Nurse-Family Partnership

www.nursefamilypartnership.org

Prevention; Ages 0–2 & 15–30

Risk Factors

Individual: Difficult temperament; Early and persistent noncompliant behavior; Hyperactive (impulsive, attention problems)

Family: Family poverty/low family socioeconomic status; Family violence (child maltreatment, partner violence, conflict); Having a teenage mother; Maternal drug, alcohol, and tobacco use during pregnancy; Parental criminality; Parental psychiatric disorder; Parental substance abuse; Parental use of physical punishment/harsh and/or erratic discipline practices; Poor parent-child relations or communication; Pregnancy and delivery complications

Description

Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) provides first-time, low-income mothers of any age with home visitation services from public health nurses. NFP nurses work intensively with these mothers to improve maternal, prenatal, and early childhood health and well-being with the expectation that this intervention will help achieve long-term improvements in the lives of at-risk families. The intervention process is effective because it focuses on developing therapeutic relationships with the family and is designed to improve five broad domains of family functioning:

Health (physical and mental)
Home and neighborhood environment
Family and friend support
Parental roles
Major life events (e.g., pregnancy planning, education, employment)

Starting with expectant mothers, the program addresses substance abuse and other behaviors that contribute to family poverty, subsequent pregnancies, poor maternal and infant outcomes, suboptimal child care, and a lack of opportunities for the children.

This program has been tested with both white and African-American families in rural and urban settings. Nurse-visited women and children fared better than those assigned to control groups in each of the outcome domains established as goals for the program. In a 15-year follow-up study of primarily white families in Elmira, New York, findings showed that low-income and unmarried women and their children who had been provided a nurse home visitor had, in contrast to those in a comparison group:

79 percent fewer verified reports of child abuse or neglect.
31 percent fewer subsequent births.
An average interval of more than two years between the birth of their first and second child.
30 months’ less receipt of Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
44 percent fewer maternal behavioral problems due to alcohol and drug abuse.
69 percent fewer maternal arrests.
60 percent fewer instances of running away on the part of the 15-year-old children.
56 percent fewer arrests on the part of the 15-year-old children.
56 percent fewer days of alcohol consumption on the part of the 15-year-old children.

Endorsements

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Model program

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001): Model program

OJJDP Blueprints Project: Model program

Contact

Nurse-Family Partnership
National Office
1900 Grant Street, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80203
Phone: (866) 864-5226
Fax: (303) 327-4260
E-mail: info@nursefamilypartnership.org
Web site: http://www.nursefamilypartnership.org/

References

Olds, D.; Hill, P.; Mihalic, S.; and O’Brien, R. (1998). Blueprints for Violence Prevention, Book Seven: Prenatal and Infancy Home Visitation by Nurses. Boulder, CO: Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.