HHS Announces Home Visitation Plans – The Washington Insider

Many thanks to our friend Tom Birch at the National Child Abuse Coalition for the following write-up on the new home visitation entitlement, which was included in the just-enacted health reform law. The Alliance for Children and Families is a proud member of the Coalition. The following article is taken from the Coalition’s Washington Memorandum and is reproduced here by permission.

Want to get this (and more) directly from the source? Contact Tom at bircht@earthlink.net. Annual subscriptions are a very reasonable $75 per year. Completely worth it.

ACF-HRSA ISSUE JOINT HOME VISITATION PLANS

In the first step toward implementation of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, the home visitation initiative enacted as part of the health care reform bill signed in March, two arms of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Administration on Children and Families (ACF) – have announced plans to collaborate on the development of  “evidence-based criteria for identifying home visiting models that have been demonstrated to improve outcomes for families.”  The review would be “[b]ased on a careful review of available research evidence.”

All federal level policy and program decisions will be made jointly by HRSA and ACF.  The announcement includes the “expectation that states ensure collaboration among child-serving entities and programs as they prepare for and develop home visiting service systems”, modeling the federal-level agency cooperation.  As the announcement says, “Our two agencies are committed to making the [program] a success on the ground and an example of how evidence-based policy and effective collaboration – among Federal agencies, between States and the Federal government, and across local programs – can improve outcomes.”

Specifically, the announcement from HRSA and ACF advises agencies within a state to work together to develop a needs assessment that coordinates:

1.    the Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant needs assessment,
2.    the Head Start community-wide strategic planning and needs assessment, and
3.    the inventory of unmet needs and current community-based and prevention-focused activities under the Community Based Child Abuse Prevention Program, Title II of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA).

At the outset, ACF and HRSA will develop and issue a funding announcement – expected to be issued soon — to address the needs assessment the statute requires from the states.  As states then conduct their needs assessments, HHS will develop program guidance to answer questions about how grants to the states can be used to conduct early childhood home visitation programs that address needs identified by the assessment.

Of particular interest will be the defining of the “evidence-based criteria for identifying home visiting models” eligible for participation in the new grant program.  Very little of substance is contained in the announcement just issued, indicating that decisions are yet to be made about criteria.  Indicating that a variety of models is anticipated to participate in the new program, the announcement observes:  “Home visitors are often from the community they serve and have background and experience in the healthy development of children.”

Staff members at HRSA and ACF solicit comments and ideas about implementation of the new home visiting program.  Those interested in communicating concerns or questions should contact Audrey Yowell in HRSA at ayowell@hrsa.gov or Moushumi Beltangady in ACF at moushumi.beltangady@acf.hhs.gov.

Posted in Home Visiting.

By Patrick Lester – May 24, 2010

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