National Home Visiting Collaborative Improves Developmental Risk Detection and Service Linkage

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Child Development
• Healthcare Improvement

Background:

• Less than 50% of children with developmental delay are identified before school entry.
• Only 10% of identified children receive necessary services, highlighting a critical gap in early intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance early detection and service linkage for children with developmental concerns.
• To achieve 80% of children with identified concerns receiving timely, targeted developmental support.

Main Methods:

• The Home Visiting Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (HV-CoIIN) utilized a Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BTS) model.
• 13 home visiting programs across 8 states and 1 tribe implemented interventions focused on early detection, referral, home visitor capacity, family engagement, and data systems.

Main Results:

• The percentage of children with developmental concerns linked to support increased from 70% to 82%.
• Parental concerns were addressed in 95% of visits (up from 75%), and 90% of children received screenings every six months (up from 51%).

Conclusions:

• Home visiting programs effectively facilitate early detection and service linkage for at-risk populations.
• The Breakthrough Series Collaborative model shows potential for improving federal public health program implementation and population health outcomes.