What is HerWay Home? The HerWay Home Program is a recently opened integrated and collaborative health and social care center in Victoria, BC that is focused on supporting pregnant and newly parenting women who use substances and face other complex life challenges. The program brings many resources together under one roof to enhance the health and well-being of both women and infants and support children to remain safely with their families. The program is operated by Island Health and funded by the Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island. What kind of services does the HerWay Home Program provide? The HerWay Home program is rooted in a comprehensive view of health and wellbeing. Services include support for prenatal and postnatal care as well as a range of supports to address the many complex challenges that our clients face daily including: poverty, substance use, poor mental health, and unsafe and inadequate housing. Why is it important to focus on housing? Affordable and appropriate housing, adequate income, and healthy nutritious food are basic components for health. 1 Women who are pregnant or newly parenting and negotiating substance use and other challenges face overwhelming barriers to obtaining and maintaining housing and a sense of home for themselves and their children. A lack of secure and safe housing severely compromises women’s health and also increases the likelihood of losing custody of children. Women, housing and health: An overview Researchers have found that unsafe and unstable housing is connected to many adverse effects for women, their children, and our society as a whole: Impact on women: loss of a sense of “home” (including lack of privacy and safety, increased stress, and multiple moves). Loss of social support, increased risk of chronic illnesses, infections, mental health issues, abuse, and even premature death. Impact on infants and children: when family income is diverted to unaffordable housing it results in loss of resources for basic goods (clothing, food), no heat in winter, and crowded housing leading to respiratory issues, injury, and sleep deprivation. This combination of circumstances hinders developmental potential and has been found to result in lower school performance. The high cost of quality housing also forces families into places with exposure to mold, lead and asbestos. Impact on society: increased use of transitional and emergency housing shelter housing, increased number of children in foster care, multigenerational losses in health and productivity. Selected References Child and Youth Health Network for Eastern Ontario (2003). Adequate and affordable housing: A child health issue. Pauly, B., Jackson, N., Wynn- Williams, A., & Stiles, K. (2012). Quiet crisis: Homelessness and at risk in Greater Victoria. Victoria, BC: Greater Victoria Coalition for Homelessness, Centre for Addiction Research. What women say.. “I couldn’t get a place without having [my daughter], I couldn’t have [my daughter] without getting a place. It was a big runaround” “I was on the streets [homeless] until I was seven months pregnant […] it is really hard ‘cause you can’t get the proper nutrition and you can’t get the proper sleep” What community providers say.. “And so we have families trying to live in cheap motels, with four, six, eight people, in a motel room. And eventually, because of their housing situation, they come under the lens of the Ministry. And it isn’t because they aren’t loving parents, they are. But they’re failing to provide adequate housing, and food, for their children. Because of, because of the poverty.” “Sometimes our society thinks that all we need to do is build housing for folks, but we also have to look at the associated services and supports that people need” Our studies: Two mixed methods studies Individual interviews and questionnaires with care providers, systems planners, families Qualitative analysis for major themes Focus on early stages of program development and integration of women’s voices into program planning Acknowledgments: Thanks to our community partners and families who contributed to this research, to Island Health and the Children’s Foundation of Vancouver Island, and to the CIHR. Images by A. Regina