Implementing Following Baby Back Home (FBBH)

Following Baby Back Home (FBBH) is a home visiting model implemented in Arkansas that is administered by the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Arkansas Home Visiting Network. The Arkansas Home Visiting Network offers training to FBBH staff.

FBBH serves families of medically complex, high-risk infants as they transition home from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). FBBH aims to foster developmentally appropriate parenting and promote child health. The home visitor works with the family to set goals based on the family’s strengths and challenges. The goal development process incorporates family resilience, family stress and adaptation, attachment, and adult learning theories.

The model serves families residing in Arkansas with medically complex, high-risk infants discharged from the NICU. Families are enrolled immediately following the infant’s discharge from the NICU.

FBBH aims to reduce morbidity and mortality rates among medically complex, high-risk infants by reducing preventable infant rehospitalizations, improving adherence to infants’ medical appointments and immunizations, and increasing families’ skills and self-efficacy in caring for their high-risk infants.

The model consists of home visits with a registered nurse and a licensed social worker. The home visiting team provides care coordination, helps families identify local resources to meet the service needs of the infant, and provides referrals to support families’ social functioning and overall well-being. The team also follows up with families by phone between visits.

FBBH offers services immediately following discharge from the NICU until the child’s third birthday. The FBBH intervention includes two home visits per month for the first two months after enrollment, one home visit per month until the child is one year old, and one visit every other month until the child's third birthday. Home visits typically last 60 minutes.

The model is implemented in 57 of the 75 counties in Arkansas.

FBBH allows local programs to adapt the curriculum or model to meet their program’s and families’ needs; however, it recommends that all programs adhere to the core elements of basic infant and toddler care.

The information contained on this page was last updated in May 2020. Recommended Further Reading lists the sources for this information. In addition, the information contained in this profile was reviewed for accuracy by Following Baby Back Home on April 10, 2020. HomVEE reserves the right to edit the profile for clarity and consistency.