Home Visiting: Procedures for Helping Families PDF
Preview Home Visiting: Procedures for Helping Families
Home Visiting: Procedures for Helping Families (Second Edition) Barbara Hanna Wasik H O ME V I S I T I NG Second Edition To all home visitors, especially those with whom we have worked. Barbara Hanna Wasik Donna M. Bryant HOME V I S I T I NG Second Edition Procedures for Helping Families /^vSage Publications, Inc. I Jk.J International Educational and Professional Publisher Thousand Oaks • London • New Delhi Copyright © 2001 by Sage Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy- ing, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information: ® Sage Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: [email protected] Sage Publications Ltd. 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU United Kingdom Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd. M-32 Market Greater Kailash I New Delhi 110 048 India Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wasik, Barbara Hanna. Home visiting: Procedures for helping families / by Barbara Hanna Wasik and Donna M. Bryant.—2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7619-2054-4 (pb) ISBN 0-7619-2053-6 (cloth) 1. Home-based family services.—United States. I. Bryant, Donna M., 1951- II. Title. HV697 .W37 2000 362.82'83.—dc21 00-010329 01 02 03 04 05 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Acquiring Editor: Nancy Hale Production Editor: Diane Foster Editorial Assistant: Cindy Bear Typesetter/Designer: Barbara Burkholder Cover Designer: Samar Hashemi Contents Foreword vii Preface xi 1. A Historical Overview 1 2. Theories and Principles of Home Visiting 29 3. Illustrative Home Visiting Programs for Children, Youth, and Their Families 53 4. Home Visitor Characteristics, Training, and Supervision 77 5. Helping Skills and Techniques 113 6. Managing and Maintaining Home Visits 145 7. Visiting Families in Stressful Situations 169 8. Ethical and Professional Issues Facing Home Visitors 203 9. Assessment and Documentation in Home Visiting 223 10. Future Directions in Home Visiting 257 Appendix: Home Visit Report Forms Used in the Infant Health and Development Program 271 References 277 Name Index 301 Subject Index 310 About the Authors 321 Foreword #-~^~+ T oday we are likely to use the phrase "early intervention" with- out stopping to question what the phrase really means. During the 1960s, early intervention became a part of our educational, so- cial, and health service programs. Since then new ideas have emerged about what it means to "intervene" in the lives of children and what constitutes "early." Human development—and with it the opportunity for intervention—continues throughout every stage of the life span, but these life long opportunities do not diminish the importance of intervention prior to the time a child reaches school age. Indeed, critical efforts to optimize child health and develop- ment are now routinely made during infancy, during the prenatal period, and, in some cases, even before conception. Early intervention, as it is broadly conceived today, can take any number of approaches to problem solving or prevention in any area important to the lives of children and families. Early intervention generally refers to actions taken before a child reaches school age, even as far back as the prenatal or preconceptual period. Systematic and intentional interventions in a family's or child's environment— with the ultimate goal (or goals) of enhancing education readiness, improving child health, or supporting parents—are commonly accepted today by theorists and practitioners of developmental and clinical psychology, psychiatry, pediatrics, social work, and other fields. Home visitation is a logical manifestation of the need to inter- vene expeditiously, thoughtfully, and effectively when children and their parents are at risk for social, educational, and medical prob- lems. The field of home visitation is built on an ecological approach vii viii • HOME VISITING and on the following assumptions: (a) that the early childhood period and the experiences that occur during that time have impor- tant implications for later child and adult development; (b) that genetic, biological, and environmental problems can be overcome or attenuated through efforts initiated early in the life of the family; (c) that the solutions to the challenges facing families today must be as diverse and individualized as the problems—and the families— themselves; and (d) that such interventions must be based on empir- ical studies of child development and family dynamics. Home visi- tation has become a powerful tool for intervening effectively—and respectfully—in the lives of young children and their families, per- haps the ultimate concrete application of these principles. Embracing such an approach in principle, however, does not auto- matically bring with it an understanding of the fundamental tenets of home visitation. Anyone engaged in working with children and families in their homes will find material here to aid them as they provide support, evaluation, and preventative or remedial services to their clients. Home visitation programs may seem like a new phenomenon, springing up as a part of 20th century reforms, but as Barbara Wasik and Donna Bryant ably illustrate, children's own homes have for centuries been one of the most optimal sites for intervention. More recent programs, however, at their best have evolved to reflect a somewhat more enlightened ethos than was reflected in many of the home visiting programs of the early and mid-20th century. The authors of this volume implicitly base their work on, and celebrate the importance of a critical set of variables. First, they acknowledge that home visiting programs are most effective when they seek not to supplant parental values and author- ity, but to respect and build on the primacy of mothers and fathers and to help parents and all other members of the family to build upon their own strengths as they create loving, supportive, healthy environments for their children. Second, Wasik and Bryant embrace a two-generation approach, giving theorists and practitioners the tools to build a foundation for improved child development by giv- ing parents the tools to improve their lives and their parenting skills. Third, as experienced home visitors, trainers, and program developers themselves, the authors are fully cognizant of the profes- sional, academic, and policy issues related to home visiting. Their realistic acknowledgment of the need to support the entire field by Foreward • ix proving that working with children and parents in this context has demonstrable positive effects, not only in the lives of the parent and child they may see in the morning of a given day, but in a more gen- eral way in the communities and service systems in which the pro- grams are embedded, will have broad implications for the field. Taking this broad view is essential in a field in which the bottom line is typically buttressed by outcomes having less to do with individual health and happiness than with cost effectiveness and attenuating a client group's long-term need for services. As a lifelong advocate for children and families, I applaud Wasik and Bryant for their efforts in writing this book. The outcomes for home visitors—and the families about which they care and for whom they work so hard—will be positive and long-lasting. —Edward Zigler, PhD Sterling Professor of Psychology Yale University New Haven, Connecticut
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