Healthy Families Bartholomew County

Healthy Families of Bartholomew County is a voluntary home visitation program designed to promote healthy families and healthy children through a variety of services including child development, access to health care, and parent education. We believe that parents are the best authority in determining their family’s needs; that all families have strengths which need to be recognized; that every child should reach his or her potential; and that available services should begin early to support the needs of the family.

Healthy Families provides two main services, assessment and home visiting. Healthy Families partners with the families to support, enhance, and strengthen their well being by tailoring services to the individual needs of the family.

Assessment-

Highly trained Family Resource Specialists assess families using a standardized tool which evaluates risk factors for abuse, neglect, and isolation during a conversational interview. Depending on the outcome the families are linked with the most appropriate supportive service and community resources.

Home Visiting

Highly trained family support workers offer weekly, or as appropriate, in home visits to model, educate, and provide research based parenting information through either short term or long term services.

1. Short-term service involves home visiting services beginning parentally or postnatal and lasting until target child’s third month birth date. Services focus on parenting education and support as well as providing community referrals as appropriate. Families receive curriculum, watch developmental videos, and observe positive parent child interaction modeled. Families receive short term services when they are not first time parents living in Bartholomew County and delivering at Columbus Regional Hospital.

2. Long-term service involves home visiting services beginning prenatally or postnatally and lasting until target child’s fifth birthday. Services focus on parenting education and support as well as community referrals as appropriate. Families would curriculum, watch developmental videos, and observe positive parent child interaction modeled. Families must be first time parents living in Bartholomew County and delivering at Columbus Regional Hospital.

Healthy Family uses a variety of state approved parenting curriculum to customize the program to fit the individual needs of the family.