Healthy Families-La Crosse is a home visiting program that helps parents of newborns cope with the stress of caring for an infant. With its primary goal to prevent child abuse and neglect, services are particularly important for parents who are overwhelmed and dealing with many other issues like poverty, mental illness, childhood trauma and teen pregnancy. Family support workers are matched with families to make regular, long-term home visits to encourage parent-child bonds, teach parents about their baby’s growth and development, and introduce families to other vital community resources.
Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention
The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect points to home visiting as the most promising method for preventing child maltreatment. That’s why Healthy Families-La Crosse is critical to preventing the problem of child abuse locally.
Long-term home visits also are particularly effective in breaking the generational cycle of abuse. With encouragement and guidance, parents learn new models for parenting. Families overcome many barriers to become “healthier” as indicated by the results achieved by the program since it began in 1992:
- All babies stay up-to-date with immunization
- 98% or more of the families have not had a substantiated child abuse/neglect report
- All families remain linked to a physician or clinic
- There are fewer emergency room visits
- Moms and dads reduce their overall parental stress
- Teen mothers complete high school
- There are fewer subsequent births
- Parents become more self-sufficient and less socially isolated
- Families experience less emotional isolation
Program Outcomes
When a family has an “advocate” through Healthy Families-LaCrosse…
- Parents spend more time in the workforce and less time on public assistance
- Families learn how to use preventive health services
- Government spends less for families on food stamps, Medicaid and child protective services
- For every $3 spent on prevention, at least $6 is saved that might otherwise have been spent on child welfare, medical care, foster care and legal services
.
Healthy Families-La Crosse is a home visiting program that helps parents of newborns cope with the stress of caring for an infant. With its primary goal to prevent child abuse and neglect, services are particularly important for parents who are overwhelmed and dealing with many other issues like poverty, mental illness, childhood trauma and teen pregnancy. Family support workers are matched with families to make regular, long-term home visits to encourage parent-child bonds, teach parents about their baby’s growth and development, and introduce families to other vital community resources.
Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention
The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect points to home visiting as the most promising method for preventing child maltreatment. That’s why Healthy Families-La Crosse is critical to preventing the problem of child abuse locally.
Long-term home visits also are particularly effective in breaking the generational cycle of abuse. With encouragement and guidance, parents learn new models for parenting. Families overcome many barriers to become “healthier” as indicated by the results achieved by the program since it began in 1992:
- All babies stay up-to-date with immunization
- 98% or more of the families have not had a substantiated child abuse/neglect report
- All families remain linked to a physician or clinic
- There are fewer emergency room visits
- Moms and dads reduce their overall parental stress
- Teen mothers complete high school
- There are fewer subsequent births
- Parents become more self-sufficient and less socially isolated
- Families experience less emotional isolation
Program Outcomes
When a family has an “advocate” through Healthy Families-LaCrosse…
- Parents spend more time in the workforce and less time on public assistance
- Families learn how to use preventive health services
- Government spends less for families on food stamps, Medicaid and child protective services
- For every $3 spent on prevention, at least $6 is saved that might otherwise have been spent on child welfare, medical care, foster care and legal services
.