MECSH provides individualized, home-based services focusing on parent education, maternal health and well-being, parent-child relationships, family relationships, and goal setting. MECSH includes a set of core elements—the MECSH core curriculum, the Learning to Communicate curriculum, and components of the Promoting First Relationships® curriculum—that agencies must implement.
The MECSH core curriculum focuses on child, parental, and family health and development; identifying family aspirations; goal setting; and building the parent’s capacity to adapt, self-manage, and parent effectively despite day-to-day difficulties. A series of modules using evidence-based curricula, called focus modules, may be added to the core model. The program sites and developer work together to select focus modules to be implemented alongside the core curriculum to address local needs.
The Learning to Communicate curriculum is designed to foster parent-child relationships and children’s development and is delivered monthly for 12 months beginning when the child is one month old. Components of Promoting First Relationships®, including the handouts and video-feedback techniques, are also delivered to support positive parent-child interactions.
Home visitors also support families on issues such as housing and finances. Home visitors receive support from and refer families to practitioners within the maternal, child, and family health services system, as necessary.
In addition to home visiting, MECSH provides group activities such as parenting groups and links families to events within the community.