To be sure, this is not news. But better access to primary health care would improve health outcomes for cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 killer of people in this country, and the myriad other health conditions that plague our country. As many of these deaths arising from these conditions are preventable, we must ask: Why are we not committed to preventing them?

The answer? Money. Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady stresses the need for a “more sensible, sustainable approach to promoting and protecting the nation’s health.”

Yet our public health infrastructure is chronically underfunded. We all witnessed the outcome during the COVID-19 pandemic. People without access to care, and those with chronic health conditions, fared the worst.

The federal government’s emergency pandemic funding was a vital Band-Aid but ultimately represents a reactionary, stop-gap approach.

What is needed instead is a rock-solid moral and financial commitment by elected officials in Illinois to continue to support public health efforts, including monitoring and prevention of infectious and chronic diseases, pre- and post-natal care, and the promotion of behavioral health.

Health in all policies

COVID-19 showed us our communities’ best and worst. For clinicians dedicated to public health, the pandemic provided an urgent and unique opportunity to put infrastructure into place to address the health needs of the general population.

I’m proud Illinois is leading the way. In December 2022, Illinois was the first to be awarded $86 million in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for public health infrastructure, with an additional $28 million awarded to the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). This award will support ongoing programs, including Family Connects, and address health disparities.

As Chicago awaits a new mayoral administration, it is imperative this issue rises to the top of the political agenda. We have an extraordinary opportunity to build on our collective experience and advocate for the development of Health in All Policies (HiAP), to integrate health considerations into all of our policymaking.

We’d frankly be foolish to squander the opportunity to support a healthier city and become a model for the nation.

Yasmin Cavenagh, DNP, MPH, RN, is an assistant professor in the department of Women, Children and Family Nursing at Rush University and holds a faculty practice role in Family Connects. Cavenagh is a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project.

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County program offers at-home care to newborns, parents

By Emmett Gartner egartner@newspost.com
Mar 15, 2023

When a nurse from Frederick Health visited new mother Jamie Hodge and her weeks-old daughter Mallory, the nurse asked Hodge questions she hadn’t heard much since giving birth.

“How are you doing? What do you need?” the nurse, Gillian Carey, asked.

Hodge said those questions were common during her pregnancy, but waned as attention shifted to her newborn.

“It kind of makes you feel human again,” Hodge said. “It’s that moment where I matter. … And I think new moms kind of forget that.”

The program that dispatched Carey to Hodge’s home in Frederick — Family Connects Frederick County — was launched in January. It offers a home visit by a registered nurse to any family with a baby delivered at Frederick Health Hospital.

In 2022, Frederick County allocated $8 million of federal funding it received through the American Recovery Plan Act to create the program. Frederick Health, the county’s largest health care provider, was in charge of its implementation.

The foundations of the program were created by a task force within the local Health Care Coalition and leadership from Pilar Olivo, a liaison for the county’s Office of Children and Families.

Olivo and the task force have worked for years to raise awareness and reduce the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences in Frederick County. The new Family Connects program has aided in that initiative.

Staff photo by Katina Zentz. Jamie Hodge holds her infant daughter, Mallory, in their home’s doorway on Tuesday. Hodge has used Frederick Health’s at-home service, which includes visits from nurses and well-being assessments.

Frederick Health spokesperson Sara Jackson wrote in an email that 11 nurses are assigned to the program and 337 families have scheduled a home visit since Jan. 1.

That accounts for more than 80% of Frederick County families who have had a baby at Frederick Health in that time span, according to Jackson.

During visits, primary caregivers like Hodge and their infants get a health and well-being assessment and additional resources on lactation, nutrition and child care.

For Hodge, one of the most beneficial aspects of the program was the support Carey provided after the visit.

Hodge said Carey has been a pivotal source in answering questions and supporting her as she navigates being a mother for the first time.

“Any questions I had, no matter how insignificant I thought they were, she would answer them,” Hodge said.

That included questions about when to move up in diaper size for Mallory, concerns Hodge and her husband, Michael Hodge, had about Mallory’s weight gain, and general questions about formula.

Hodge said that although she and her husband have a robust family network to help with Mallory, it was especially beneficial to have a more objective expert in Carey to provide initial guidance.

“I knew that her being part of the hospital, she’s a mandated reporter to the state,” Hodge said. “So, if she found anything wrong with the baby, she was going to call. … I would want somebody to make sure the baby’s safe, no matter what the circumstances.”

For Carey, Family Connects has offered her an enriching professional experience through face-to-face time with families.

“I’ve never felt more fulfilled as a nurse in 12 years than I have sitting down with these mothers, having a conversation and supporting them through some of the hardest days that they will have with their newborn,” Carey said.

With that understanding of difficulty, Carey is sure to ask about the parents’ well being, like she did with the Hodges.

Jamie Hodge said it was when Carey asked how her husband was doing that she realized that question, too, was often overlooked.

“Her question stuck with me the entire time that she was here and even after she left,” Hodge said. “Nobody thinks to ask the spouse or the partner how they’re doing.”

Since Carey’s visit, Hodge has seen Mallory develop a unique personality, intrigued by trees in the family’s backyard and the deep pitch of male voices.

“She loves the deep voice,” Hodge said. “She is very good with her eyesight and her tracking, so if you’re talking, she will look for you. … And she loves looking out the window and seeing the trees move.”

Hodge said the prioritization Carey and others have provided her and her mental health have helped her be the best possible parent she can be to Mallory.

“You have to take care of yourself, your mental health, because if you’re not, that baby is not going to have the best version of you,” Hodge said.

Original article: Click Here