Family Environment Feed

Mobile Clinic Provides Comprehensive Medical Home for Homeless and At-Risk Youth, Reducing Use of Emergency Department and More Followup Care

CHS orange AHRQ Innovations Exchange, Children's Health Fund, HomeBase Youth Services, and Phoenix Children's Hospital,

Summary

A collaborative partnership between Phoenix Children’s Hospital, HomeBase Youth Services, and Children’s Health Fund, Crews’n Healthmobile Homeless Youth Program operates a free-standing clinic and a mobile medical unit that provide hope and holistic health care to Arizona's homeless and at-risk youth and young families. Preventive and comprehensive services include medical, health education, and mental health services at numerous sites where homeless and other at-risk youth gather in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Through partnerships with community agencies, the clinic also provides referrals for needed followup services, including medical and dental care and social services. Regular program participants utilize the emergency department less frequently and are more likely to receive followup care, while both patients and providers report high levels of satisfaction with the program.

Read the Innovation Profile here.

in Addiction & Substance Abuse, Family Environment, Music, Violence Prevention |

Inter-Agency Collaborative Provides Home Visits, Specialized Support to At-Risk Families, Leading to Better Prenatal Care, Less Child Abuse, and Fewer Early Childhood Deaths

CHS orange  AHRQ Innovations Exchange, Family Support Collaborative; Sacramento (CA) County Department of Health and Human Services, Birth & Beyond,  March 2010.



Summary

Birth & Beyond is a voluntary program that provides periodic home visits from trained paraprofessionals, including AmeriCorps members, and specialized support services to high-risk families in select Sacramento County neighborhoods. The program facilitates access to prenatal care, health-related evaluations and services, parenting support, and other appropriate support services, with the goal of reducing the risk of poor birth outcomes and child abuse. The program also operates eight Family Resource Centers in the targeted neighborhoods that have high rates of child abuse. The program improves parenting skills, prenatal care, breastfeeding, immunization rates, and employment prospects, and reduces incidence of depression and family violence. These improvements have, in turn, led to less child abuse and fewer early childhood deaths.

Click here to read the complete AHRQ Innovation Profile.

in Family Environment, Outpatient Services , Social Supports, Systems of Care, Violence Prevention |

Preventing Child Abuse in an Age of Budget Deficits

CHS orange The Future of Children, July 20, 2010, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC

Summary

The Future of Children held a forum and webcast to discuss ways that prevention programs can both protect children and save money across a range of social programs. The event, planned in cooperation with Voices for America's Children, featured a panel of experts and practitioners that focused on both the practices and research that have been shown to be effective. Speakers also addressed the prospects that prevention services can be expanded during these difficult times.

To watch this webcast, at the FOC web site, click here.

in Coordination with Faith-based Organizations, Family Environment, Research |

Unclaimed Children Revisited: The Status of Children's Mental Health Policy in the United States

CHS orange The National Center for Children in Poverty, by Janice L. Cooper, Yumiko Aratani, et al, November 2008.

Executive Summary

Over 25 years ago Jane Knitzer, in the report Unclaimed Children: The Failure of Public Responsibility to Children in Need of Mental Health Services, documented policy and program disconnects that meant children and youth with mental health needs and their families did not get the services they needed.* That report, along with family advocacy, served as a spur to improve service delivery for the most troubled children. In the intervening years, there has also been an explosion of knowledge about the biological and social determinants of children’s mental health issues, new understandings of how children and their problems develop, and new ways of providing preventive and treatment services. And so, more than a quarter of a century later, NCCP posed the central question for today’s children’s mental health system: to what extent is this new knowledge incorporated into the policy and practice frameworks governing children’s mental health?

This report is based on a study that documents how current child mental health policies across the United States respond to the needs of children and youth with mental health problems, those at risk, and their families. Our aim was to identify best policy practices that support family- and youth-focused, researchinformed, developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically competent services and supports.  (NCCP)

Click here to read more or download the full report.

in Family Environment, Outpatient Services , Policy, School Supports |