U.S. Department Of HHS Recognizes Nurse-Family Partnership Implementation With Annual SAMHSA Science & Service Award

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has named Private/Public Ventures, the implementation partner of Nurse-Family Partnership® in Pennsylvania, recipient of its 2010 SAMHSA Science and Service Award. The awards recognize community-based organizations and coalitions that successfully have implemented one or more recognized evidence-based interventions that have been shown to prevent and/or treat mental illnesses and substance abuse.


SAMHSA notes that for over 10 years, Private/Public Ventures (P/PV) partnered with Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) to grow the program throughout the Keystone state. The NFP program begins with pregnancy help through ongoing home visits from registered public health nurses to low-income, first-time moms who receive the care and support they need to have a healthy pregnancy, provide responsible and competent care for their children, and become more economically self-sufficient. An evidence-based community health care program, NFP's outcomes include long-term family improvements in health, education, and economic self-sufficiency.


Compared to NFP nationally, at intake clients in Pennsylvania present more risk factors in that there are a greater number of teens, more unmarried, less educated, and greater histories of mental illness and abuse. Despite these risk factors, Pennsylvania NFP meets or exceeds Nurse-Family Partnership goals for language development at 21 months, immunizations completed by age 2, and the number of months that the mothers are working in the year after their child is born. In addition and as reported in 2009: 90% of babies were born full-term, 95% of children received all recommended immunizations by 24 months of age, a 29% increase in mothers workforce participation from 19% at intake to 48% at program completion, 44% of mothers who completed the program and who did not have a diploma/GED at intake earned their diploma/GED and 59% of mothers initiated breast-feeding. Pennsylvania NFP also shows positive trends toward many other NFP goals.


P/PV's stated mission is to help with replication of promising programs and NFP has been a noted success in that mission. In mid-2010, P/PV and Nurse-Family Partnership ended their 10-year collaboration as planned, due to the NFP program's successful widespread adoption in Pennsylvania and other states served by P/PV.


Twenty-eight organizations received the 2010 SAMHSA Award, part of SAMHSA's strategic initiative on the prevention of substance abuse and mental illnesses. To be eligible for these non-monetary awards, an organization had to demonstrate successful implementation of a recognized evidence-based intervention, including interventions that have been published in the scientific literature and/or appear on a federal or state registry.


Source: Nurse-Family Partnership