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Family Connects Oregon

Oregon's Universally Offered Nurse Home Visiting Program

The birth of a child is a big change for any family.
It impacts a family’s social, emotional, financial and physical environment. Most families welcome support as they move through this transition.
Visit www.familyconnectsoregon.org for more information. 

Family Connects Oregon builds on Oregon’s current home visiting programs and will offer home visiting to all families with newborns. It is a voluntary, opt-in program. No families are required to participate.

Visit Family Connects Oregon Announcements for recent updates to the program!

Join the Family Connects Oregon Steering Committee!

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About Family Connects Oregon

Learn More

Family Connects Oregon will offer home visiting services to all families with newborns up to 6 months of age, including foster and adoptive newborns. It is an evidence-based model that offers one to three visits from a state-licensed registered nurse. Implementation will phase-in over time, starting with the early adopters listed below.
 

Family Connects Oregon is a nurse home visiting model based on the work of Family Connects International. The nurse home visitor works with families to identify what families need and want from local resources, and then provides an individualized, non-stigmatizing entry into a community system of care. This system includes referrals to other, more intensive, home visiting programs, and health and social supports around the state, such as obstetricians and primary care providers, pediatricians and family practice physicians, child care options, mental health services, housing agencies and lactation support organizations.

 

A safe and healthy environment during early childhood forms the foundation for a lifetime of physical and mental well-being and healthy relationships, and each family has unique strengths and constraints that need to be considered.

 

Evidence shows that when a home visitor can assess family needs and connect families to services that best address those needs, the health of the family improves. Current programs are not designed to reach all families which makes it difficult to make population-level change on health outcomes such as low birth weight or postpartum depression.

 

Key Points

 
  • The Family Connects model does not replace more intensive targeted home visiting programs. Nurse home visitors work with families to identify what families need and want from local resources and provide an individualized, non-stigmatizing entry into a community system of care, including referrals to other more intensive home visiting programs and social supports.
  • In collaboration with hospitals and birth attendants, a provider would engage all parents of a newborn shortly after birth, ideally face-to-face, to schedule a home visit. If families choose to accept this service, they receive one to three visits in their home to help them get off to a good start and get connected to services they need and want.
  • Participation is voluntary for families.
  • Implementation of Family Connects Oregon will roll out over time using a phase-in approach, beginning with eight communities listed below (early adopters).
  • Family Connects Oregon will leverage federal Medicaid funding and engage commercial health plans to offer services for all Oregon families of newborns, regardless of income status.
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Implementation of Family Connects Oregon will roll out over the next several years using a phase-in approach, beginning with the eight communities listed below. For more information on the progress for each site, visit Family Connects Oregon​

  • Participation in Family Connects Oregon is voluntary. All families would be offered this service.
  • Evidence shows about 70% of families choose to participate.
  • Evaluation of Family Connects International, an evidence-based, universal, one to three visit nurse home visiting program has shown that families have:
    • More connections to community resources at 6 months.
    • More positive parenting behaviors with their infant (such as nurturing touch and reading) at 6 months.
    • 28% less clinical anxiety reported by mothers at 6 months.
    • Higher quality home environments (such as safety, books, toys, and learning materials) at 6 months.
  • Specifically, the Family Connects evaluation has shown reduced emergency medical care (hospital overnights, emergency department and emergency doctor visits) for infants at 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months.
  • The Family Connects model estimates that for every dollar invested in the program, there is a $3.02 savings, primarily from reduced infant emergency medical care.
Home visiting benefits
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Webinar: Family Connects Update: November 2019

Stakeholder Webinar April 9, 2020

Family Connects Oregon

Contact us

FCO Program Team
Monday- Friday 9am-5pm

Send questions and comments via the FCO Questions and Feedback form

 oregon.uohv@odhsoha.oregon.gov  

OHA News Releases

2/13/2020
Oregon launches Family Connects, a universally offered home visiting program to support health of newborns, families

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