The Practice of Family Life Education Within Early Head Start Home Visiting

Abstract

Objective To investigate relevant professionals' perspectives about potential collaboration between family life education (FLE) and home visiting in Early Head Start's Home‐Based Option (EHS‐HBO) to understand the merits and challenges of this partnership. Background Practices for EHS‐HBO programs vary, which prevents the development of a consistent, evidence‐based home visiting model. Alignment with the strengths‐based family life education methodology (prevention, education, collaboration) may bring more consistency to EHS home visiting. Method A purposive sample of 123 family life education, family science, and early childhood professionals completed a topical, open‐ended survey. Responses were analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. Results Several themes emerged from the data concerning (a) agreement that FLE is a viable approach to EHS‐HBO (e.g., the FLE approach is beneficial, includes relevant training, and professionalizes home visiting); and (b) potential obstacles in merging FLE and EHS‐HBO (e.g., deficiencies in FLE training for home visitors, certification requirements are restrictive, and lack of credential recognition). Conclusion FLE is a viable approach to EHS‐HBO, and programs approved by the National Council on Family relations provide valuable training for future home visitors. Participants expressed positive attitudes as well as insight about the interface of FLE and EHS home visiting. Implications A current FLE approach to EHS‐HBO needs to be conceptualized and described more thoroughly, and a measure of home‐visitor fidelity to FLE should be developed. Research and alignment efforts are warranted on the synergy between FLE and EHS home visiting, which currently shows promise.

Competency Alignment and Certification for Preservice Home Visitors

“…In conclusion, participants in Walsh et al's () study had copious suggestions about how academic programs might prepare future home visitors. Similarly, Roggman et al () made recommendations for higher education to explore when preparing home visitors.…”

“…Linkages have been made between FLE/CFLE and EHS‐HBO (Petkus, ; Walsh, ; Walsh et al, ; Walsh & Mortensen, ). At present, NCFR hopes that CFLE will be recognized by Early Head Start as a standard of knowledge and skills.…”

“…The CFLE credential is preferred or recognized as relevant for family support positions (e.g., youth development programs, foster care programs, prenatal and maternity services) by many states. However, efforts to bring this credential to the home visiting workforce are relatively new (e.g., Petkus, 2015;Walsh, Mortensen, Edwards, & Cassidy, 2019). FLE stands alone as a framework for working with families in a variety of settings but has never been systematically incorporated within a competency framework specific to home visitors working with families of infants and toddlers.…”

The Practice of Home Visiting by Community Health Nurses as a Primary Healthcare Intervention in a Low-Income Rural Setting: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study in the Adaklu District of the Volta Region, Ghana

“…In children under five years, it is plausible that nurse home visiting could lead to fewer acute care visits and hospitalization by providing early recognition of and effective intervention for problems such as jaundice, feeding difficulties, and skin and cord care in the home setting [ 19 ]. Home visiting emphasizes prevention, education, and collaboration as core pillars for promoting child, parent, and family well-being [ 20 ].…”

“…The interval associated with HVs varied from one community or a health centre to another, and this was planned based on the specific needs of each community or CHPS catchment zone. There is actually no one-size-fits-all approach to home visiting [ 20 ] as several strategies can be adopted in providing services. The number of weeks or months elapsing between the visits ranged from one week to four months.…”