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WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has awarded $88 million in grants, under the Affordable Care Act, to support evidence-based home visiting programs focused on improving the well-being of families with young children.
Evidence shows these programs can improve outcomes for children and families and yield Medicaid savings by reducing preterm births and the need for emergency room visits. Based on these findings, the Affordable Care Act provides $1.5 billion for these initiatives over the next five years.
“This initiative will give children a healthier start and give parents the help they need to succeed in the most important job in the world – parenting,” said Sebelius. “This effort builds on impressive research findings and is one more piece of our strategy to invest in prevention and early interventions that pay off.”
Through the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, nurses, social workers or other professionals meet with at-risk families in their homes, evaluate the families’ circumstances and connect them to programs that can make difference in a child’s health, development and ability to learn – such as healthcare, developmental services for children, early education, parenting skills, child abuse prevention and nutrition education or assistance.
Forty-nine states, the District of Columbia and five territories were awarded funding under the program. States and jurisdictions are conducting statewide assessments to identify existing home visiting programs and areas of high need.
“These investments will help states to create and support evidence-based home visiting programs that improve the wellbeing of children and families,” said Health Resources and Services Administration Administrator Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN. “States will be using these grants to design programs that best serve their residents, providing important help to at-risk families, while gathering more detailed information on which approaches work best to put young children on the path to a healthy life at an early age.”
