Healthy Families
Telephone: (867) 667-3745
The Healthy Families Program is a voluntary service which delivers a culturally appropriate intensive home-based family support service to overburdened families, prenatally and/or at birth through school age.
The early service delivery reaches families when parents are eager to learn how to care for their children and links parents and infants to early preventative medical care. It also provides support for families with children under the age of two when parents might find it stressful. The program assists families in developing appropriate expectations for their children’s development and helps in fostering that development.
The program reaches parents when they are most willing to accept information and assistance and helps promote parent child bonding and attachment.
Good quality parent-child relationships lessen the likelihood of serious child abuse, neglect and promote healthy families. Home visitors can influence the early childhood environment to promote brain development in the critical first 12 months of life. Cognitive gains during this period positively affect a child’s ongoing development of language and learning skills.
The birth of a new baby is a time for anticipation and stress for any family. Concern about the labour and delivery process, as well as fears about the caring of the new infant are often paramount in the minds of expectant parents. Immediately following the birth of a baby, new parents are often exhausted, vulnerable, and in need of support. This creates a window of opportunity for a potential "helper" to enter the family system to provide concrete assistance, support, and information.
This program is designed to provide one-to-one support for parents of newborns.
The program goals are to:
- Enhance family functioning;
- Promote positive child-parent relationships;
- Promote healthy childhood growth and development