1. The Iowa department of public health shall establish an Iowa healthy family program to provide services to families and children during the prenatal through preschool years. The program shall be designed to promote optimal child development, improve family coping skills and functioning, and promote positive parenting skills and intrafamilial interaction, with the goal of prevention of child abuse and neglect.
2. The program shall include the following components which shall be developed and implemented to provide for coordination of services to the greatest extent possible:
a. An infant mortality and morbidity prevention program.
b. A prenatal to preschool family and child protection services program.
3. The infant mortality and morbidity prevention program shall include, but is not limited to, the following components:
a. The establishment of pilot projects, through the awarding of grants, in three counties of the state which have areas with the state's highest infant mortality rates, to identify barriers to positive birth outcomes, to encourage collaboration and cooperation among providers of health care, social services, and other services to pregnant women and infants, and to encourage pregnant women and women of childbearing years to seek health care and other services which result in positive birth outcomes.
b. The establishment of a resource mothers program to provide pregnant and postpartum women with individual guidance, information, and access to health care. As used in this section, "resource mothers program" means a community outreach program which provides for home visits by women who have experience as mothers and who have knowledge of health care services, social services, or related fields of services and who provide pregnant and postpartum women with information and access to health care and other services necessary for positive birth outcomes.
4. The prenatal to preschool family and child protection services program shall be developed and implemented by the recipient of a grant awarded by the department and shall include but is not limited to all of the following components:
a. Systematic hospital-based screening for the highest percent of high-risk families of newborns in specific geographic areas. The systematic hospital-based screening component shall provide that a resource mother identifies hospital admissions data for childbirths to determine high- risk families, based upon risk indicators developed by rule of the department. The woman who is a member of a family which is identified to be at high-risk shall be interviewed by the resource mother to encourage the woman to accept services including but not limited to home visits, support services, and instruction in child care and development.
b. Community-based home visiting family support services. Following identification of a family as high-risk and acceptance of a family of services under the program, the resource mother shall initiate home visits to assess the needs of the family and to refer the family to appropriate services.
c. Individualization of the intensity of services based upon the family's need and level of risk. The resource mother shall assess the specific needs of the participating family to ensure appropriate access to services and necessary frequency of services.
d. Linkage to a "medical home". The resource mother shall assist participating families in the selection of a primary care provider in order to promote preventive health care and positive child development. The resource mother assigned to a family shall track the scheduling and completion of and the provision of transportation to health care visits. The resource mother shall also review the results of health care visits and coordinate future visits or referrals to necessary services.
e. Coordination of a range of health and social services for at-risk families, including the provision of the appropriate levels or types of immunizations to children participating in the program.
f. Continuous follow-up with the family until the identified child reaches age three, except in the case of high-risk families in which case the follow-up shall continue to age four.
g. A structured training program in the dynamics of abuse and neglect. The grant recipient shall provide a training program to establish uniform standards for service delivery.
h. Provision of crisis child care through utilization of existing child care services to participants in the program.
i. Evaluation of the program, including an evaluation of the effects on the reduction in risk factors for the participants, an evaluation of the services provided, and recommendations for changes in or expansion of the program.
j. To the extent possible, private party, third party, and medical assistance including the early and periodic screening, diagnosis, and treatment (EPSDT) program, shall be utilized as a reimbursement to defray the costs of services provided.
5. The department shall adopt rules to establish and implement the healthy family program which address all of the following:
a. The entering of an interagency agreement with the department of human services by which the department may refer a family at high-risk, based upon reports to the department of human services, of the need for services.
b. The criteria for the awarding of a grant for the development and implementation of the infant mortality and morbidity prevention pilot program and for the development and implementation of the prenatal to preschool family and child protection services program.
c. The components required of a grant applicant for inclusion in an infant mortality and morbidity prevention pilot program proposal and in a prenatal to preschool family and child protection services program proposal.
d. Establishment of risk indicators to be used in the systematic hospital-based screening component of the prenatal to preschool family and child protection services program.
e. Designation of the areas of the counties selected for implementation of the infant mortality and morbidity prevention pilot program which have the highest infant mortality rate based on census tracts.
f. Designation, in cooperation with the grant recipient, of the counties of the state for implementation of the prenatal to preschool family and child protection services program.
92 Acts, 2nd Ex, ch 1001, § 419
Iowa General Assembly
Search: Iowa Code 1997
© 1997 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa
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Last update: Mon Jan 27 16:05:08 CST 1997
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