Key Factors for Success

Service Content

  • Start early - initiate services prenatally or as soon as possible after birth
  • Standardized Assessment tool - use to identify families who are most in need of services
  • Voluntary participation - offer services using positive and creative efforts to build family trust

Program Content

  • Consistency - offer intensive services (at least once a week) with well- defined criteria for increasing or decreasing frequency of home visits over the long term (i.e. three to five years)
  • Cultural considerations - acknowledge and respect linguistic, geographic, racial and ethnic diversity of the population served
  • Parental support - focus on enhancing parents' competencies, parent-child interaction and fostering healthy childhood development
  • Medical links - connect families to a medical provider to ensure optimal parent and child health and development.
  • Community resources - provide links that further enhance the opportunities for healthy growth and development of the baby and the family as a whole. Assist parents in finding programs, school readiness programs, AADAC programs and domestic violence shelters.
  • Manageable caseloads - limit staff case loads to ensure that home visitors have adequate time to spend with each family (i.e. maximum 10-15 families at most intensive service level).

Selection and Training of Service Providers

  • Service providers - with appropriate personal characteristics (non-judgmental, compassionate, humour), experience, skill sets and willingness to work with a diverse range of people
  • Basic training - a basic training framework that supports families to face multiple challenges. Culturally appropriate ongoing training with an emphasis on child development, positive family support and parenting skill development
  • Intensive Training - essential components of family assessment and home visitation
  • Supervision - reflective supervision supports effective home visitation intervention to promote family's goal attainment and to avoid staff stress-related burnout of staff.