Frequently Asked Questions about Healthy Families
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What is Healthy Families?
Healthy Families is an intensive home visiting program for families with newborns. Starting at birth, regular ongoing visits help alleviate the stresses that put an infant at risk for abuse or neglect.
Who makes the visits to the families?
Healthy Families has a staff of Family Support Workers, all with experience working in child development and family dynamics.
What happens during a typical home visit?
For a new family, a Family Support Worker visits once a week, sometimes more often. During the visit, she focuses on the baby and the parents. Healthy Families follows a specific curriculum with the parents to teach them about their baby’s development and safety. The program also helps parents reach their own family goals. When parents are comfortable with their own lives, they can do a better job of taking care of their children.
What kind of family goals do parents have?
Goals can be very simple things. Some families just want to live in safe housing. Some want to save enough money to purchase a car so they don’t have to rely on public transportation. Teen parents want to finish high school and get some type of job training. Achieving these goals can work toward reducing family isolation. Ideally, achieving goals will help a family reach self-sufficiency.
How do families enter the program?
Families are referred to the program primarily by Mayo Health System - Franciscan Healthcare and Gundersen Lutheran Medical Centers. Part of the normal care the medical centers offer, is to ensure families have access to the services they need once the baby comes home from the hospital. Healthy Families also accepts self referrals.
What happens when Healthy Families receives a referral?
Local medical centers do an excellent job of identifying families having significant stresses in their lives. They make sure these families know about our program. A Family Assessment Worker visits with the family at their home to talk about their needs and their goals. If this assessment is positive, they are matched with one of our Family Support Workers.
Do families have to accept the service?
Participation in the program is strictly voluntary. This is made very clear to families every step of the way. In fact, many families want to participate in the program, but can’t make the time because of their work schedules. We encourage these families to use other services such as The Parenting Place.
How many families participate?
Healthy Families started in 1992 with 30 families. Today we serve an average of 80-100 families annually. There are many more on a waiting list. Families must reside within La Crosse County.
Why does Healthy Families have a waiting list?
Like everything else, we can only take on the number of families our budget can support. We estimate that we can currently only serve less than 1/3 of families eligible for services.
How is Healthy Families funded?
Healthy Families is funded by grants and private donations; the program receives no government support. Our funding partners include Great Rivers United Way, Children's Miracle Network (Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation), Franciscan Healthcare Foundation and Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Private donations account for the majority of program revenue.
What are the outcomes of the Healthy Families program?
The primary outcome is that substantiated child abuse and neglect reports among our families are virtually eliminated. The program is over 98 percent effective with high risk families. There are other outcomes as well. Families stay connected to medical care and all of the infants are up-to-date with immunizations. Family stress levels are reduced. Families attend well-baby check-ups, regular clinic appointments, and they use the emergency room far less.
Has W-2 had any effect on the families in the program?
Yes, it has. The majority of our home visits are conducted during the late afternoon and evening due to parents’ work schedules. That is a change from seven years ago when most of our visits were during the day. Affordable child care continues to be a concern for parents. Many of the working families in our program are still struggling financially and it’s not unusual for them to utilize the food pantries in the area.
Frequently Asked Questions about Healthy Families
.
What is Healthy Families?
Healthy Families is an intensive home visiting program for families with newborns. Starting at birth, regular ongoing visits help alleviate the stresses that put an infant at risk for abuse or neglect.
Who makes the visits to the families?
Healthy Families has a staff of Family Support Workers, all with experience working in child development and family dynamics.
What happens during a typical home visit?
For a new family, a Family Support Worker visits once a week, sometimes more often. During the visit, she focuses on the baby and the parents. Healthy Families follows a specific curriculum with the parents to teach them about their baby’s development and safety. The program also helps parents reach their own family goals. When parents are comfortable with their own lives, they can do a better job of taking care of their children.
What kind of family goals do parents have?
Goals can be very simple things. Some families just want to live in safe housing. Some want to save enough money to purchase a car so they don’t have to rely on public transportation. Teen parents want to finish high school and get some type of job training. Achieving these goals can work toward reducing family isolation. Ideally, achieving goals will help a family reach self-sufficiency.
How do families enter the program?
Families are referred to the program primarily by Mayo Health System - Franciscan Healthcare and Gundersen Lutheran Medical Centers. Part of the normal care the medical centers offer, is to ensure families have access to the services they need once the baby comes home from the hospital. Healthy Families also accepts self referrals.
What happens when Healthy Families receives a referral?
Local medical centers do an excellent job of identifying families having significant stresses in their lives. They make sure these families know about our program. A Family Assessment Worker visits with the family at their home to talk about their needs and their goals. If this assessment is positive, they are matched with one of our Family Support Workers.
Do families have to accept the service?
Participation in the program is strictly voluntary. This is made very clear to families every step of the way. In fact, many families want to participate in the program, but can’t make the time because of their work schedules. We encourage these families to use other services such as The Parenting Place.
How many families participate?
Healthy Families started in 1992 with 30 families. Today we serve an average of 80-100 families annually. There are many more on a waiting list. Families must reside within La Crosse County.
Why does Healthy Families have a waiting list?
Like everything else, we can only take on the number of families our budget can support. We estimate that we can currently only serve less than 1/3 of families eligible for services.
How is Healthy Families funded?
Healthy Families is funded by grants and private donations; the program receives no government support. Our funding partners include Great Rivers United Way, Children's Miracle Network (Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation), Franciscan Healthcare Foundation and Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. Private donations account for the majority of program revenue.
What are the outcomes of the Healthy Families program?
The primary outcome is that substantiated child abuse and neglect reports among our families are virtually eliminated. The program is over 98 percent effective with high risk families. There are other outcomes as well. Families stay connected to medical care and all of the infants are up-to-date with immunizations. Family stress levels are reduced. Families attend well-baby check-ups, regular clinic appointments, and they use the emergency room far less.
Has W-2 had any effect on the families in the program?
Yes, it has. The majority of our home visits are conducted during the late afternoon and evening due to parents’ work schedules. That is a change from seven years ago when most of our visits were during the day. Affordable child care continues to be a concern for parents. Many of the working families in our program are still struggling financially and it’s not unusual for them to utilize the food pantries in the area.