A supportive program for
first time parents in our region recently honored its second
group of graduates. Healthy Families for Southwest Virginia,
a program in the Children’s Services Department of Mountain
Empire Older Citizens, Inc., recognized the efforts of their
graduates on September 12th during a ceremony at MEOC.
Participants in the
Healthy Families program are visited by Family Support
Workers (FSW) who make regular home visits with the mom and
her new baby. During the visits they bring a wealth of
information to the new mother and are able to answer
questions they may have about their new baby.
All three graduates of
the program stated that the home visits were very beneficial
to them as they began learning how to care for a child.
Andrea Taylor explained
that her sister Kelly was involved in the program before she
became involved. She said while her sister’s FSW, Maggie
Christian, was visiting with Kelly, she expressed an
interest in getting involved. Andrea said she was two months
pregnant when she enrolled in the program. She said she was
able to receive a great deal of information throughout her
pregnancy that was very helpful to her.
Andrea admits she did
not know very much about caring for a newborn when she
initially got involved in the program. However, she was able
to learn so very much through her involvement with Healthy
Families that she has recommended the program to others.
She notes that the
workshops held by Healthy Families staff and the opportunity
to meet with other parents were very helpful to her as well.
Racheal Herron learned
about the program while she was in the hospital after giving
birth to her twins. Racheal says she was young when she had
her children and she did not really know a lot about babies.
However, both she and her mom agree that the program was
very helpful to her and she too would recommend it to
others. The family support worker provided child
development/parenting skills information at each visit and
the FSW would also leave handouts at each visit that were
very informative, she said.
Kelly Stapleton, who is
the mother of three, said like the others in the program,
that she knew very little about raising children and is very
thankful that a program like this one exists for young
mothers in our area.
“Even after having three
kids, I’m still learning,” Kelly said.
MEOC’s Director of
Children’s Services, Janie Dockery, provided information
about the Healthy Families program. “The main focus of the
program is to promote positive parenting, to look for family
strengths and build on those strengths to make the family
unit stronger,” she explained.
New parents often need
extra help because the networks that once were in place have
changed and so many things about parenting can be
overwhelming, she said. Many people assume that today’s moms
will instinctively know what to do in every situation.
However, many young mothers and fathers have never spent
time with a new baby.
Dockery explained that
parents who participate in the program receive information
on nutrition, health, child safety, self-esteem building,
developmental stages, developmental testing, budgeting,
establishing healthy relationships and even prenatal care if
they are introduced into the program before their child is
born.
Those who participate in
the program are able to take advantage of a toy lending
library. This allows parents to borrow educational toys for
their children to use until they outgrow them. Once the
child has surpassed that educational level, the parents turn
the toys back in and can then take home toys at the next
development level.
Dockery explained that
parents are able to participate in the program at three
levels. At Level One, they receive weekly visits from
workers, who bring books, resource and learning materials
and other items. As the family progresses, after spending
six months on Level One, they may advance to Level Two,
which features visits every other week. At Level Three,
participants move to visits once a month, as children get
older and parents gain experience.
For more information
about the Healthy Families program contact Janie Dockery at
523-4202 or
jdockery@meoc.org.
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