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HOME VISITING FOR IMPROVING HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION AND PARENTING SKILLS IN URBAN MINORITY POPULATIONS

Kathy S. Katz, PhD

Susan Schneider, MPH

Phyllis Sharps, PhD

Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007

Home visiting is an early intervention strategy that was widely used with at-risk families at the turn of the century. It is receiving renewed interest with numbers of recent task forces recommending this approach as a means of providing outreach to families in need. This presentation focuses on models of home visiting that have proven effective and how this background was used in the design of a home visit component of the multi-institutional, community-based, Pride in Parenting research study goals for the intervention, and problems and successes in implementing the home visit model will be addressed. The curriculum for the home-based intervention combines family health and development education for high risk mothers. Findings to date as to the parents’ response to the program will be described.