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Engaging Communities In Prevention
The Healthy Families of the Twin Rivers
The Need
The community needs assessment continues to demonstrate the concern for young mothers and their families, their health habits, and need for community support. Past experience in working with these families have proven home visiting programs that combine health education, prevention and are supportive of the unique needs of young mothers in the community are successful. Helping families understand their own healthcare choices and making connections with helping agencies in the community, encourage healthy parenting and lifestyle choices.
Actions
A home visitation program for pregnant young mothers and young mothers with young children uses community referrals to reach out to young women who are isolated, and have risk factors for healthy babies and toddlers, such as smoking. This program follows the mother during her pregnancy, through the baby's first year, with supportive education, counseling, smoking cessation programming and peer support. Parents are encouraged to actively become baby's first teachers and understand how smoking in the home impacts infants and toddlers, as well as parent's health. Home visitors have special training to work with parents as baby's first teacher.
Involvement
Franklin Visiting Nurses Association and HealthFirst Family Care Center staff the program with social workers who are familiar with community resources and referrals come from health care providers and social service agencies. Funding for the program comes from Rural Health Network Development Grant.
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