Healthy Families Mendocino County

By Natalie Levchenko

The Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) is excited to announce the launch of a new, nationally recognized, home visiting program called Healthy Families Mendocino County. Healthy Families Mendocino County works directly with women, free of charge, who are pregnant or up to two-weeks postpartum, low-income and/or Medi-Cal eligible, and whose babies are at risk of adverse childhood experiences resulting from maltreatment, domestic violence, homelessness, or parental substance abuse, untreated mental illness, or trauma history. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been the subject of long-term study and have been found to be associated with wide-ranging negative health and social consequences such as risky health behaviors, chronic health conditions, low life potential, and early death.

The Healthy Families Mendocino County program goals include cultivating and strengthening nurturing parent-child relationships, promoting healthy childhood growth and development, enhancing family function by reducing risk and building protective factors, and building and sustaining community partnerships to engage overburdened families. Healthy Families Mendocino County services are voluntary, confidential, and strength-based. Services will be provided in the home or community in English or Spanish by bilingual family support specialists. Enrolled families may continue receiving home visiting services until the child reaches three years of age. Community clinics, hospitals, family resource centers refer clients to the program but women may also self-refer by contacting the program directly.

Of the 1,100 annual births in Mendocino County, approximately 680 are potentially eligible for the program. In addition to an income criterion, eligibility is further assessed through a standardized screening, followed by an in-depth interview known as the Parent Survey. These assessments assist in identifying family strengths, risk factors, and potential issues, and guide the service plan for home visitors and their supervisors.

Healthy Families Mendocino County is affiliated with the national Healthy Families America organization and will be using its nationally accredited, evidence-based model for service delivery, which includes the Growing Great Kids curriculum. The Growing Great Kids curriculum includes age-specific and topic-specific modules addressing a range of issues such as prenatal care, infant care, infant and child health, child development and developmental milestones, parent-child attachment, social-emotional development, and stress reduction. To support this learning and accentuate the positive and joyful aspects of parenting, the Healthy Families Mendocino County family support specialists engage parents and their children in developmentally-appropriate activities. Staff may also screen participants if they suspect perinatal depression, substance use, interpersonal violence, developmental delays, and social-emotional issues and then assist parents in obtaining help. The result is competent, confident, nurturing parents. Additional outcomes of the program include positive parenting skills, family self-sufficiency, improved family health, improved child health and development, and school readiness.

The Healthy Families America model that was originally launched in 1992 currently serves nearly 100,000 families annually at 624 program sites in 35 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and six U.S. Territories. It is distinct from other home visiting models in that it is appropriate for use among different cultural groups and in urban as well as rural communities.

In 2011, Healthy Families America was recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as one of seven proven home visiting models, a distinction that came after a thorough review of research into more than 250 models. Furthermore, Healthy Families America is the only national home visitation model that requires its programs to successfully complete a comprehensive accreditation process that is linked to best practice standards.

For more information, please contact Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency Public Health- Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Director, Natalie Levchenko, at 707 472 2720, or via email: levchenkon@mendocinocounty.org, or visit: http://www.healthyfamiliesamerica.org/

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Natalie Levchenko is the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Director, Mendocino County Health and Human Services Public Health. She has a Master’s of Science in Nursing from University of San Francisco 2016, is currently enrolled in the Masters of Public Health program in the Gillings School of Global Public Health in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a Public Health Nurse (PHN).