1. Home Visiting Collaboration
August 2016
Home Visiting Collaboration

2. Objective
Participants will have an understanding of where and why there are successful home visiting collaborations across agencies in North Carolina.

3. Collaborative Partner Organizations
Organizations with whom our Local Lead Agencies, Children’s Developmental Services Agencies (CDSAs), Partner:
Care Coordination for Children (CC4C)
Great Expectations (funded through the Kate B. Reynolds Foundation)
Youth and Family Services
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

4. Where these collaborations are working well
Three Examples
Winston-Salem
Blue Ridge
Charlotte-Mecklenburg

5. Winston-Salem – Some Demographic Information (Population: 239,269
Winston-Salem CDSA covers six (6) counties towards the northern central part of the state.
Mix of rural and urban communities
Referral totals from July 2015-May 2016: 1321
652 IFSPs developed
161 not eligible
225 unable to contact parent/caretaker
# moved out of state
178 parents declined evaluation for eligibility
33 parents declined services although children were eligible
11 families transferred to another CDSA
50 pending eligibility determinations
(# = suppressed)

6. Winston-Salem Successes
Two main counties in this 6 county catchment area have developed great collaborative relationships:
Davidson County
Forsyth County
One of the staff from a grant program that ended is still connected to the Children’s Developmental Services Agency (CDSA)
NICU nurse
Program, supported by Duke Endowment, was called Hospital Early Intervention.
After funding ended, a few staff transferred to a program -- Care Coordination for Children (CC4C), which is active throughout state and helps with connection to medical homes.

7. Winston-Salem Successes, continued
Davidson County
Collaboration and coordination before leaving NICU
Planned joint home visits with CDSA’s initial visit with family
Generally attend evaluation, assessment and first IFSP meetings
Forsyth County
CC4C helps families a lot with transportation
Some collaboration and joint visits for family assessment pieces, but often close out cases after eligibility and enrollment, due to resources (lack)
Great at responding to coming back in to help families connect with medical home
Plans for future: Outreach/training in Forsyth to encourage earlier and continuous collaboration
Kate B. Reynolds Grant, Great Expectations – monthly meetings of collaborative partners focused on increasing kindergarten readiness

8. Blue Ridge Some Demographics Located in Boone, NC (Population: 18,130)
The CDSA of the Blue Ridge is located in the northwestern part of the state.
Covers 7 counties- predominantly rural, mountains
Referral totals from July 2015-May 2016: 396 Referrals
176 IFSPs developed
72 not eligible
45 unable to contact parent/caretaker
# moved out of state
50 declined evaluation for eligibility
13 declined services although children were eligible
# child transferred to another CDSA
29 pending eligibility determinations
(#= suppressed)

9. Blue Ridge
Success stories
One family is fortunate to have a collaborative team from the CDSA and the Puckett Institute who have been conducting quarterly joint visits with both the service coordinator and a physical therapist.
Benefits to family: additional knowledge about the child’s medically-based syndrome and supports for both family education and specialized resources.
(goal of institute: “to investigate the manner in which everyday family and community activities could be used as sources of development-enhancing learning opportunities for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with identified disabilities or developmental delays.” Funded in part by U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (H024S960008)). Located in Asheville and Morganton, N.C.

10. Success stories, continued
CDSA of the Blue Ridge
Success stories, continued
Collaboration with “Healthy Families” a voluntary program for families with children whose development is impacted by exposure to substances in utero and on-going substance abuse recovery. Healthy Families supports families and are often already enrolled when referred to the CDSA. Referrals are reciprocal and help to provide intensive support and services in “at risk” situations and potential or actual adverse childhood experiences. CDSA is fortunate to have a service coordinator who works frequently with families in these situations and had developed knowledge of Healthy Families, conducted joint home visits with appropriate informed consents. Families are appreciative of the additional supports and that services are provided in a single joint home visit that focuses on: Infant-Toddler Program (ITP) services; Child Development; and Addresses challenges families face with infant withdrawal and substance recovery for the adult

11. Blue Ridge – successes continued
“Beginnings” is a program that serves deaf, hard of hearing children and their families. A large benefit of this program is their parent educators who provide support, education and advocacy.
Blue Ridge collaborates with Beginnings for trainings and joint visits. Benefits to families include the special expertise of parents that serve as parent educators who are themselves parents of children who are deaf/hard of hearing.

12. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC Located in South-Central part of state (Population: 809,958)
Demographics: Predominantly urban area
Referral Totals from July 2015 through May 2016: 2194
928 IFSPs developed
446 not eligible
288 unable to contact parent/caretaker
12 moved out of state
202 declined evaluation for eligibility
100 declined services although children were eligible
10child transferred to another CDSA
207 pending eligibility determinations

13. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Successes
Three primary collaborative partners:
Local NICUs
CC4C
Youth and Family Services (Department of Social Services)

14. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Successes
Joint planning to determine best processes for referrals, IFSP teaming and on-going communication
Point people who have lead responsibility in each of the agencies
Consistent communication and meetings to assess what is going well and what needs work
Including NICU staff on IFSP teams when IFSPs are developed in the hospital
Including CC4C and YFS staff on IFSPs when families are jointly supported
Co-location of CDSA staff at YFS sites
Opportunities for mutual learning.

15. Resources: www.beearlync.gov http://www.pucket.org/profile.php

16. Thank you! Questions?