Category: Press Clips

Pictured: Family Connects Union County Director of Women’s Services, Alison Stone, and Family Connects Home Visitor, Heidi Klappenbach (Source: https://www.arcf.org/give-smart-blog/following-baby-back-home/)

“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/

FC New Orleans had their launch event on August 1, 2023! They held a press conference at the Greater New Orleans Foundation and invited New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell and District B council member, Lesli Harris to share their excitement with the Family Connects program.

Link to article online: https://www.nola.com/news/new-orleans-families-with-newborns-will-receive-free-at-home-visits-through-new-city-program/article_4c6fffb6-3149-11ee-8277-332fd5caf0f3.html

 

*Click on the images for larger versions. 

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The SXSW PanelPicker is a two-step online process that gives our attendees a significant voice in Conference programming (presentations, panels, workshops, etc.) for SXSW and SXSW EDU. FCI is listed under SXSW EDU for 2024.

SXSW is March 4-7 in Austin, Texas. Read more about the PanelPicker process here.
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Family Connects International is being recognized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and AIM (Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health) for safe postpartum transitions to home! FCI was recognized as a change leader that: Utilize perinatal navigators, case managers, social workers, and postpartum home visiting programs where available to liaise with community resources and to ensure referral loops get closed.

Click here to download the Postpartum Discharge Transition Change Package (PDF).

Note: FCI is recognized on page 18 of the PDF.

 

 

 

 

BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE | Staff writer Aug 2, 2023

 

Families with newborns in New Orleans will have access to free at-home nurse visits beginning this fall, as the city works to address the persistent health challenges facing mothers and babies.

The program, a partnership between the city’s health department, Ochsner Baptist, and Touro Infirmary, will provide up to three in-home visits for infants born at the two hospitals. The check-ins will occur during the first 12 weeks of a baby’s life.

By working with the two Uptown hospitals, the program — called Family Connects New Orleans — will serve the majority of children born in the city. In 2020, 70% of infants were born at those facilities, according to the health department.

“Maternal and child health is one of the leading indicators of the overall health of a community,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement. “In order for our city to thrive, we must continue to prioritize care and services for mothers and children. When they are safe, healthy, supported, and given proper resources to grow and learn, our communities succeed socially and economically.”

Before leaving the hospital, families will be scheduled for an initial home visit. Each visit will include health screenings for the mother and baby, as well as a family assessment for “environmental, behavioral, and social needs.”

The program will cost $1.5 million a year and is being paid for by the city with federal American Rescue Plan funds. It is currently slated to run for three years, but Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Wednesday that she hopes it will continue well beyond that.

New Orleans is one of about 40 cities nationwide to adopt the Family Connects model, pioneered by the nonprofit Family Connects International.

 

Maternal health challenges

Louisiana has long struggled with high rates of maternal and infant mortality and remains stuck near the top of nationwide rankings.

Touro Infirmary, for one, was highlighted in 2019 for its unusually high rates of severe childbirth complications, which USA Today found to be higher than any other New Orleans hospital. At the time, hospital officials said they objected to the article’s use of billing data to look at rates of complications and failed to account for different rates of health vulnerabilities of patients between hospitals.

Hospital representatives did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

Most pregnancy-associated deaths in the state occur in the first six weeks after birth and the majority are preventable, city health officials say.

A recent study found that accidental overdoses and heart conditions ranked near the top of the list for causes of death of pregnant women in Louisiana.

The infant mortality rate also exceeded the national average in New Orleans between 2017 and 2019, with significantly higher rates among Black babies, according to the Louisiana Perinatal Mortality Review Committee report.

Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the city’s health director, recently appeared on “60 Minutes” to discuss the additional challenges to maternal health posed by recently enacted abortion bans. The new restrictions have led some Louisiana health care providers to fear that treatments for problematic pregnancies or miscarriages could be viewed as providing illegal abortions.

The new program will give the city a way to connect families with other services, said Cantrell.

“It allows us to build trust, get into that home and also triage any other issues… that may be happening in the home,” she said.

 

Original article: https://www.nola.com/news/new-orleans-families-with-newborns-will-receive-free-at-home-visits-through-new-city-program/article_4c6fffb6-3149-11ee-8277-332fd5caf0f3.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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!

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.

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:

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

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

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.

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

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.

 

3 questions with nurse leader and public health advocate Essence Sutherland

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: