Home Visits

by jacquelyn reno

what we will cover in this presentation:

• why home visits?
• family perspectives
• missing pieces and issues

WHY HOME VISITS?
What is a home visit?
Who pays for it?
Why does it work?
Is there a need in Burlington?

For the purpose of this conversation, I use "home visit" to describe when a family receives services from a medical, social or educational provider in the setting of their choice (such as at home, during a playgroup, or at a park).

who provides home visits in our area?

• VNA
• Lund
• Howard Center
• Vermont Family Network
• Head Start and Early Head Start
• *Many of these are coordinated through the States Children's Integrated Services (CIS) Early Intervention program.

"Vermont provides services for nearly all of its children in the Part C CIS-early intervention program in natural environments. A natural environment is where research and common sense tells us young children learn best. Natural environments for this age population are where the child and family spend their time, e.g., in their home, child care, parent child center, Early Head Start. These environments support the “carrying over” or generalization of learning into the everyday routines and activities of the child and family." -Vermont Goverment.

Services are provided through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act -
Part C - Early Intervention

Who pays for it?

Funding streams

• Federally Funded Head Start and Early Head Start
• Project LAUNCH
• Federally Funded Fatherhood grants
• Dr. Dynasaur, other insurance
• Participating Agencies
• Family cost share

Why?

"There are long term benefits to families and society when a high risk family receives home visiting services...Our home visitors promote the physical, social, and emotional health of young children. They assist parents with parenting skills and link families to community resources." -Victoria Priganc at the VNA

Research shows that home visits may:

• increase parenting knowledge
• provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues
• prevent child abuse
• increase school readiness and school success
• reduce future spending on special education

working with 190 families saves the community more than 6,500,000 dollars

Is there a need in burlington?

local statistics show...

local statistics show...

• there is a shortage of childcare openings for infants and toddlers

local statistics show...

• there is a shortage of childcare openings for infants and toddlers
• the number of children with special needs is increasing yearly

Chittenden County infants and toddlers receiving special services in latest report

Chittenden County infants and toddlers who did not receive services on time

In the latest report available, "Effectively communicate their children's needs" and "help their children
develop and learn" were two areas where state goals were not met.

This remind us that home visiting services are useful and necessary here.

We also see that we need more support.

Family perspectives

"Having people come work with my child here at home let's them see the way my child really lives. They use what they see us playing with and doing for meal times and bed time, and help me figure out how to do it better and easier, and how to get Lance to talk to us! We can't afford childcare, so this really helps" - Father of 2 year old son receiving home visits for speech delay.

"It was hard for us to figure out what do when we worried about our daughter. Starting with the doctor, we saw 7 people before the current home visitor. I am not sure what each person did, exactly. We are lucky we were persistent and just went with it, because my daughter loves our home visitor Angie!" - Sasha, mother of 18 month old daughter with developmental delay.

"My home visitor speaks Nepali. That is good because I speak Nepali and my family, they speak Nepali too. If I can't think of a word in English for the doctor, I think they do not understand me. When Manisha comes, I know I can describe anything to her, and I will understand her what she says, too. She always has good ideas for helping my child to get enough sleep, helping us get to appointments, and everything else we need like English Class"
- Tila, mother of 2 year old.

"Our daughter now goes to preschool with other kids her age. Before that, we had home visitors in our house to help her figure out walking, dressing, and all kinds of things that we weren't sure about when she got her foot operations. They even helped us with the bandages, too." -Tasha, mother of 3 year old.

What's missing

So, now we can see that we need...

So, now we can see that we need...

• more professionals for timely service provision

So, now we can see that we need...

• more professionals for timely service provision
• culturally competent agencies and professionals

So, now we can see that we need...

• more professionals for timely service provision
• culturally competent agencies and professionals
• streamlined entry process

Burlington's ELI initiative and project LAUNCH hold much potential. But...

Burlington's ELI initiative seems to focus more on poverty, recognizing that more research on special education is necessary (p. 8). With culturally competent home visitors, children can be appropriately screened for developmental delays that would benefit from early intervention.

Project LAUNCH advocates for children and focuses on New Americans, as well. Between the 2008 and 2011, Vermont welcomed 1398 refugees. The countries of origin for these arrivals were Bhutan (60%, Nepali speaking), Burma (16%), Somalia (9%), Iraq (8%), and smaller numbers from Burundi, Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and others.

The VNA has a home visitor funded by their agency and project LAUNCH who is from Nepal and can speak Nepali with families who she home visits under the Parents As Teachers model. As of the date of this research, no other bilingual home visitors (aside from interpreters) exist.

thank you

resources

• Association of Africans Living in Vermont. (2015). http://www.ethniccommunities.org/spotlight/association-for-africans-living-.... Accessed on April 17, 2015.

resources

• Nordhaus, Jessica. (2015). "Burlington Beginnings: A White Paper on a Comprehensive, Coordinated Sustainable Early Learning Initiative". Accessed from www.burlingtonvt.gov/sites/default/files/u107/Early Learning Initiative White Paper.pdf Accessed on April 24, 2015. p. 8.

resources

• Priganc, Victoria. (2015). "Strong Families, Strong Communities: The Impact of the VNA Family Room and Home Visiting on Families and Communities". Accessed from: http://www.vnacares.org/assets/files/Programs/Family_Room/Impact_document_f.... Accessed on April 24, 2015.

resources

• Project Launch. (2013). (http://cdn.buildingbrightfutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/BBF_VERMONT.... Accessed April 20, 2015.

RESOURCES

• State of Vermont. (2014). Indicator 1 Public Reporting. Accessed from dcf.vt.gov. http://dcf.vermont.gov/sites/dcf/files/pdf/cdc/dev/Indicator_1_Part_C_Publi... Accessed on April 20, 2015. P. 2.

resources

• State of Vermont. (2013). Part C Annual Performance Report for FFY 2012. http://dcf.vermont.gov/sites/dcf/files/pdf/cdd/cis/part_c/vt-apr-2014c.pdf. p. 17.

RESOURCES

• State of Vermont. (2014). Indicator 2 Public Reporting. Accessed from dcf.vt.gov. http://dcf.vermont.gov/sites/dcf/files/pdf/cdc/dev/Indicator_2_Part_C_Publi... Accessed on April 20, 2015. P. 2.

resources

• State of Vermont. Idea Part C Public Reporting of APR Data. http://dcf.vermont.gov/cdd/reports/IDEA_Part_C/public_reports. Accessed on April 20, 2015.