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4. What services are provided through home visitation services? <br />The Hawaii Healthy Start program is an early childhood promotion prevention program. It promotes <br />the health and safety of children. Families are provided the supports they need to assure that their <br />child(ren) have a medical home, are fully immunized, are developmentally on target, and not <br />neglected or abused. As the program grew, Child Development Specialists were added to the <br />program to assist with the child development screening and anticipatory guidance. Clinical <br />Specialists were added to address high end issues related to domestic violence, substance abuse, <br />and mental health issues. <br />Specific program activities are described: <br />Familv Training and Consultation: A scheduled or unscheduled home visit with eligible children and <br />family in their natural environment (ideally should be in the home). Activities include parenting <br />education, crisis intervention, family strengthening activities, transition activities/discussion, intake, <br />care coordination, and IFSP meetings. <br />Child Development Screening and Referral: Home Visit time may also include time used to <br />administer developmental screening scales, developmental assessments, pre- and post-tests, etc. <br />Consultation to family may be provided by a child development specialist; if the child is found to <br />have a documented delay then the child will be referred into the Early Intervention Services <br />program for further assessment and therapeutic intervention. <br />Care coordination: Activities to identify child and family's needs and coordinate services; this <br />includes home visits, consultations and correspondence with other professionals within and outside <br />of the program, and phone calls with family members and other interested persons as appropriate. <br />Care coordination also includes transition activities. Transition or transfer includes activities to <br />support the transition of a child out of the Healthy Start program to another EI program, DOE, or a <br />community preschool program. <br />Child Team Meeting: Scheduled meeting for substantive discussion regarding a family's and child's <br />progress or lack of progress. These would also include Ohana conferencing and/or CWS multi <br />disciplinary meetings. <br />Groups: Group activities to support the child's or family's goals on their IFSP. <br />Transportation: This is the time necessary for a service provider to transport a consumer to and <br />from services identified on Section VI of the IFSP. <br />Outreach Services: which included supportive, consistent contact with families who for various <br />reasons do not keep their home visitation appointments was always a key element of the program. <br />Reaching out to isolated and needy populations is an important intervention for at-risk families, <br />however following the budget restriction in September, 2008, outreach services were discontinued. <br />Families who had 2 "no shows" for their home visitation appointments were discharged from the <br />program. <br />Additionally, the Healthy Start Program assists families with referrals to other community services <br />for mental health, domestic violence, and substance abuse issues. <br />Healthy Start <br />FAQ -4- <br />