Working with vulnerable families in the Enhanced Home Visiting Program to identify parenting strengths and acknowledge family expertise

Promoting a focus on children in the early years and investing in service support for families and communities in the early years including intervention and prevention, is a priority for all Governments.One such service is currently operating in the City of Wodonga in rural Victoria, Australia. Under the auspice of the Early Years Services, The City of Wodonga Enhanced Home Visiting Maternal and Child Health Program strives to achieve better outcomes for children, families and their community. The program embraces the principles of promoting effective partnerships with families, building capacity in the community to ensure sustainable wellbeing; increasing the focus on prevention and early intervention to promote the social, physical and cognitive development of young children and improving services that ensure the safety, wellbeing and developmental needs of children and support for families and individuals in crisis or at risk of crisis to thrive.The Enhanced Home Visiting Maternal and Child Health Program has the advantage of bringing services into the home rather than requiring families to seek out services within the community. What makes this program different from other preventative intervention strategies is that the program allows the Maternal and Child Health Nurse an opportunity to observe the environment in which families live, identify and tailor services to meet the needs of families, and build relationships in ways that may not be possible with other types of intervention.The content and style of delivery of the program is designed to meet specific goals relevant to each families identified need. The frequency of how often families are visited and how long they receive the service is negotiated on an individual family basis. The program can be a stand-alone intervention, or a component of a broader intervention program that incorporates a range of strategies directed at meeting the families goals.