The family support specialists of the Healthy Families program diligently strive to teach positive parenting skills with a focus on pregnant women and parents facing difficult challenges including the following:

• single parenthood;
• poverty/low income;
• childhood history of abuse and other adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s); and
• current or previous issues related to behavioral health (substance use and/or mental health issues), and/or domestic violence.

• Baltimore County Department of Health
• Baltimore County Department of Social Services
• Franklin Square Medical Center
• Baltimore County Public Schools

One strategy recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the prevention of ACEs is to create nurturing parent-child relationships using an early childhood home visitation approach (CDC, 2019). The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) specifically lists Healthy Families America as a home visitation program supporting Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) prevention while indicating that “Home visitation programs have demonstrated significant reductions in rates of child abuse and neglect and have improved substance use, violence, and parenting outcomes” (JAMA, 2019).

Healthy Families is an evidence-based, voluntary home visiting program created by Prevent Child Abuse America. The program is designed to promote positive parenting, enhance child health and development, and prevent child abuse and neglect.  The Healthy Families Baltimore County program has been in operation since 2000, and services are provided to families residing throughout the County.

A total of 71% or 35 of 49 families successfully completed the program during FY22.