Promoting Safe Environments and Parenting Practices with Home Visitation Programs
The purpose of this project is to adapt and integrate an evidence-based injury prevention program, Safe N’ Sound, into established home visitation models, using the home visitation agency of Nurses for Newborns as a pilot. Nurses for Newborns offers regular home visits by a nurse, referrals to community resources, and parenting education to at-risk families with children under the age of 2. While injury prevention, focusing heavily on safe sleep, was a topic discussed during regular nurse home visits it was not systematically implemented. This project adds an injury prevention component to the home visits in which experienced nurses conduct home observations and age-specific injury risk assessments to identify the top two injury risks of the child. With this new program the coverage of injury areas is uniform across nurses and injury risk data is being collected and analyzed for further use by the organization. This program also allows nurses to provide families with tailored injury prevention messages and appropriate safety equipment specific to the families current needs.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Nancy L Weaver, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Saint Louis University, School of Public Health
FUNDER:
St. Louis Regional Health Commission Community and
University Health Research Partnership Program