The Home Visiting program is a home-based prevention and early intervention program. It aims to mediate the risk for child abuse and neglect by enhancing family adjustment to the parenting role.
The home visiting program is designed to:
The program is designed for families of newly born infants who reported one or more of the following risk factors:
The Home Visiting program has been evaluated in Australia (Fraser et al. 2000).
A randomised control trial was conducted with 138 people (68 people were in the intervention group and 70 people were in the control group). On average, mothers were 26 years old. Most participants were Australian born, and around 9% identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. CALD populations were also included in the study (about 25% were not born in Australia). Most participants were from low-income households.
Overall, the Home Visiting program has a mixed effect on client outcomes.
Mixed research evidence (with no adverse effects):
The Home Visiting program is implemented through home visits of 20-60mins in length.
Child health nurses undertook the home visits. Visits were weekly until infants are 6 weeks old, fortnightly until infants are 3 months old, then monthly until the age of 12 months. The minimum number of home-visits expected per family is 18 and can be exceeded where negotiated between families and nurses.
A social worker also provided social work intervention in the home for families where parental conflict or maternal ambivalence was reported and where parents requested counselling for issues related to their own abusive childhood. The social worker provided an extension of the nurses’ home visiting by using a family therapy approach.
Six parent aides also provided weekly assistance on a short-term basis to families requiring intensive assistance with parenting.
Program services are adapted according to individual needs. However, one of the key aims of the program is to improve utilisation of community and neighborhood support systems. Both nurses and social workers are engaged in promoting social support systems, informal resources, and enhancing skills and confidence to access these resources.
Weekly case conferencing also occurs. This aims to encourage discourse, reflection, and mutual information sharing. Interdisciplinary assessment, planning, and evaluation of program strategies takes place at these weekly meetings. This interdisciplinary model of home visitation allows home visiting nurses to coordinate available community services to which families could be referred.
Not reported
Another community child health nurse was available for staff relief when required.
The visiting nurses (including the relief nurse) were selected on the basis of their experience of working with high-risk families in a community context. Each nurse held general nursing, midwifery and child health nurse qualifications.
A community paediatrician with expertise in child protection coordinated the intervention program team. The community paediatrician assessed families referred to an outpatient clinic, home visited in acute situations, provided medical attention where required, and facilitated access to child protection services when necessary.
One RCT conducted in Australia, with 138 participants (Fraser et al. 2000).
16 Feb 2023
We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future.
Informed by lessons of the past, Department of Communities and Justice is improving how we work with Aboriginal people and communities. We listen and learn from the knowledge, strength and resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal communities.
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