The Healthy Families America Initiative: Integrating Research, Theory and Practice / Edition 1

by Joseph Galano

Overview

Child abuse and neglect are social and public health problems that need to be addressed by strong policies and dynamic initiatives that show quantifiable results. The Healthy Families America® Initiative: Integrating Research, Theory and Practice is the most up-to-date examination of the home visitation program aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect. This contemporary and comprehensive summary of research and practice contains five empirical articles at the national, state, and multi-state levels, scholarly reviews, insights into Healthy Families America® (HFA) challenges and successes, and commentaries about the next steps for HFA. This detailed study of HFA is a roadmap for prevention efforts of the future, discussing in detail its past and present, the benefits and challenges of researcher/practitioner partnerships, and expert suggestions to improve practice.

Healthy Families America is a program that works to help new families give their children a healthy, abuse- and neglect-free environment in which to grow. The Healthy Families America® Initiative: Integrating Research, Theory and Practice looks closely at the research to assess whether or not the program has actually attained its projected goals. This book comprehensively discusses the programs from both micro and macro perspectives, while offering practical strategies to strengthen HFA and guide the next phase of child abuse prevention. This resource also provides several tables to clearly present research data and is extensively referenced.

The Healthy Families America® Initiative: Integrating Research, Theory and Practice covers the history of HFA; challenges and successes associated with its expansion as a national prevention initiative; the credentialing process; the evolution of the HFA Research to Practice Network (RPN); information on Every Child Succeeds and Healthy Families Arizona programs, and what makes them work; the theory, research, and practical constraints of developing, implementing, and evaluating a multi-site and statewide HFA program; the Web-based eECS system that optimizes quality assurance and collects data to document and identify clinical needs; an overview of the literature on home visiting outcomes; a current comprehensive summary of HFA outcomes; and suggestions on how to frame child abuse and neglect prevention to best impact citizens and public policy.

The Healthy Families America® Initiative: Integrating Research, Theory and Practice is essential reading for professionals involved in child abuse and neglect prevention and treatment, community psychologists, professionals involved in prevention and health promotion, child advocates, HFA’s program evaluators and practitioners, sociologists, and policymakers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789036810
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/10/2007
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Joseph Galano, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the College of William and Mary and a core faculty member in the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Galano has worked at the local, state, and national levels to prevent child abuse and neglect. Since 1995, he has worked with Prevent Child Abuse Virginia to develop Virginia's statewide child abuse prevention initiative, Healthy Families Virginia. He was a member of the steering committee that developed the Blue Ribbon Plan to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect in Virginia and currently serves on Healthy Families Virginia's Advisory Council. Since 1992 he has been a member of the Healthy Families America (HFA) Research Practice Network and is a member of the HFA State Leaders Network. In recognition of his career accomplishments, the American Psychological Association honored him with the 1996 Distinguished Contribution to Practice in Community Psychology award.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Challenges of Integrating Research into Practice (Joseph Galano). Healthy Families America®: Ruminations on Implementing a Home Visitation Program to Prevent Child Maltreatment (John K. Holton and Kathryn Harding). Healthy Families America® Research Practice Network: A Unique Partnership to Integrate Prevention Science and Practice (Joseph Galano and Cynthia J. Schellenbach). Healthy Families America® State Systems Development: An Emerging Practice to Ensure Program Growth and Sustainability (Lori Friedman and Lisa Schreiber). Development and Implementation of a Quality Assurance Infrastructure in a Multisite Home Visitation Program in Ohio and Kentucky (Robert T. Ammerman et al.). The Evaluation of Healthy Families Arizona: A Multisite Home Visitation Program (Judy Krysik and Craig W. LeCroy). The Promise of Primary Prevention Home Visiting Programs: A Review of Potential Outcomes (Beth S. Russell, Preston A. Britner, and Jennifer L. Woolard). Healthy Families America® Effectiveness: A Comprehensive Review of Outcomes (Kathryn Harding et al.). The Role of Community in Facilitating Service Utilization (Deborah Daro et al.). Potential Lessons from Public Health and Health Promotion for the Prevention of Child Abuse (Joanne B. Martin, Lawrence W. Green, and Andrea Carlson Gielen). Index. Reference Notes.

What People are Saying About This

James L. Sorensen

AN EXTREMELY USEFUL VOLUME that highlights the history of the Health Families in America (HFA) Research Practice Network. . . . Highlights the crucial relationships between researchers and practitioners as well as the issue that problem-solving takes time. . . . MUST READING for people who want to know how researchers and practitioners can work together. . . . Lest readers think that the issues of family violence do not apply to them, there is also an excellent chapter by Martin, Green, and Gielen pointing out the relationship to tobacco control and prevention of injuries. . . . Well worth reading for researchers, practitioners, and those dedicated to public health. (James L. Sorensen, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco)

Abe Wandersman

PIONEERING. . . . Contributes to deepening our understanding of the important national initiative, Healthy Families America (HFA), and to add to developing and integrating theory, research, and practice. . . . Reflects on what can be learned from successes and failures and how the first ten years of HFA can help to guide the next phase of child abuse and neglect prevention. . . . ILLUMINATES EFFECTIVE INTERVENTION STRATEGIES that communities can employ to combat the threat of child abuse and neglect as well as lessons learned that can improve future practice. . . . A testament to ten years of dedicated collaboration between practitioners, program evaluators, researchers, and state and national public and non-profit leaders. . . . An ESSENTIAL book for those interested in formulating policy, conducting community-based research, or implementing community-based child abuse and neglect prevention services. (Abe Wandersman, Dept of Psychology, University of South Carolina)

Editorial Reviews

" Joseph Galano's recently edited volume The Healthy Families America Initiative: Integrating Research, Theory, and Practice does an admirable job seeking to bridge the gaps between research knowledge, professional practice and policy regarding the initiative....this book offers numerous tantalizing bits of analysis and thought...Their realistic view of the ...difficulties...is balanced by a set of positive, affirmative recommendations."

- Julie Cooper Altman, Ph. D., Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services

 

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