Implemented by Goodwill of Central & Southern Indiana since 2011, Nurse-Family Partnership pairs first-time, low-income mothers with registered nurses who guide women through their pregnancies and ensure children reach critical developmental milestones through their second birthday. Supported by more than 35 years of research, this evidenced-based program addresses the health, development and well-being of low-income mothers and their families. Nurse-Family Partnership has shown positive, long-term change while conserving taxpayer resources.
Nurses make weekly or biweekly home visits until the child is 2 years old, focusing on improving pregnancy outcomes, helping parents learn how to provide responsible and competent care for their child, and offering assistance that will lead to improvements in the family’s economic self-sufficiency.
“Nurse-Family Partnership prepares first-time mothers for parenthood, paving the path to healthier decisions that will improve the overall course of their families’ lives far beyond graduation from the program,” said Lisa Crane, Senior Director of Nurse-Family Partnership.
In 2016, with funding support from the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH), Nurse-Family Partnership began serving a pilot group of high-risk women in Marion County who have more than one child. The nurse home visitors who are seeing this group have completed additional training about mental illness, addiction, and pediatric issues that could arise with other children in the home. A total of 11 mothers have been served in our pilot so far.
"Through increased collaboration with health care providers, this pilot seeks to learn more about how to best serve mothers who not only have infant mortality risk factors such as chronic health conditions, challenges accessing prenatal health care, or substance use
disorders, but have given birth to other children as well," said Kelly Connell, a Nurse Home Visitor with Nurse-Family Partnership.
In 2017, Nurse-Family Partnership increased the number of Indiana counties served from six to 31, and is currently serving 1,475 families. In addition, the program was selected to receive $6.5 million from ISDH over 2018–19, allowing NFP to reach more of the approximately 14,000 eligible women in Indiana. According to one study, infant mortality in Indiana could be reduced by 46% if Nurse-Family Partnership were expanded to scale.1
Visit goodwillindy.org/nfp to learn more about Nurse-Family Partnership.
1Miller, T.R. (2015). Projected outcomes of Nurse-Family Partnership home visitation during 1996-2013, USA. Prevention Science. 16 (6). 765-77. Indiana figures based on state-specific return on investment calculator derived by Dr. Miller from these national estimates to project state-specific outcomes and associated return on investment. The calculator is revised periodically to reflect major research updates (latest revision: 11/5/2016).
