‘Family Connects’ home visitation program being piloted in Greenville County

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 27, 2023

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is partnering with Greenville First Steps to bring Family Connects to the Upstate. Family Connects is a home visiting program that pairs families with newborns to licensed nurses who specialize in infant and maternal care and can offer help and guidance on healthy parenting. 

Family Connects was founded in Durham, N.C., with a goal to connect with each parent after the birth of the child, offer supportive guidance to families, link families to important community resources, and help parents connect with their child. In South Carolina, the program is being piloted in Greenville County with nurses available to begin at-home visits for families with newborns in March.

“I am very excited to be a part of the implementation of Family Connects in Greenville County. We have established a team that is very competent to build and sustain this program,” said Jane Yates, RN, BSN, DHEC’s Upstate Maternal Child Health Program Manager. “The collaboratives we have with our community partners will ensure that all families with newborns will have access to the resources they need to achieve a healthy parenting lifestyle.” 

The licensed nurses who will perform the at-home visits through Family Connects are DHEC employees. Greenville First Steps is serving as the fiscal agent, securing private, state, and federal funding to support the program. Funding for Family Connects has been committed by Greenville First Steps, Greenville Health Authority (Healthy Greenville), the Margaret Linder Southern Endowment (MLSE), and S.C. Medicaid resources.

"For many parents of newborns, all of the day-to-day challenges, decisions, surprises, can become overwhelming just keeping up,” said Derek Lewis, Executive Director of Greenville First Steps. “While Greenville is a vibrant community with an abundance of available resources, for many, the challenge is ensuring families can find the appropriate supports they need at the right time. Family Connects will help families have accurate and reliable information to get the assistance they need during these difficult times.”

Family Connects program coordinators will first visit with new mothers while they’re at their delivery hospital and will talk to them about the program. If a mother is interested, the first at-home visit will be scheduled, typically for when the baby is around three weeks old. During the at-home visit, the nurse will provide postpartum and newborn assessments, offer education and guidance about common newborn and postpartum issues, and provide information about various resources that are available. The visit is intended to complement the infant’s routine primary care provider appointments and to provide additional support to both the baby and mother. The nurses will follow-up with the family one or two weeks later to see if additional at-home visits will be scheduled. Participation in the Family Connects at-home visits is free of cost.   

“Maternal and infant health are critical indicators to the overall health of a community and by providing structured, evidenced based interventions to our new moms and babies it will improve outcomes across our communities,” said Kandi Fredere, Ph.D., DHEC’s Upstate Regional Health Director.

Family Connects uses an evidence-based, universal approach to supporting newborns and their families. Family Connects Durham provides statistics from a randomized clinical trial indicating the successes of nurse home visitation program for families with newborns, including:

• 40% reduction in Child Protective Services investigations 
• Reduction in hospitalization rates for children ages 0-60 months 
• Parents report 17% greater community connections 
• Mothers are 28% less likely to demonstrate signs of clinical levels of anxiety 

Greenville First Steps and DHEC expect the Family Connects pilot program in Greenville County to continue for at least three years, after which the program may be expanded to more and more communities across South Carolina.

DHEC’s strategic partnership with Greenville First Steps aligns with the agency’s 2022-2024 bridge strategic goal of promoting healthy outcomes by focusing on the agency’s objective to improve maternal and child health. It also embodies DHEC’s core value of promoting teamwork. 

To learn more about the Family Connects pilot program for Greenville County residents, including how to participate, visit the Family Connects Greenville webpage or contact Jane Yates, RN, BSN, DHEC’s Upstate Maternal Child Health Program Manager, at yatesje@dhec.sc.gov. 

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