Grant - Health - Intensive Home Visiting Grant and Establishment of New Time Limited Positions - 04-07-1998 - 9f

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4 Attachment ~ Executive Summary* Focus On Families: Intensive Home Visiting Program The Orange County Health Department, in conjunction with numerous community agencies, submitted a proposal to the Division of Women's and Children's Health, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services for $105,000 the first year and $100,000 the second year to develop an Intensive Home Visiting Program. The total budget for the second year is $157,865 supported by $100,000 from the Division of Women's and Children's Health, $41,900 from the Orange County Partnership for Young Children and $15,965 in Medicaid revenue. Focus on Families which is based on the Healthy Families Model, will target families with children ages three or younger who are at highest risk for child abuse and neglect because of either the parent's or child's health or psychosocial problems. The project will increase the capacity of the Orange County health and human service delivery system to identify and meet the needs of high- risk families. Addressing child abuse and neglect and poor parenting are the top priorities of various community groups including the Orange County Partnership for Young Children and the county's Healthy Carolinians Task Force. The lack of comprehensive home visiting services is a critical gap in the current service delivery system. Focus on Families will provide intensive home visiting services including weekly home visits focusing on family support, parent-child interaction and child health and development consistent with the Healthy Families Model curriculum. Families will receive services on a voluntary basis until the child reaches age three. For those families enrolled in the program, the goals will be to improve parent-child interaction, ensure adequate use of preventive family support services, and decrease child maltreatment. The program is based on a collaborative integration of multiple programs that provide support services to families in Orange County. Key features include universal support screening, a central portal for intake and referral and customized and integrated family intervention services. An expanded Child Service Coordination system will provide centralized family assessment and community coordination of services. A Home Visit Collaboration Team will assure smooth transition and coordination of direct services for families. With the family's interest and involvement, the most appropriate. service provider(s) will be determined and referral will be established. Any family identified as needing and wanting intensive home visiting because of high-risk circumstances will be served by this project. The project will be staffed by a project coordinator, a social worker, a nurse, an intake and referral worker and apart-time office assistant. The project coordinator position will be funded by amending the current grant from the Orange County Partnership for Young Children for enhancement of the Child Service Coordination Program. Also, additional funds will be sought from the Partnership for partial support of the Focus on Families Program. Universal support screening of newborns not previously screened will be accomplished through a contractual arrangement with UNC Hospitals. In addition, a team of volunteers will be recruited and trained to provide a paraprofessional support team approach for these home visiting services. h:\pershlth\eileen\ihvexec2 *From the grant proposal submitted to the N.C. Division of Women's and Children's Health