Friday, April 4, 2025
4/4/2025
Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Homevisiting Grant Program - Purpose: The District of Columbia Department of Health (DC Health) will provide evidence-based home visiting services through the implementation of Parents as Teachers (PAT) and Healthy Families America (HFA) program models. Home Visiting is a voluntary program that provides parental support and access to resources for prenatal women and families with children ages zero to five. Local Implementing Agencies (LIA) will provide services to 170 eligible families, living in Wards 4, 5, 7, and 8, within the Neighborhood Clusters as identified within the MIECHV 2020 Needs Assessment. DC MIECHV aims to improve perinatal and early childhood health outcomes via these high-quality evidence-based home visiting models delivered with fidelity. Goals/Objectives: Goal 1: Provide program support and services among pregnant women and children to achieve positive maternal and child health outcomes and reduce health disparities in communities that face greater risk and barriers. i. Objective: By September 2024, DC Health will work to increase the percentage of infants breastfed exclusively through 6 months of age from 61.1.% to 63.2%. Goal 2: Partner with state agencies, and health care organizations to identify and enroll home visiting primary caregivers and physicians into DC Health’s coordinated intake data system to strengthen timeliness in screenings for infants, children, and families, technology improvements, technical assistance, and monitoring reports as needed, to support virtual home visits for families enrolled in the program to enhance program service delivery, to better match family preferences and to improve the families’ experience of care. ii. Objective: From October 2023 through September 2025, increase the percentage of children, ages 9 through 35 months, who receive timely developmental screenings using a parent-completed screening tool each year from 82.1% to 85%. Goal 3: Assist in the evolution of a well-developed home visiting system that provides a more systemic way to match families’ needs and priorities to specific programs and resources within the District. iii. Objective: From October 2023 through September 2024, work with Help Me Grow (HMG) DC, to develop and execute a centralized intake process for system enhancements coordination Goal 4: Provide Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) resources and best practices to accurately measure outcomes and use data to improve performance and ensure benchmarks are met. iv. Objective: To measure and compare 4 out of 6 benchmarks for improvements with the HFA and PAT programs between FY 2023 and FY 2024. Goal 5: Provide depression screenings using a validated tool within 3 months of enrollment (for those not enrolled prenatally) or within 3 months of delivery (for those enrolled prenatally). v. Objective: Between October 2023 and September 2025, increase the percentage of women screened for depression from 84.4% to 90%. Goal 6: Support Evaluators in the completion of evaluation work through the Coordinated State Evaluation (CSE), to address health equity and family engagement. Assist evaluators in the development of evaluation work to identify key areas of improvement within the program. vi. Objective: By September 2025, work with evaluators to identify the effectiveness of current MIECHV led HFA and PAT programs to District residents. Goal 7: Provide tobacco cessation referrals to families to reduce the amount of negative child health outcomes. vii. Objective: By September 2024, increase the percent of participants enrolled in home visiting that reported using tobacco or cigarettes at enrollment, be referred to tobacco cessation counseling or services within 3 months of enrollment to 12.5%. Methodology: i. Selected eligible evidence-based models and promising approaches implemented with MIECHV grant funds: The Mary’s Center, a federally qualified community health center, currently implements two evidence-based home visiting models: Healthy Families America (HFA)
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).