Maternal and Child Health Public Health Nurse Home Visiting Programs
Public Health Nurse home visiting programs are run out of local health authorities with training and technical assistance provided by the State Public Health Division. Public Health Nurses provide comprehensive assessments, case management and individual teaching. Public Health nurses help clients set goals for making healthy lifestyle choices and fostering personal growth.
Programs include: Nurse Family Partnership, Babies First! and CaCoon.
Programs are available in the following counties:
Babies First!: All except Multnomah, Curry, Umatilla, Wallowa
NFP: Deschutes, Jackson, Lane, Lincoln, Morrow, Multnomah, Umatilla, Washington, Yamhill
CaCoon: All except Multnomah, Curry, Wallowa, Malheur, Wheeler
Populations served:
Babies First!: Pregnant women, infants and children up to age 4 and their caregivers.
NFP: Pregnant women and their child until age 2.
CaCoon: Children and Youth with Special Health Needs up to age 21.
To find out if your county offers Babies First!, contact your local county health department or call (971) 673-0252 or email mchsection.mailbox@dhsoha.state.or.us
Babies First! is Oregon's public health nurse home visiting program for children ages 0 to 5 with health and social histories that put them at risk for poor health and development outcomes. Working within a public health model, nurses in 34 counties provide over 25,000 home visits to more than 8,000 high-risk infants and children each year through this program.
Vision
"The medical knowledge, skills, and resources we bring to clients gets us in the door . . .the relationships we form have the potential for empowering and healing." - from an Oregon Public Health Nurse working in Babies First!
Mission
Public health nurses are the eyes and ears of our communities. They are conduits of information about an array of health conditions, and inform systems, communities, individuals and families. Their professional services are offered through a variety of programs administered through local county health departments and supported through the Oregon Health Authority Public Health Division. Babies First! is one of a group of programs that support families. It is a statewide primary and secondary public health prevention effort for Oregon’s families with children 0 to 5 years of age.
Goals
The objective of Babies First! is to identify children who have conditions associated with poor health outcomes, and then to improve the health outcomes of these vulnerable children through prevention and early identification of problems. Local county health department nurses visit these children and their families in their natural environments or homes. The nurses provide health screening, nursing assessment, and nursing case management.
Babies First! is part of the Maternal and Child Health Section in the Center for Prevention and Health Promotion. Search the Public Health Program Directory to see all programs in the Oregon Public Health Division.