Family Focus Guide

Provides home visits, infant care, and parenting classes.

Our goal is to improve the quality of every life we touch. To achieve that, our Fayetteville doctors, surgeons and staff are committed to excellence in every aspect of the healthcare process. Our values of patient-centeredness, integrity, innovation, teamwork, diversity and accountability help us create a better experience for every patient, every time.

The Nurturing Parenting Programs are family-based programs that can be offered in a group setting, in a home-visiting setting, or as a combination of both group meetings and home visitation.[1] Components of the program include 1) developing empathy, facilitating parent-child bonding and attachment; 2) teaching parents appropriate expectations of children’s growth, particularly ways to promote children’s feelings of self-worth, trust, and security; 3) employing discipline that promotes the dignity of children and adults; 4) empowering adults and children to nurture themselves, others, and their environment; 5) promoting positive self-worth; and 6) helping all family members develop a meaningful level of selfawareness and acceptance. Parent education programs that are designed to prevent the development of poor parenting behaviors are short-term, approximately five to 18 sessions in length. Parenting intervention programs are designed to “intervene” to prevent escalation in the early stages of maltreatment. These are generally from 12 to 20 sessions. Parenting treatment programs are designed to “treat” abusive and neglectful parent-child or parent-teen dysfunctional interactions. These are generally 15 to 25 sessions.

Early Head Start (EHS) is a comprehensive, flexible child development and parenting education program delivered through home visitation, center‐based services to children and families, or a combination of both delivery modes. Parent‐child activity groups may also be part of the program. The focus of the parent component is to assist parents build skills to assist their child's development, increase family literacy, and promote healthy parent‐child relationships. Providers also give parenting support and education, and assist families with transitioning their children into Head Start or other preschool programs when the child reaches age three. Family advocacy, resource and
referral to other community services are also provided.

Head Start is a federal matching grant program that was initiated in the mid-1960s as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty." The mission of the Head Start program is to "promote school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families" (ACF, 2008). For eligible low-income children, Head Start provides free access to preschools, which are provided primarily in centers and are expected to conform to a specific set of guidelines laid out in the Head Start Program Performance Standards and other regulations (45 CFR 1301-1311, 2006). In addition to early childhood education, Head Start incorporates parental involvement and facilitates access to health care services; most Head Start programs also provide at least one meal to children during the day. The program requirements are flexible to meet the needs of the community, allowing individual programs to determine such program characteristics as the number of hours per day, or months per year, that a participation must attend; curriculum; teacher salary; and mode of delivery (in a home, a school, or a center)