The Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions (FAHSC) and Sunshine Health have partnered to deliver a program outreach campaign about home visiting programs available through Florida Healthy Start’s Connect coordinated intake and referral program. The goal of the campaign is to increase awareness about the type of customized support home visiting offers both before and after childbirth. Home visiting is a form of family support wherein a trained professional, such as a nurse, social worker or early childhood specialist, meets with expecting or new mothers and their families at their home or another preferred location to provide one-on-one support focused on parenting and childbirth education, healthy child development and access to community resources.
More specifically, the partnership between FAHSC and Sunshine Health supports expectant and new mothers with resources to help them navigate motherhood. This support includes services that support moms in Florida’s more rural counties, such as prenatal and perinatal care through education and outreach to ensure that moms have access to personalized support for their families. FAHSC and Sunshine Health will also work hand-in-hand with community partners and service providers to improve pregnancy outcomes, decrease the rates of infant mortality, pre-term births, and low birth weight and promote enhanced birth and developmental outcomes of children ages birth to three years old.
Research shows that the return on investment for home visiting programs is between $1.75 to $5.70 for every dollar spent1. Home visiting is also shown to reduce child abuse and neglect2, improve school readiness for children4, increase high school graduation rates for mothers1, lead to better education and employment outcomes for parents3, and result in better birth outcomes1.
FAHSC harnesses the power of over 30 years as a leading nonprofit in the state of Florida to improve the lives of families through services developed to meet the needs of pregnant and post-partum women, fathers, infants and young children up to age three. FAHSC supports 32 Healthy Start Coalitions throughout the state that administer specialized maternal and child health services, such as home visiting.
Sunshine Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation, serves more than 2.4 million members statewide. Offering coordinated care and a network of support for members, Sunshine Health transforms the health of the community one person at a time through government-sponsored managed care and specialty plans. Together, FAHSC and Sunshine Health form a dynamic partnership that’s uniquely poised to make a difference in the lives of Florida families and ensure that every baby has a healthy start in life.
To learn more about home visiting, visit flhomevisiting.com
Sources:
1Brief home visiting: Improving Outcomes for Children. National Conference of State Legislatures. (n.d.). https://www.ncsl.org/human-services/home-visiting-improving-outcomes-for-children:
2 Del Grosso, P., Hargreaves, M., Paulsell, D., Vogel, C., Strong, D. A., Zaveri, H., . . . Daro, D. (2011). Building infrastructure to support home visiting to prevent child maltreatment: Two-year findings from the cross-site evaluation of the Supporting Evidence-Based Home Visiting initiative. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau. Contract No.: GS-10F-0050L/HHSP233200800065W. Available from Mathematica Policy Research, Princeton, NJ.
3National Home Visiting Resource Center. (2018). Home Visiting Primer. Arlington, VA: James Bell Associates and the Urban Institute.
4Kelley, G. (n.d.). Impacts of home visiting programs on young children’s school readiness. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. https://www.child-encyclopedia.com/home-visiting/according-experts/impacts-home-visiting-programs-young-childrens-school-readiness