Building Healthy Children (BHC)

Building Healthy Children is a collaboration of social service and health care agencies, each providing evidence-based services to intervention families in a seamless package. Low-income parents who gave birth to their first child when they were under 21 and who were not involved in the child welfare system were targeted as an at-risk group for whom home visitation services would offer optimal preventive and cost-efficiency outcomes. Services include Interpersonal Psychotherapy [IPT] for maternal depression and Child Parent Psychotherapy [CPP] for maternal-child relationship development and trauma treatment, and Parents As Teachers [PAT]. Families are provided a tiered complement of BHC services based upon risk and current need.

Case management and outreach services are key to assure family engagement and full program participation. An assigned community outreach worker provides a consistent, nurturing relationship that helps retain families in the program and readies parents for the evidence-based treatments, movement towards goals, and behavior change. Outreach workers help to stabilize families and ensure compliance with medical appointments and recommended care.

Most importantly, BHC home-based services are integrated with primary care practices: pediatric, family medicine, and federally qualified neighborhood health center. These comprehensive services are compared with a screening and referral only group in a randomized design. Integration with the child's medical home is an all-inclusive approach to improve child health and well-being and to achieve desired program outcomes.