<img src="https://healthystartepic.org/wp-content/themes/healthystart/images/logo.png"> Healthy Start EPIC Center

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: II. Promising practices—Innovative practices employed in the field, based on state-of-science knowledge about what works to improve outcomes, and gathering evidence of effectiveness.

Rural Behavioral Health: Telehealth Challenges and Opportunities

This brief looks at common acceptability, availability, and accessibility barriers to mental and substance use disorder (behavioral health) treatment and services in rural communities and presents ways telehealth can help surmount some of these barriers. The term telehealth refers to using internet and communications technologies, such as videoconferencing, chat, and text messaging, to provide health information and treatments in real time.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Case Management/Care Coordination Depression

Approaches:

Perinatal Depression Follow Up Perinatal Depression Screening

Benchmarks:

Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention: A guide for public health practitioners

Screening and brief intervention (SBI) is a structured set of questions designed to identify individuals at risk for alcohol use problems, followed by a brief discussion between an individual and a service provider, with referral to specialized treatment as needed. This manual is designed to provide public health professionals, such as health educators and community health workers, with the information, skills, and tools needed to conduct SBI so that they can help at-risk drinkers reduce their alcohol use to a safe amount or stop drinking. The manual offers background information and practical steps for conducting SBI in a variety of public health settings, including trauma centers, emergency departments, other clinical settings, home visits, and public events.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Case Management/Care Coordination Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Intimate Partner Violence Life Course Model Parenting Education Partner Involvement

Preventing Intimate Partner Violence Across the Lifespan: A Technical Package of Programs, Policies and Practices

This technical package represents a select group of evidence-based strategies and approaches to help programs, communities and states sharpen their focus on prevention activities with the greatest potential to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) and its consequences across the lifespan. These strategies include teaching safe and healthy relationship skills; engaging influential adults and peers; disrupting the developmental pathways toward IPV; creating protective environments; strengthening economic supports for families; and supporting survivors to increase safety and lessen harms. Commitment, cooperation, and leadership from numerous sectors, including public health, education, justice, health care, social services, business and labor, and government can bring about the successful implementation of this package.

Topics:

Approaches:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Intimate Partner Violence

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.

The Good Road of Life

This culture-based program uses sources of strength such as spirituality, humor, and healing to assist Native men and their family members address the impact of colonization, trauma, racism and other challenges that threaten the well-being of children and families. The curriculum for Native men is designed to assist Native men reclaim their roles as brave warriors, fathers, and husbands who provide for and protect their families and communities. The curriculum for Native families is designed to assist Native men, women, and their children to address unresolved conflicts in relationships, improve communication skills, and keep Native families together.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Depression Intimate Partner Violence Partner Involvement

Approaches:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Intimate Partner Violence

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (Third Edition)

This update of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment is intended to address addiction to a wide variety of drugs, including nicotine, alcohol, and illicit and prescription drugs. It is designed to serve as a resource for healthcare providers, family members, and other stakeholders trying to address the myriad problems faced by patients in need of treatment for drug abuse or addiction. It provides an overview of principles of effective treatment and evidence-based approaches to treatment, including behavioral therapies, pharmacotherapies and comprehensive approached. It discusses the unique needs of different groups including women, pregnant women and adolescents.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Case Management/Care Coordination Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Intimate Partner Violence Life Course Model Parenting Education Partner Involvement Socio-emotional Development for Children

2018 Prevention Resource Guide

This prevention resource guide offers information, strategies, and resources to support community service providers as they work with parents, caregivers, and children to prevent child maltreatment and promote social and emotional well-being. The guide focuses on protective factors that build on family strengths and promote optimal child and youth development. Information about protective factors is augmented with tools and strategies that help providers, advocates and policymakers integrate the factors into community programs and systems. The guide includes tip sheets for parents in English and Spanish on a range of parenting and child development topics.

Topics:

Approaches:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Intimate Partner Violence

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Building on Campaigns with Conversations: An Individualized Approach to Helping Families Embrace Safe Sleep & Breastfeeding

This series of learning modules is designed for a range of health professionals, human service providers, community health workers, home visitors, and peer supporters who interact with families on topics of safe sleep and breastfeeding. The modules are designed to help users understand the Conversations Approach and gain the knowledge and skills needed to implement it to promote breastfeeding and safe sleep practices. Modules cover: A New Approach, How Babies Sleep and Eat, Understanding Current Recommendations, Anticipating Reluctance and Refusal, Respectful Dialogue and Structure of a Conversation,Creating Plans to Support Family Decisions, and Putting It All Together to Make a Difference.

Topics:

Breastfeeding Parenting Education Safe Sleep

Approaches:

Initiating Breastfeeding Safe Sleep Sustaining Breastfeeding

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Promundo: Program P: A Manual for Engaging Men in Fatherhood, Caregiving, and Maternal and Child Health

Program P is a resource developed as part of the global MenCare campaign coordinated by Promundo and the Sonke Gender Justice Network. The manual outlines concrete strategies for engaging men in active caregiving from their partner’s pregnancy through their child’s early years, and preventing violence against women and children. It includes tools to aid in creating open spaces for men in the clinic setting, detailed guidance on providing gender-transformative group education for men, and advice on encouraging community mobilization around fatherhood, child protection, maternal and child health and gender equality. It is available in 5 languages.

Topics:

Intimate Partner Violence Parenting Education Partner Involvement Prenatal Care and Education

Approaches:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

CRAFFT Screening Tool

The CRAFFT is a short, validated behavioral health tool developed to screen adolescents under age 21 for high risk alcohol and drug use. Recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, it consists of 6 questions involving Car, Relax, Alone, Forget, Friends, and Trouble. The tool is meant to assess whether a longer conversation about the context of use, frequency, and other risks and consequences of alcohol and/or drug use is warranted. It is available in 13 languages.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Bringing Fathers In Fact Sheets

This set of 9 fact sheets for programs that serve families makes the case and provides implementation tips for fully and effectively engaging fathers. The fact sheets describe the importance of involved fathers for improving maternal and child health outcomes, supporting children’s early learning and reducing family and community violence. They also provide best practice do’s and don’ts, tips for attracting fathers to programs, and father-inclusive evaluation strategies.

Topics:

Participant Recruitment and Retention Partner Involvement

Approaches:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Moms2B

Moms2B provides weekly education and support sessions for expectant mothers to promote healthy lifestyle choices and link women with support services. Topics covered include: breastfeeding, child development, family planning, goal setting, prenatal labor and delivery, maternal-infant health, positive parenting, reproductive health, and safe sleep. Moms2B is provided free of charge, with transportation assistance, on-site childcare and a hot, healthy meal. Ohio State University and community social service organizations support Moms2B participants with ongoing access to healthcare providers, lactation counselors, social workers, parenting educators and community health workers. The Moms2B program is based on an evidence-based pilot curriculum shown to increase breastfeeding and improve infant health.

Topics:

Breastfeeding Nutrition Parenting Education Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Safe Sleep

Approaches:

Initiating Breastfeeding Reproductive Life Plan Safe Sleep

Benchmarks:

IPV Health Partners Toolkit

This toolkit is designed to help health centers to build a comprehensive and sustainable response to domestic violence and sexual assault (DV/SA) in partnership with DV/SA advocacy programs (social service organizations).Through five essential steps, health centers and social service partners can build partnerships, adopt evidence-based interventions, promote patient education around IPV, and enhance practice policies, procedures, and capacities to improve long-term health and safety outcomes for women and their families.

Topics:

Case Management/Care Coordination Intimate Partner Violence Patient-centered Medical Home Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Depression Intimate Partner Violence Risk Assessment

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Safe Homes, Safe Babies: Perinatal Safety Card

Safe Homes, Safe Babies is a safety card for women that perinatal health care providers can distribute to patients. In addition to providing safety resources for women, this tool also functions as a prompt for perinatal health care providers by providing quick phrases to improve discussions with women about the impact of domestic violence on their parenting and children. The safety card outlines questions women may ask themselves about their relationships, birth control use and parenting, while offering supportive messages and referrals to national support services for help.

Topics:

Approaches:

Intimate Partner Violence Perinatal Depression Screening

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

WINGS (Women Initiating New Goals of Safety)

Failure to address IPV among women who use alcohol or other drugs has been found to increase the likelihood of continued drug use, relapse, attrition from drug treatment and a host of other negative physical and mental health consequences. WINGS is a single-session intervention that aims to address a critical gap in IPV services for women by identifying women in the community at risk of IPV, enabling them to develop social support and safety planning skills to reduce their risks for IPV and linking them to IPV-related services and substance use treatment. The intervention may be delivered in-person or via a computerized self-paced version.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Intimate Partner Violence

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Depression Parenting Education

Thinking Healthy: A manual for psychosocial management of perinatal depression

This manual is designed for training community health workers on how to support expecting and new mothers with depression, using evidence-based cognitive behavioral techniques. Community Health Workers can assist depressed mothers to change their unhealthy patterns of thinking and behavior, leading to an improvement in their mood and functioning, and prevention of later problems in their infants. The manual provides a step-by-step guide for CHWs implementing the Thinking Healthy intervention in 15 sessions with mothers (from pregnancy through baby’s first 10 months), and includes a structured process for each session, activities, worksheets and charts, and communication tips. This manual is a generic version for global use of a manual originally developed in Pakistan and later used in many other countries.

Topics:

Approaches:

Perinatal Depression Follow Up Perinatal Depression Screening

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Social Support Survey Instrument

This brief, self-administered Social Support Survey instrument was developed for patients in the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS), a two-year study of patients with chronic conditions. It is thought to also be appropriate for use with other populations. The instrument was designed to be comprehensive in terms of recent thinking about the various dimensions of social support – emotional/informational, tangible, affectionate, and positive social interaction. It is easy to administer and the items are short, simple, and easy to understand.

Topics:

Life Course Model Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Everyday Discrimination Tool

There is convincing research evidence that people experiencing greater discrimination in day-to-day life tend to have poorer physical and mental health outcomes than their counterparts. The Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS) is a validated screen widely used to measure perceived discrimination. An original version of the EDS consists of nine items on a 6-point Likert-type response format, and a short version has been modified to five items.

Topics:

Life Course Model Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

NIDA Quick Screen

The NIDA Quick Screen is a validated instrument designed to assist providers in screening adults for substance use. The screen simply inquires whether a participant has used drugs (mood-altering, illegal, or prescription for nonmedical reasons), alcohol, or tobacco products within the past year and how often these substances have been used. The NIDA website also provides guidelines for brief intervention and/or treatment referral for patients who may have or be at risk of developing a substance use disorder.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Risk Assessment Tobacco Cessation

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Alcohol/Drug Services Breastfeeding Depression Home Visiting Parenting Education Partner Involvement Prenatal Care and Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Socio-emotional Development for Children

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Family Spirit

Family Spirit is an evidence-based early childhood home-visiting program designed for and by American Indian communities. Family Spirit combines the use of paraprofessionals from the community as home visitors and a culturally focused, strengths-based curriculum as a core strategy to support young families. From pregnancy through the child’s 3rd birthday, parents gain knowledge and skills to promote healthy development and positive lifestyles for themselves and their children. Family Spirit addresses intergenerational behavioral health problems, optimizes local cultural assets, and overcomes deficits in the professional health care workforce in low resource communities. Evidence from three randomized controlled trials has documented important results including: increased parenting knowledge and involvement; decreased maternal depression; increased home safety; decreased emotional and behavioral problems of mothers; and decreased emotional and behavioral problems of children. The Family Spirit curriculum modules cover: Prenatal Care, Infant Care, Your Growing Child, Toddler Care, My Family and Me, and Healthy Living.

Topics:

Approaches:

Improve Women's Health Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Initiating Breastfeeding Perinatal Depression Follow Up Perinatal Depression Screening Reproductive Life Plan Safe Sleep Smoking Abstinence Sustaining Breastfeeding

Evidence Rating: I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.

Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid is an 8-hour course that gives people the skills to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The evidence behind the program demonstrates that it does build mental health literacy, helping the public identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness. Mental Health First Aiders learn a 5-step action plan that guides them through the process of reaching out and offering appropriate support. The “adult course” is available in both English and Spanish, and covers anxiety, depression, psychosis, and addictions in adults. The “youth course” is for adults who interact regularly with young people ages 12-18.

Topics:

Alcohol/Drug Services Depression

Approaches:

Perinatal Depression Follow Up Perinatal Depression Screening

Benchmarks:

Strong Families/Healthy Relationships Resources

This section of the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse provides resources on healthy relationships for programs that serve families. Healthy marriages and healthy relationships can serve an important role in promoting responsible fatherhood initiatives. Whether the fathers and families in your programs are currently married or not, integrating healthy relationship skills into your programs can better support fathers’ relationships with their partners and improve their co-parenting situations, leading to healthier models and environments for their children.

Topics:

Partner Involvement

Approaches:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

Medical‐legal partnership (MLP) is an approach to health that integrates the work of healthcare, public health, and civil legal aid to more effectively identify, treat, and prevent health‐harming legal needs for patients, clinics, and populations. MLP addresses legal needs in the areas of income supports and insurance; housing and utilities; employment and education; legal status; and personal and family stability. MLP:

Trains healthcare, public health, and legal teams to work collaboratively and identify needs upstream;
Treats individual patients’ health‐harming social and legal needs with legal care ranging from triage and consultations to legal representation;
Transforms clinic practice and institutional policies to better respond to patients’ health‐harming social and legal needs; and
Prevents health‐harming legal needs broadly by detecting patterns and improving policies and regulations that have an impact on population health.

Topics:

Case Management/Care Coordination Insurance Coverage Other Risk Assessment

Approaches:

Achieve Collective Impact Improve Women's Health

Benchmarks:

CAN Implementation Health Insurance

Health Insurance Marketplace

This is the official government website where participants can find out if they qualify for health insurance, what their options are, and what assistance may be available to them (including Medicaid and CHIP). They can then proceed to apply for insurance at this site

Topics:

Insurance Coverage

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Health Insurance

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

UNCOPE – Used, Neglected, Cut Down, Objected Preoccupied, Emotional Discomfort

The UNCOPE consists of six questions and may be used free of charge for oral administration in any medical, psychosocial, or clinical interview to provide a simple and quick means of identifying risk for abuse and dependence for alcohol and other drugs.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

DAST – Drug Abuse Screening

The DAST is a 20-item instrument for clinical and nonclinical screening to detect drug abuse or dependence disorders. It is most useful in settings in which seeking treatment for drug use problems is not the patient’s stated goal.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

TWEAK – Tolerance, Worry, Eye-Opener, Amnesia, Cut-Down

The TWEAK (Tolerance, Worry, Eye-Opener, Amnesia, Cut-Down) is a five-item scale originally developed to screen for risk drinking during pregnancy. The items are not gender specific, however, and the scale can be used with either women or men.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Alcohol/Drug Services Tobacco Cessation

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

ASSIST – Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test

The ASSIST (Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test) is an 8-item questionnaire designed to be administered by a health worker to a client using paper and pencil, and takes about 5-10 minutes to administer. The ASSIST provides information about the substances people have ever used in their lifetime; those used in the past three months; problems related to substance use; risk of current or future harm; dependence; and injecting drug use. The ASSIST was designed to be culturally neutral and usable across a variety of cultures.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Home Visiting Parenting Education Partner Involvement

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Growing Great Kids: Prenatal to 36 Months Curriculum

Growing Great Kids (GGK) is a comprehensive and skills-focused home visiting curriculum that takes a strength-based approach to growing nurturing parent-child relationships and supporting healthy childhood development. GGK modules are specifically designed to build protective factors for children, strengthen family foundations, and cultivate parental resilience. Training for home visitors to be certified to deliver the curriculum builds their competencies for: nurturing parental resiliency; advancing individual and family functioning; reducing a child’s exposure to toxic stress; nurturing parents’ problem-solving skills; strengthening the families’ support networks; and enabling parents to construct protective buffers around their children.

Topics:

Approaches:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Partners for a Healthy Baby

Nationally recognized, research-based, practice-informed curriculum used by many home visiting models to meet their program goals including improving birth outcomes, reducing rates of child abuse, strengthening families, enhancing child health and developmental outcomes, and promoting family stability and economic self-sufficiency. The curriculum addresses issues of child health and development within the context of the multifaceted needs of expectant and parenting families. Five-volume book series for different stages in pregnancy/parenthood, accompanied by a set of handouts for the home visitor to use when planning visits. Handouts for families can be purchased in English or Spanish and help the home visitor introduce subjects that may otherwise be difficult to talk about.

Topics:

Father/Partner Involvement Home Visiting Parenting Education

Approaches:

Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Initiating Breastfeeding Reading to Child Daily Safe Sleep Sustaining Breastfeeding

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

The Nurturing Parent Programs

The Nurturing Parenting Programs are a family-centered trauma-informed initiative designed to build nurturing parenting skills as an alternative to abusive and neglecting parenting and child-rearing practices. The long term goals are to prevent recidivism in families receiving social services, lower the rate of teenage pregnancies, reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse, and stop the intergenerational cycle of child abuse by teaching positive parenting behaviors.

Lessons can be delivered in home setting, group setting, or combination. Nurturing Parents offer targeted programs for prenatal families, parents of babies and toddlers, parents of older children, Spanish speaking parents, parents of children with health challenges, teen parents, military parents, parents in substance abuse treatment and recovery, and more.

Topics:

Parenting Education Socio-emotional Development for Children

Approaches:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Intimate Partner Violence

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.

Parents as Teachers (PAT)

PAT aims to increase parent knowledge of early childhood development and improve parenting practices, provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues, prevent child abuse and neglect, and increase children’s school readiness and school success. The PAT model consists of one-on-one home visits, group connections/meetings, health and developmental screenings for children, and a resource network for parents. Program lasts for at least two years, beginning as early as pregnancy and ending at the child’s 3^rd birthday or at kindergarten entry.

Topics:

Home Visiting Parenting Education Socio-emotional Development for Children

Approaches:

Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Father/Partner Parenting Involvement Father/Partner Prenatal Involvement Reading to Child Daily Well Child Visits

Evidence Rating: I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.

Nurse Family Partnership

The Nurse Family Partnership program provides home visits by registered nurses to first-time mothers, beginning during pregnancy and continuing through the child’s second birthday. The program aims to: improve pregnancy outcomes by promoting health-related behaviors; improve child health, development, and safety by promoting competent caregiving; and enhance parent life-course development by promoting pregnancy planning, educational achievement, and employment. Secondary goals include providing links with needed health and social services, and promoting supportive social relationships.

Topics:

Home Visiting Parenting Education Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Socio-emotional Development for Children

Approaches:

Patient-centered Medical Home

Benchmarks:

Reproductive Life Plan

Evidence Rating: I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.

Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative List of Patient Centered Medical Homes

The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative is the leading national coalition dedicated to advancing the patient-centered medical home. This searchable list contains a list of available programs providing medical homes. The programs are listed by state and with publically-reported outcomes on cost savings, increased preventive services utilization, fewer ED/hospital visits, improved access, and patient and provider satisfaction.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Usual Source of Care

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.

Topics:

Breastfeeding Nutrition

Approaches:

Initiating Breastfeeding Sustaining Breastfeeding Well Child Visits Well Woman Visits

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Programs

The Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Care Record (EHR) Incentive Programs provide incentive payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) as they adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Contains information on the incentive programs, an eligibility assessment took, and information on getting started to implement EHRs.

Topics:

Other

Approaches:

Increase Accountability

Benchmarks:

Quality Improvement/Evaluation

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

PASOs

“PASOs (or “steps” in Spanish) aims to improve health of Latino families in South Carolina by educating Latino parents and caregivers on issues related to healthy pregnancies and prenatal care, as well as appropriate child development and resources for child health, and by advocating for better, more accessible services for Latinos. PASOs provides a free, comprehensive 14-hour prenatal empowerment course, community health outreach and individual interventions to Latino families, and consultative services for maternal and child health providers and policymakers throughout South Carolina.

Topics:

Parenting Education Prenatal Care and Education

Approaches:

Improve Women's Health Promote Quality Strengthen Family Resilience

Benchmarks:

Initiating Breastfeeding Reading to Child Daily Reproductive Life Plan Sustaining Breastfeeding Well Child Visits Well Woman Visits

Health Cares About IPV

This toolkit for providers offered by Futures without Violence® includes assessment tools for screening women for IPV in a clinical setting, and information on supported referral and counseling. Accompanying materials available for purchase include promotional materials for healthcare settings, and the publication Addressing Intimate Partner Violence, Reproductive and Sexual Coercion: A Guide for Obstetric, Gynecologic and Reproductive Health Care Settings.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Alcohol/Drug Services Case Management/Care Coordination Home Visiting

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

The Parent Child Assistance Program (PCAP)

Evidence-based home visitation case-management model for mothers who abuse alcohol and/or drugs during their pregnancies. PCAP’s goals are to assist substance-abusing pregnant women and mothers in obtaining treatment for substance abuse and staying in recovery, to ensure that children are in safe and stable home environments and are connected to health care, to connect mothers to community resources, and to prevent future births of alcohol and drug-affected infants. Piloted in Washington State, PCAP has been replicated in 7 states, and across Canada and New Zealand.

Topics:

Approaches:

Well Child Visits Well Woman Visits

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.

CAGE-AID

Commonly used, 5-question tool that screens for drug and alcohol use/abuse. The CAGE-AID Assessment is a quick questionnaire to help determine if further assessment is needed. If a person answers yes to two or more questions, a complete assessment is advised. Included on the Healthy Start National Evaluation Program Survey.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test)

10-item questionnaire that screens for hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption. Developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), it correctly classifies 95% of people into either alcoholics or non-alcoholics. The AUDIT has been used with a variety of populations and cultural groups. It should be administered by a health professional or paraprofessional. Included on the Healthy Start National Evaluation Program Survey.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

You Quit Two Quit

You Quit Two Quit aims to ensure that there is a comprehensive system in place to screen and treat tobacco use in women, pregnant women, and postpartum mothers. You Quit Two Quit focuses on low-income women, new mothers, and recidivism prevention. Project activities include increasing the number of providers who screen, advise, and refer patients to the North Carolina Quitline, distributing patient and provider education materials statewide, developing best-practice, sustainable, community based smoking cessation projects for women, pregnant women, and new moms, and creating continuity of care by focusing on the preconception, prenatal and perinatal periods, and including an emphasis on preventing postpartum relapse and eliminating second-hand smoke exposure.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

The Smoking Cessation Reduction in Pregnancy Treatment (SCRIPT) Program

The SCRIPT program is designed to be a component of a patient education program for prenatal care providers. The program includes A Pregnant Woman’s Guide to Quit Smoking, a 40 page guide outlining a self-evaluation process to help women quit smoking over a 7 day period; a 15 minute motivational DVD; comprehensive counseling to help pregnant smokers quit or reduce their smoking; and follow up programming to help mothers establish a non-smoking home after birth.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure (CEASE) Program

In an effort to reduce children’s exposure to tobacco smoke, the Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure program uses pediatric offices to provide smoking cessation assistance to parents who smoke, as well as to help families establish rules for a completely smoke-free home and car. Trained pediatricians and office staff consistently and systematically use a streamlined, three-step version of the traditional five-step (i.e., ask, advise, assess, assist, arrange) approach to smoking cessation and smoke-free home and car rule support. The program has led to an increase in the provision of cessation assistance and higher quit rates.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: I. Evidence-based practices—have been rigorously evaluated and shown to be effective by MCH experts.

MCH Life Course Toolbox

This toolbox is an online resource for Maternal and Child Health researchers, academics, practitioners, policy advocates, and others in the field to share information, innovative strategies, and tools to integrate the Life Course Perspective into MCH work at the local, state, and national levels. Includes resources and tools to learn about the Life Course Perspective and strategies to incorporate the Life Course model into practice and policy.

Topics:

Life Course Model

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Usual Source of Care

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)

A ten-item diagnostic questionnaire used with patients with mood disorders to measure severity of depressive episodes.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D)

One of the oldest and most frequently used screening questionnaires to measure the severity of and change in depressive symptoms among adults in an inpatient setting.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised CESD-R

The CESD-R is a screening test for depression and depressive disorder. The CESD-R measures symptoms defined by the American Psychiatric Association’ Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) for a major depressive episode. The scale is well known and remains as one of the most widely used instruments in the field.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

BDI-FastScreen

The BDI-FastScreen is a 7-item self-reporting instrument used to quickly screen for depression in adolescents and adults. The screen can identify depression while excluding symptoms that might be related to medical problems, and was specifically designed for evaluating depression in patients whose behavioral and somatic symptoms attributable to biological, medical, alcohol and/or substance abuse problems may confound diagnosis.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

Smokefree MOM, women.smokefree.gov

Women.smokefree.gov includes resources for women at any stage hoping to quit smoking tobacco, and has an entire section devoted to pregnant women and mothers. Smokefree MOM is a free texting service that provides tips, advice, and support for pregnant mothers in the process of quitting smoking.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

5A’s – Five Major Steps to Intervention

An easy-to-implement, evidence-based clinical counseling approach. The 5 A’s: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange are 5 steps providers can use to identify appropriate interventions based on a patient’s willingness to quit.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks:

Evidence Rating: III. Expert guidelines—Protocols, standards of practice, or recommendations based on expert consensus.

1-800 Quit Now

Calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW will connect you directly to your state quitline. All states have quitlines in place with trained coaches who provide information and help with tobacco cessation. Specific services and hours of operation vary from state to state.

Topics:

Approaches:

Benchmarks: