Challenge
Home visiting programs have a unique opportunity to reach families and to improve maternal, child, and family outcomes. Yet, gaps exist between our knowledge of what works and the implementation of these practices. As a result, many home visiting programs nationwide are struggling to meet families’ needs.
Since 2013, EDC has led the nation’s first Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (HV CoIIN) with the Health Resources and Services Administration. Through HV CoIIN, EDC is supporting Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program awardees in using continuous quality improvement (CQI) methods to transform their systems and services with families and improve outcomes for all families.
Key Activities
Through HV CoIIN, EDC experts in CQI and maternal and child health lead:
- Adapted Breakthrough Series collaboratives to test interventions to improve maternal and child health, such as addressing intimate partner violence (IPV) and caregiver depression, among others
- Effective support for participating home visiting teams to lead their improvement projects with families and with health equity as a critical priority
- Coaching and peer networks to build state and local home visiting program capacity to lead CQI efforts with families as leaders
- The development of a suite of online resources to support high-quality services
- The design and maintenance of a state-of-the art online data system that provides on-demand data to MIECHCV awardees and their local programs
- The creation of the toolkit Health Equity in Home Visiting and the fact sheet Parent Leadership in CQI
- The development, testing, and refinement of playbooks aimed at improving outcomes in home visiting-related topics including:
- Breastfeeding
- Caregiver depression
- Health equity
- Intimate partner violence
- Staff recruitment and retention
- The launch of a podcast series Driving Improvements in Home Visiting Through CQI—Lessons from the Field
Impact
HV CoIIN 2.0 participants have significantly improved their home visiting services and initiated system transformations to ensure equitable outcomes for all staff and families. Achievements include the following:
- Over 80% of mothers are now being screened for maternal depression at appropriate intervals—a figure well above the national average.
- Over 90% of families now receive regular developmental surveillance during home visits, and 75% of children are receiving timely screenings.
- Over 97% of home visitors are trained in basic competencies to address IPV, and an increase of 20% of parents identified with IPV have a personalized plan for their safety.
- 50 staff positions across 13 local home visiting programs were filled during the 12-month CoIIN. More than 75% of the agencies that hired during the CoIIN were able to fill one or more positions in less than 90 days.
Learn More
PROJECT DIRECTOR
![Zandra Levesque](https://www.edc.org/system/files/styles/media_thumbnail/private/staffimg/2C4C399043B32DA567AC29A8B31D0958_0.jpg?itok=i0wBVSif)
DURATION
FUNDED BY
PARTNERS
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Ideas to Impact and Health Equity Resources and Strategies, and parent leaders Monica Gaines and Devin Coleman