Toward Population Impact from Home Visiting.
Abstract
Although some home-visiting programs have proven effective with the families they
serve, no program has yet demonstrated an impact at the population level. We describe
the Durham Connects (DC) initiative, which aims to achieve population impact by coalescing
community agencies to serve early-intervention goals through a Preventive System Of
Care and by delivering a universal, short-term, postnatal nurse home-visiting program.
The home-visitor delivers brief intervention, assesses family needs in 12 domains,
and connects the family with community resources to address individualized family
needs. Evaluation of DC occurred through a population randomized controlled trial
of all 4,777 births in Durham, NC, over an 18-month period. DC was implemented with
high penetration and high fidelity. Impact evaluation indicated that by age 6 months,
DC infants had 18 percent fewer emergency room visits and 80 percent fewer overnights
in the hospital than did control families. We conclude that population impact is achievable
if a program attends to challenges of community partnership, universal reach and assessment,
rigorous evaluation, and models for sustaining funding.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15883Collections
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Kenneth A. Dodge
William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Studies
Kenneth A. Dodge is the William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy
and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He is also the founding
and past director of the Center for Child and Family Policy, as well as the founder
of Family Connects International.
Dodge is a leading scholar in the development and prevention of aggressive and violent
beha
Ben Goodman
Research Scientist
Ben Goodman is a research scientist at the Center for Child and Family Policy. His
research interests focus broadly on the implementation and evaluation of population-based
interventions to reduce child maltreatment and improve parent and child health and
well-being, including the evidence-based Family Connects postpartum nurse home visiting
program. His research also examines how sources of stress and support shape the quality
of parent-child relationships, parents’ own well- being, an
Robert A. Murphy
Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Murphy is a licensed clinical psychologist focused on child traumatic stress,
including its treatment and prevention and development and dissemination of evidence-based
interventions. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Murphy serves as Executive Director
for the Center for Child & Family Health (CCFH), a community and three university
partnership (Duke University, the University of North Carolina
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