This Second Edition is a good source for those training to be home visitors, in-service home visitors, supervisors and directors of home visiting programs serving a wide range of families. Recent evaluations of home visiting are summarized and practical suggestions for evaluating local programs are also included. This is an easy to read and essential resource for both beginning and experienced home visitors, trainers, supervisors of home visitors, and directors of home visiting programs.

Grown out of 40 years of experience in Michigan, Infant Mental Health Home Visiting: Supporting Competencies/ Reducing Risks is one of the most comprehensive resources for practitioners and policy makers interested in promoting good infant mental health. This manual is indispensable for infant-family professionals who are looking to incorporate infant mental health principles and promote attachment relationships in their work with babies and families.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

This timely resource analyzes home visits as a primary intervention for at-risk families with infants and young children and details innovative programs for home service delivery. Focusing on family violence, mental illness and alcohol and substance abuse as major challenges to child development, the book presents practical strategies for home visitors to address and prevent problems while fostering an improved environment for raising children. Contributors offer a realistic framework for planning, developing, and training an effective home visitation workforce and tailoring interventions to fit individual family dynamics. And the book's international focus provides a variety of perspectives on evidence-based programs that support families raising children in distressed neighborhoods. Among the featured topics: Home visitation as a primary prevention tool for violence. Developmental parenting home visiting to prevent violence. Supporting the paraprofessional home visitor. Engagement and retention in home visiting child abuse prevention programs. Addressing psychosocial risk factors among families in home visiting programs. Home visitation programs in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Home Visitation Programs: Preventing Violence and Promoting Healthy Early Child Development is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students and professionals in child and school psychology, social work, educational policy, family advocacy and public health.

"The purpose of this publication is to summarize the research on childhood stress and its implications for adult health and well-being. Of particular interest is the stress caused by child abuse, neglect, and repeated exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV). We hope this publication provides practitioners, especially those working in violence prevention, with ideas about how to incorporate this information into their work"-- P. 3.

Many Americans seem convinced that government programs designed to help the poor have failed. Social Programs That Work shows that this is not true. Many programs have demonstrably improved the lives of people trapped at the bottom of the social and economic ladder. Social Programs That Work provides an in-depth look at some of the nation's best interventions over the past few decades, and considers their potential for national expansion. Examined here are programs designed to improve children's reading skills, curb juvenile delinquency and substance abuse, and move people off welfare into the workforce. Each contributor discusses the design and implementation of a particular program, and assesses how well particular goals were met. Among the critical issues addressed: Are good results permanent, or do they fade over time? Can they be replicated successfully under varied conditions? Are programs cost effective, and if so are the benefits seen immediately or only over the long term? How can public support be garnered for a large upfront investment whose returns may not be apparent for years? Some programs discussed in this volume were implemented only on a small, experimental scale, prompting discussion of their viability at the national level. An important concern for social policy is whether one-shot programs can lead to permanent results. Early interventions may be extremely effective at reducing future criminal behavior, as shown by the results of the High/Scope Perry preschool program. Evidence from the Life Skills Training Program suggests that a combination of initial intervention and occasional booster sessions can be an inexpensive and successful approach to reducing adolescent substance abuse. Social Programs That Work also acknowledges that simply placing welfare recipients in jobs isn't enough; they will also need long-term support to maintain those jobs. The successes and failures of social policy over the last thirty-five years have given us valuable feedback about the design of successful social policy. Social Programs That Work represents a landmark attempt to use social science criteria to identify and strengthen the programs most likely to make a real difference in addressing the nation's social ills.

"The modern home visitor's introductory textbook for effective, culturally sensitive home visits with young children and families"--