The nurse Home Visiting program Family Connects Ohio will launch in state fiscal year 2025!
Family Connects Ohio will offer all families, within the selected geographic areas, a nurse home visit around three weeks after the family brings their baby home. This evidence-based program has no income requirements for families and hopes to serve 4,000 families!
“Similar programs have a proven track record of reducing infant mortality. In places where these programs have been implemented, rates of child protective services investigations have decreased by 44 percent, and mothers showed a 30 percent drop in postpartum depression and a 50 percent reduction in emergency room visits.”
-Ohio Governor Mike DeWine
Visiting nurses will guide families to clinical or community supports, help families who may need additional help as a result of exhaustion or trouble with breastfeeding, and educate new parents on the importance of safe sleep for babies.