Implementing Healthy Steps (National Evaluation 1996 Protocol)

HS (national evaluation) was designed to enhance pediatric primary care for children from birth to age 3 and their families by incorporating preventive developmental and behavioral services into routine practice. The model strived to enhance the knowledge and confidence of caregivers as a means of promoting children’s well-being. It focused on aspects of the caregiving environment amenable to change. Infancy is a suitable period for intervention because it is a time of rapid child development and high stress for parents, and parents are likely to be open to new ideas. The model was designed to be universal, with services offered to all families in participating practices, in recognition that all parents have concerns and questions about their children’s health, behavior, and development. Operating through pediatric practices allowed the program to periodically reach children and parents during the developmentally critical first few years of children’s lives.

Healthy Steps (national evaluation 1996 protocol) was a universal parenting intervention implemented between 1996 and 2001. The HomVEE review is based on Healthy Steps as implemented in the 1996 national evaluation, and referred to as Healthy Steps (national evaluation 1996 protocol), or HS (national evaluation). Sites enrolled in the national evaluation followed a protocol that incorporated home visits. However, home visiting is not the primary method of service delivery in the current model guidelines, and implementation of the HS (national evaluation) is no longer supported.

The Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that aims to improve the health care system for vulnerable populations, developed the program’s vision and provided financial support and direction. A team from Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, designed the program, trained site staff, and provided technical assistance to the sites in the national evaluation. The Healthy Steps National Program Office (NPO) created additional program materials and supported implementation during visits to monitor fidelity. ICF Consulting directed and coordinated implementation. As of 2015, Zero to Three, a national organization that focuses on the health and development of infants and toddlers, operates Healthy Steps.

HS (national evaluation) was designed for parents with children from birth to age 3. For the evaluation, enrollment was limited to families with newborns less than 4 weeks old. Any such family served by a practice that participated in the national evaluation could enroll in the program, except for families that (1) planned to move or change pediatric practices within six months, (2) did not speak fluent English or Spanish, (3) planned to put their child up for adoption or in foster care, or (4) had a child who was too ill for an office visit within the first four weeks of life.

The national evaluation model was designed to promote (1) the clinical capacity and effectiveness of pediatric primary care to better meet the needs of families with young children; (2) the knowledge, skills, and confidence of mothers and fathers in their child-rearing abilities; and (3) the health and development of young children.

The HS (national evaluation) had seven major elements. Parents were offered:

• Home visits from HS specialists, timed to reach parents at children’s key developmental junctures during the first three years. For example, a home visit conducted in a newborn’s first few weeks of life encouraged continued breastfeeding and supported parents as they established their caregiving patterns. A home visit when a baby was about 9 months old and becoming mobile focused on safety hazards and childproofing.
• Enhanced well-child care appointments before, after, or during well-child appointments, during which HS specialists answered questions about child development and encouraged early reading to children.
• Child development telephone information line, staffed by HS specialists, for parents to ask questions about day-to-day worries and developmental concerns.
• Child development and family health check-ups, to detect developmental or behavioral problems and identify family health risks.
• Written materials that emphasized prevention and health promotion on medical, developmental, and practical topics. For example, parents received a Child Health and Development Record that chronicled immunizations, physical growth, developmental milestones, and parental concerns through age 18.
• Parent group meetings, facilitated by the HS specialists, for social support and opportunities for interactive learning.
• Linkages to community resources, consisting primarily of a list of community resources compiled by HS specialists.

HS specialists were expected to offer a minimum of six home visits to each family by the child’s third birthday. Home visits occurred at key developmental junctures, including the first few weeks after birth, and as children became mobile at about 9 months of age.

Well-child visits followed standard pediatric guidelines, which called for nine visits during the first three years.

The national evaluation was implemented in 15 sites in 13 states.

The HS (national evaluation) did not allow for site adaptation. HS has continued to be implemented in sites not in the national evaluation, however. In one adaptation, sites that provide prenatal assistance only offer families a supplement called PrePare. PrePare adds an average of three prenatal home visits. Home visitors cover general topics on the transition to parenthood and overcoming family-specific risk factors.

The information contained on this page was last updated in August 2015.