Home Visitor Responsibilities

The role of the home visitor is to provide support and information to each family visited, serving as a screener in identifying potential problems to be referred to the professional supervisor.

Home Visitors Will:

  • Visit families to provide nonthreatening, friendly support
  • Visit each mother/family currently expecting a baby or with an infant less than 12 month of age within two weeks (10-14 days of referral)
  • Provide a resource list to families for local service options such as transportation, child care, financial support, health and medical services, social services, longer-term home visiting programs, etc.
  • Refer to local resources as indicated, facilitate successful linkages, and follow up
  • Follow-up with needed and appropriate educational information
  • Observe families for any current or potential problems
  • Alert supervisors of existing or potential problems
  • Conduct return visits for ongoing education and support as necessary and determined with supervisor
  • Seek client referrals from local health department programs, hospitals, physicians, child welfare/DCF, and all available local resources to initiate visits to a client prior to and during the hospitalization period
  • Participate in outreach activities in the local community to promote home visiting
  • Complete and submit reports accurately and timely
  • Participate in required training provided by KDHE

Positive Impact

Support and education for pregnant women and families with newborns can increase the use of preventive health services and reduce the incidence of poor outcomes for infants and their families.

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How is MCH Home Visiting Different?

Although all home visiting is designed to improve some combination of pregnancy outcomes, parenting skills, and early childhood health and development, universal programs such as MCH Home Visiting are distinct from other longer-term, intensive programs. They are short-term, providing a small number of visits based on need. Universal models have a population-based approach, meaning services are available to everyone regardless of risk, income, or education, and focus on all families having at least one visit.

Longer-term home visiting programs often receive referrals from MCH Home Visitors when a family shows a need for more services. Some examples of leading evidence-based Kansas program models that are more intensive:

  • Parents as Teachers (PAT)
  • Healthy Families America (HFA)
  • Early Head Start (EHS)
  • Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP)
  • Infant-Toddler Services, tiny-K in Kansas (for children who qualify for early intervention)

 

Collaboration is Key

Research tells us that a range of program options can help fit the needs of different families through varied supports across a continuum of services.

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What is MCH Home Visiting?

As part of the Kansas Maternal and Child Health (MCH) program, grantees may opt to implement Home Visiting services to provide information, education, initiate referrals, and assist with accessing community systems of care within the target population of pregnant women, mothers, and infants (birth to 12 months.) The primary goals are to support healthy pregnancies, improve birth outcomes, and promote healthy infant development.

Home Visitors work in tandem with other professional staff, such as licensed social workers or nurses, as part of the constellation of MCH promotion and prevention programs. Services are initiated during the prenatal period when possible and are short-term, meaning either the family doesn’t require additional services, or is referred to more intensive, longer-term home visitation programs.

Universal Approach

MCH Home Visiting is universal in provision, available to all without eligibility requirements. The program follows a strengths-based approach which concentrates on the inherent strengths of individuals, families, and groups to aid recovery and empowerment. Services are intended to positively impact behaviors by increasing the number of people accessing early and comprehensive health care and services before, during, and after pregnancy.

In addition to providing education on health, safety, parenting, and infant development, MCH Home Visitors screen for risk factors, link families to other community resources, and help them navigate systems of care. A critical responsibility of the home visitor is to have a broad knowledge of available local services.

Assumptions Underlying Family-Centered Home Visiting

  1. Preservation of the family as the foundation of our social structure is essential.
  2. The rights and integrity of the family must be recognized and respected.
  3. The family will make important decisions about its interactions with community resources.

Outcomes

Outcome objectives to be met by grantee agencies providing the MCH Home Visiting program include:

Short-term Outcomes

  • Mothers and their families identify and use community resources
  • Pregnant women demonstrate improved health behaviors such as increasing healthy food intake and physical activity and decreasing substance use (e.g., cigarette smoking and alcohol use)
  • Pregnant women access early prenatal care and education to reduce the incidence of premature and low birth weight babies
  • Parents demonstrate nurturing parenting skills

Intermediate Outcomes

  • Mothers and their families utilize cost-effective preventive health care services such as prenatal care, family planning, immunizations, WIC/nutrition, and well child services.
  • Mothers and their families demonstrate enhanced parenting and problem-solving skills.
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What Does A Home Visitor Do?

Home visiting for families with young children is a longstanding strategy offering information, guidance, risk assessment, and parenting support interventions at home. Services are intended to increase knowledge and positively impact behaviors by increasing the number of women accessing early and comprehensive health care and services before, during, and after pregnancy.

Services

Services are ideally provided in the client’s home; however, they can happen in a variety of settings including the hospital, clinic, group settings (e.g., education, class), community, or any other setting a family may choose based on need, safety, or convenience. It is recommended that transportation, child care, and/or errands are NOT provided by the home visitor. 

Team Effort

Home visiting is not provided independent of other MCH services, but is intended to complement and assist with additional services delivered by many provider types to pregnant women, infants, and their families. 

Under the supervision of professional-level staff, home visitors provide in-home interventions and education to:

  • Increase the use of cost-effective preventive health care services such as prenatal care, family planning, immunizations, nutrition, and well visits/care.
  • Promote early entry into and ongoing access to prenatal care and education.
  • Promote healthy infant feeding decisions such as breastfeeding, based on the mother and infant’s needs.
  • Promote healthy maternal behaviors such as abstinence from drinking alcohol and/or using substances.
  • Identify women, infants, children, and family members at risk and link them with services and supports.
  • Identify solutions to health and safety risks in the environment to prevent harm.
  • Improve and enhance parenting and problem-solving skills.
  • Reduce costs through use of paraprofessional visitors under nursing supervision.
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Virtual Kansas Home Visiting Conference

Conference Agenda
September 28 – October 1
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Monday, September 28th

2:00 – 2:30 PM Opening Session

Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund Keynote
Amy Meek, Education Childhood Director

2:30 – 4:00 PM Breakout Sessions

A – Introduction to Infant Mental Health: Be A Voice for Babies
Lana Messner, M.S.Ed., IMH-E®, Infant Mental Health Mentor
Tammy Wallin, MS, Co-Chairs, KAIMH Endorsement Committee 

B – Motivational Interviewing
Peggy Kelly, Executive Director, Kansas Head Start Association

C – Self-Care
Shelley Tellez, Parents as Teachers Implementation Support Specialist for Kansas 

Tuesday, September 29th

2:00 – 2:30 PM Opening Session

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Keynote
TBD

2:30 – 4:00 PM Breakout Sessions

A – Virtual Leadership
Callie Peace, Executive Director, Kansas Parents as Teachers Association

B – Supporting Breastfeeding
Brenda Bandy, Executive Director, Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition

C – Effective Advisory Councils
Trina Morgan, Assistant Director, KCSL Healthy Families 

Wednesday, September 30

2:00 – 2:30 PM Opening Session

Employment Services at Department for Children and Families
Jaryl Perkins
Becki Travis

2:30 – 4:00 PM Breakout Sessions

A – Effective Home Visiting Practices During a Pandemic
Lisa Holliday, Project Eagle Early Head Start Home Visitor
Selvinth Maldonado, Project Eagle Early Head Start Bilingual Home Visitor
Jenna Mick, Project Eagle Early Head Start Home Visitor
Pat Webb, Project Eagle Early Head Start Home Visitor

B –  Connections to Substance Use Disorder Treatment
Shane Hudson, CEO, CKF Addiction Treatment

C – Building Capacity to Support Language Learning and Address the Word Gap for Infants and Young Children
Dale Walker and Kathy Bigelow, Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, University of Kansas

Thursday, October 1st

2:00 – 3:00 PM Opening Session
KSDE Welcome and Remarks
Tabitha Rosproy, 2020 National Teacher of the Year

3:00 – 4:00 PM Breakout Sessions

A – Racial Equity in Home Visiting
Suzy Green, Early Childhood Coordinator, USD 497 Lawrence, Parents as Teachers Team

B – Part C and the Interagency Coordinating Council
Jordan Christian, State ICC Staff

C – Preventing Infant Abuse with the Period of PURPLE Crying
Rachelle Soden, Training Specialist with Kansas Children’s Service League

 

Registration is now open at https://www.dccca.org/events/virtual-kansas-home-visiting-conference/ 

2020 Kansas Governor’s Public Health Conference

Please join us for the 2020 Kansas Governor’s Public Health Conference to be held at the Marriott Wichita in Wichita, KS, March 31st – April 2, 2020.

The 2020 Kansas Governor’s Public Health Conference will feature nationally-recognized keynote speakers on topics including:

–Improving school and community cultures to prevent school violence and suicides
–How to transform yourself and your community to live longer and healthier
–Lessons learned from disaster response around the world
and
–Strategies to ensure governmental public health is well-prepared for present and future health challenges

In addition, a wide selection of breakout sessions tailored to meet the changing needs of the populations served through public health programs and initiatives will be offered.

The Maternal and Child Health, Family Planning and MCH Home Visiting sessions will include immigration policy, domestic minor sex trafficking, behavioral health and fertility awareness-based methods of contraception. The Public Health sessions will include updates on syphilis, earthquakes in Kansas, CBD, vaping, vaccine hesitancy, drug trends and mosquitoes. The conference will include a ‘hot topics session’ featuring distracted driving, sexual violence prevention, suicide prevention and Kansas’ electronic surveillance system for notification of community based epidemics (ESSENCE).

Click here to register.

Check out the conference brochure here.

Early Learning Advocacy Day at the Capitol

Please join us for the Early Learning Advocacy Day at the Capitol.

Kansas State Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium | SW 8th and SW Van Buren | Topeka, KS 66612

Wednesday, March 25, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM

We will begin in the Kansas State Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium at 10:00 am. (Please see the parking map here. The Visitor Center recommends following these instructions rather than you GPS.)

Agenda for the day:

10:00 – Welcome and Introductions

10:30 – Issue Briefs

10:50 – Prep for talking with your legislator

                My Six Word Reason/Elevator Speech/My Ask

12:00 – Luncheon with Your Legislators in the Capitol 2nd Floor North Wing

               Early childhood exhibit tables in the Capitol 2nd Floor Rotunda

1:30 – 3:00

  • Office visits with handouts & debrief visits

  • Telling My Story advocacy workshop – Auditorium

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/early-learning-advocacy-day-at-the-capitol-tickets-95935065363

Upcoming DAISEY Training Webinars

KS MIECHV DAISEY Training Webinar 
October 23, 2019 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
February 26, 2020 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
April 22, 2020 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

This webinar will provide users an understanding of the DAISEY data entry workflow, explore resources on the DAISEY solutions website, and get a quick overview of DAISEY reports.
KS MIECHV DAISEY Training Webinar occurs several times.

Please register for the date and time that works best for you: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/35279331706667532

This webinar will provide users an understanding of the DAISEY data entry workflow, explore resources on the daiseysolutions website, and get a quick overview of DAISEY reports. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

KS MCH DAISEY Training Webinar
October 17, 2019 – 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM – Basic Navigation Training
November 21st, 2019 – 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM – Basic Navigation Training
December 19th, 2019 – 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM – Basic Navigation Training

Grantees will need to login to DAISEY to access the link to view the webinar.

 

 

Governor’s Conference for the Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect

The 43rd Annual Governor’s Conference for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect is October 22-24 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel-Maner Conference Center in Topeka. This year’s conference features keynote speakers Daniel Sumrok, MD, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee (The Role of Trauma in the Chronic Illnesses of Adulthood); and Kevin Mulcahy, Assistant U.S. Attorney and child abuse survivor (Randy & Me: A Prosecutor’s Story of his Childhood Sexual Abuse).

Registration rates are:

  • $150 for one day
  • $200 for two days
  • $250 for all three days

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION ENDS OCTOBER 4. After October 4, there is an additional charge of $25 applied. If you need to cancel, KCSL must receive written notification by October 17; $25 of the registration fee is nonrefundable. And registrations cancelled after October 17 will not be reimbursed.

Once you begin the registration process, you must complete it entirely including payment. The system cannot save incomplete or unpaid registrations. If you would like to register online but pay by check, please contact Pam Noble for instructions.

Register HERE.

For a printable list of session descriptions, please click HERE.

To register by mail, the printable form is available HERE. Please note: payment must accompany the registration.

For more information, contact Pam Noble at (316) 942-4261 x1343 or pnoble@kcsl.org.

HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS:
Capitol Plaza Hotel
1717 SW Topeka Blvd, Topeka, KS 66612

ROOM RATES:
$94/night plus tax for single or double occupancy

Rooms sell out quickly. This rate is available for a limited number of rooms until October 1. Make your room reservations as early as possible to ensure the discounted rate. After October 1, room rate increases to $96/night plus tax.

To make a hotel reservation, go to tiny.cc/GovConfHotel or call (800) 579-7937 and use group code: KCSV1.