1. family and parenting

April, 2015
NEWS
Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions, Inc.
Congress Extends MIECHV
In this issue:
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A two-year extension of the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) initiative was
signed into law by President Obama on April 15 as part
FL Awarded $14.7m
of a bill addressing Medicare physician fees. The
Save the Date!
bill also includes two-year
extensions of the ChilFocus on Depression dren’s Health Insurance
Screening
Program (CHIP), the Per(Benchmark 1)
sonal Responsibility Education Program (PREP);
MIECHV DashBoard Community Health Centers (CHCs); and Family to Family Health Information
Special Report: His- Centers (F2Fs) – all at current funding levels.
The bill received strong bipartisan support from Conpanic Families
gress. As noted by the Association for Maternal & Child
Health Programs (AMCHP), part of a national coalition
CQI Update
of advocacy groups that worked to garner Congressional support, “Together these programs provide critical
Public Portal
investments in the health of women, children and famiLaunched
lies.”
In Florida, MIECHV funding supports the implementaResource Supports
tion of three evidence-based home visiting programs—
Family Financial Se- Nurse Family Partnership (NFP), Healthy Families Floricurity
da (HFF) and Parents as Teachers (PAT) in 14 highneed communities. In 2014, these programs provided
MIECHV Friends
more than 10,000 home visits to 929 families in the
state.
MIECHV Extended!
FL Awarded $14.7m in Home Visiting Funds
Florida was recently awarded $14.7 million in 2015 MIECHV funding, including
$8.3 million in competitive funds. These funds will allow the state to sustain current
programs as well as expand voluntary, evidence-based
home visiting services to additional pregnant women and
parents with young children. Key components of the new
award, which focuses on strategies to increase the enrollment and retention of at-risk families, include:
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Funding to establish home visiting programs in four
additional high-need areas of the state;
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Support for mental health services in selected communities as an overlay to home visiting programs;
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Additional investments in Continuous Quality
Improvement (CQI) efforts;
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Stress reduction activities to support home visitors
and the families they serve; and,
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Implementation of a community of practice to work on
ways to more effectively use the state’s prenatal and infant screening process to
link families to services that best meet their needs and preferences.
The competitive award also includes an evaluation of the impact of these strategies.
New home visiting program sites will be selected through a competitive application
process. Eligible communities are identified in the 2011 Home Visiting State Plan.
Currently, there are 15 high-need areas that are eligible for, but do not receive,
MIECHV funding. Grant support is available through September 30, 2017.
First 1,000 Days Summit Oct. 21-23, 2015
Florida’s second home visiting and
early childhood summit will be held
October 21-23 in Palm Beach. The
First 1000 Days will offer the latest
research, skill-building activities and
advocacy strategies for supporting
expectant and new families. It will feature more than 40 workshops and five
plenary sessions.
The conference is a collaborative
effort of key statewide groups in maternal & child health, prevention & early intervention, infant mental health, school
readiness and early child development, including FL MIECHV, the Children’s
Services Council of Palm Beach, Florida Association for Infant Mental Health,
Florida Children’s Coalition, United Way of Florida, Early Steps, Florida Association of Early Learning Coalitions and Miami Children’s Trust.
The event is supported by funding from Florida MIECHV and the Children’s
Services Council of Palm Beach County. Online registration begins in June.
Focus on Benchmark 1: Depression Screening
Depression screening is a performance measure for Florida MIECHV home visiting providers (Benchmark 1). All participants enrolled in the program are screened
by three months postpartum or postConstruct, Performance
Measurement Tool/Question
Measure & Evaluation
enrollment using the
Edinburgh Postnatal
1.5 Screening for Maternal
Home visitors screen all women
Depressive Symptoms.
enrolled using the Edinburgh
Depression Scale
Postnatal Depression Scale
(EPDS). In 2014, 85%
Maintain or increase the percent
(EPDS).
of enrolled women
of women screened for
were appropriately
depression.
The screen is administered by
three months postpartum or postscreened by MIECHV
enrollment (if the woman enters
home visitors.
the program later).
Almost one in five
women get depressed
at some time in their lifetime. This percentage goes up in stressful situations, like
being a mother with young children. Among young women in home visiting, WIC,
and Early Head Start and Head Start programs, nearly half may be depressed.
A new toolkit designed to assist home visitors and other family service providers in
identifying and supporting pregnant and postpartum women with depression is now
available from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA).
Depression in Mothers: More than the Blues provides background information
about depression and offers ideas that home visitors can use daily when helping
mothers, and their families, who may be suffering from depression. The toolkit also
includes useful resources and handouts, as well as screening tools.
Depression Toolkit Webinar
April 22 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
A live webcast on SAMSHA’s new depression toolkit will
be held April 22 from 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. Advance registration is required. Featured speakers include Larke
Huang, Ph.D., Senior Advisor, SAMHSA; David Willis,
M.D., FAAP, Director, Division of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems; Deborah F. Perry, Ph.D.,
Georgetown University and, Robert Ammerman, Ph.D.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Training Provides Foundation for New CQI Efforts
The Florida MIECHV Initiative has been busy
with professional development around Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). The last two
local implementing agencies (LIAs) participated
in an all-day CQI training provided by Florida
MIECHV staff, so all LIAs have now been
trained on a culture of quality, process mapping, conducting Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA)
testing and lean thinking.
In addition to training LIAs, MIECHV Senior
Manager, Allison Parish, and CQI Consultant,
Healthy Families Escambia/90Works staff
discuss a PDSA cycle during recent CQI 101
Judi Vitucci, participated in the Institute for
Healthcare Improvement’s Breakthrough Series training.
College. This three-day intensive training prepared them to run Florida MIECHV’s first Learning Collaborative, which will focus on
domestic violence screening, referrals and safety planning.
Several of the MIECHV staff, including the consultants, evaluation staff and partners participated in a two-day training by CityMatCH, during which they provided additional tools and techniques on running Learning Collaboratives. Staff are now making preparations for the first Learning Session which is planned for the end of July
and will include 10 LIAs and all three models being implemented in Florida (HFF,
NFP and PAT).
Public Portal Offers Access to MIECHV Training
Online registration and training archives are now available to
partner agencies and other early childhood staff through a new
public portal on the Florida MIECHV Learning Management System (LMS). The new LMS feature will make it easier to access
professional development opportunities offered by the Initiative.
Previously, only MIECHV-funded home visitors could use the web
-based system for registration and training archives.
Most MIECHV-supported training is open to partner agencies
and other staff working with families with children age 0-3. Professional development efforts for the initiative are coordinated by the
Healthy Families Training Institute at the Ounce of Prevention
Fund of Florida. Information about upcoming webinars and training is distributed
twice monthly in the MIECHV Professional Development newsletter. Click here to
subscribe!
MIECHV DASHBOARD
1393 905 82.0 12.5 67.3
Source: Based on reports from the five original MIECHV projects (April, 2013-March, 2015) and six new sites (October, 2013-March, 2015.)
Special Report: Serving Hispanic & Latino Families
More than 59,000 babies were born to Hispanic & Latino families in Florida in
2013 — about 27% of all births. Half of these births are to foreign-born mothers.
These families comprise 21% of FL
MIECHV participants in the state,
although the proportion varies
significantly by site. Half of families
served by the Manatee PAT program in
2014 were Hispanic & Latino. These
families also make up large minorities in
2013 Births
the SWFL NFP program (41%), MiamiDade NFP (40%) and HFF Orange
(38%). For 12% of participants, Spanish
is the primary language spoken in the
home.
In interviews and focus groups conducted by FL MIECHV evaluators at the
University of South Florida, seven of 11
programs representing eight communiSource: FL Birth Atlas, 2015.
ties commented on undocumented and
legal immigrant clients served in the
home visiting program. Hispanic and Haitian immigrants served in many FL
MIECHV programs experience particular challenges due to language barriers, legal
status, and as a result, limited access to resources and social isolation. Access to
health care was cited as a priority need for this population.
Resource
Another key issue highlighted by home visiting
Culture Counts: Engaging
staff during the focus groups with the evaluation
Black & Latino Parents of
team was the social and physical isolation that immiYoung Children in Family
Support Programs
grant families face due to limited English proficiency,
lack of phone or transportation, residence in fragmented urban or dispersed rural communities and fear of reaching out to formal
services. A combination of these factors contribute to enrollment and retention
challenges for these families. According to program staff, immigrant families may
be reluctant to enroll in home visiting due to mistrust and fear of being reported for
legal residency status, and because undocumented and legal immigrants are in a
period of transition, they have a tendency to move and relocate frequently, making
follow-up difficult.
FL MIECHV programs address the barriers of mistrust, fear, and limited English
by: hiring staff that speak the language and relate to the client; hiring staff who are
skilled case managers and are familiar with the resources available to immigrant
families; and building strong trusting relationships with their clients. Home visitors
proactively act as ambassadors on the families’ behalf by making the phone calls
for referral services and navigating them through the healthcare system. Program
staff report that, in many cases, retention and participation of these families is good
because they tend to appreciate the support provided by home visitors. For more
information about the findings, contact Dr. Jennifer Marshall.
Online Guide Supports Family Self-Sufficiency
Building Financial Capability: A Planning Guide for Integrated Services offers
online tools and resources to help home visiting and other programs integrate services to build family self-sufficiency and income. The guide, developed under the
ASSET initiative for the federal Administration for Children & Families, is aimed at
community-based organizations that serve low- to moderate-income families. It provides step-by-step strategies for helping families improve their economic health and wellbeing.
The guide sets forth three basic approaches an organization can pursue:
 Referring clients to another organization;
 Partnering with another organization to
jointly serve clients; and,
 Building capacity to directly deliver
services to help families manage their resources more effectively.
Online tools support the organization and its development activities.
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, more than 700,000 children in Florida
under age five live in families with incomes below the poverty level. The economic
challenges faced by these families threaten the long-term success of their children
and contribute to an intergenerational cycle of poverty. Home visitors can play an
important role in supporting family self-sufficiency by linking caregivers to education,
job training and other community resources that contribute to their financial capability.
Improvements in family economic self-sufficiency are measured in the MIECHV program in Benchmark 5. Find out here why some think home visiting may be the most
effective anti-poverty program available today.
May is Women’s Health Month: Show Your Love!
Celebrate Women’s Health Month in May by sharing Show
Your Love educational material and resources. The national
CDC campaign is designed to improve the health of women
and babies by promoting preconception health and healthcare.
The campaign’s main goal is to increase the number of women
who plan their pregnancies and engage in healthy behaviors before becoming pregnant. Materials are free and downloadable.
May 11th is National Women’s Check-up Day. This is an
opportunity to link MIECHV participants with a medical home
and encourage them to take a multi-vitamin with folate. For
more information and ideas, click here.
Flea Market Finds in Waldo
Free Easter Egg Hunt! The sign outside the Waldo Farmers and Flea Market in rural Alachua County caught the eye of Vicci Mills, who supports outreach efforts for three PAT programs as staff for the
WellFlorida Council. She received permission to set
up an information table at the event which drew
more than 400 families.
“Little did I know that I would encounter more
than 30 pregnant mommies-to-be, and also many
grandparents and single parents with multiple children they were raising from the ages of birth to age
5,” noted Mills.
Many of the children received their first book at
the outreach table which was strategically located
next to registration for the event.
“A significant number of children had developmental delays or physical challenges and also
many fathers who were veterans,” she added.
“It served as a solid reminder that going off the
beaten path and finding places like this where
EVERY child/family attending could benefit from
MIECHV services, who live in rural locations and
have limited knowledge on health risks, are the true
outreach victories.”
Welcome New MIECHV Staff!
FL MIECHV welcomes Amy Pipas, MA, to the staff! Pipas has
extensive experience as an ETO administrator, outreach facilitator
and contract manager and will serve as Data Coordinator. She
will assist MIECHV Data Manager Virginia Holland in supporting
local implementation sites in using data to manage and monitor
program performance. She will also help maintain FLOHVIS, the
state MIECHV data system. Reach Amy at [email protected].
The Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions and
FL MIECHV joined more than 100 non-profit, corporate,
philanthropic, faith based, advocacy organizations and
state agencies April 12-17 in celebrating the 20th anniversary of Children’s Week in the state Capitol. The
annual event raises awareness about the importance of
investing in Florida’s children.
Affirming Fatherhood Conference
April 29-May 1 in Tampa
The 2015 Affirming Fatherhood
Conference will be held April 29May 1 in Tampa. Sponsored by
ReachUp, Inc., the federal
Healthy Start initiative serving
central Hillsborough County, Fathers Hall of Fame is designed to
demonstrate the valuable role of fathers and fatherhood to present and future generations. Other contributing sponsors include the Healthy Start Coalition
of Hillsborough County, AMCHP, HRSA, the Men’s
Health Network and Florida MIECHV. The event will
be held at the Doubletree Westshore, 4500 West
Cypress St, Tampa. Register here.
Check out FL MIECHV’s
new Facebook page and
don’t forget to “like” us!
ABOUT FLORIDA MIECHV
Florida is implementing the federal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Initiative through a public-private partnership. Led by the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions, Inc., the goal of the initiative is to improve health &
developmental outcomes for at-risk children through evidencebased home visiting programs. State implementation partners
include the Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida, FSU Center
for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy, and USF Lawton &
Rhea Chiles Center. For more information contact Carol
Brady, Project Director, [email protected] or visit
www.FLMIECHV.com.
Funded by HRSA Grants # D90MC25705 & #D89MC28265