The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect calls this kind of intensive help in the home the single most important element in any comprehensive prevention program. Some parents would drop out in fear, Vernola said, if they were to think Healthy Families is connected to the Division of Family and Youth Services. In fact, it is housed under the state's Division of Public Health, in the child and maternal health section. We go in expecting the best. And I think that is where other programs have failed.
Workers visit weekly for the first year or so.
They help with school problems, bus passes, housing, job hunts. Some of the parents are crack users or are being battered by boyfriends. Support workers try to get those parents into treatment or a shelter. Workers receive six to seven weeks of intensive training in infant development, crisis intervention, family planning, child abuse, drug abuse and other topics. A week of that is provided by trainers from Outside, often Hawaii, the national leader in this type of program.