Home visiting programs (prenatal and postnatal)

Home visiting programs aim to help families support their children’s healthy growth and development. These programs may target their services to families or caregivers who are at a particular disadvantage when it comes to establishing and maintaining such a supportive environment, or where the child is more vulnerable due to health or developmental concerns.

Many home visiting programs across Canada and elsewhere emerged out of pressing policy needs to prevent child maltreatment. There are a number of ways in which home visiting programs can identify and address issues of child maltreatment: home visits help service providers assess the safety of a child’s living environment; service providers can also work individually with the parent to improve parent-child interactions.

Some researchers suggest that home visiting programs can reach out to families and caregivers who would not otherwise seek support services. These programs make clients feel more at ease and able to share their conditions, which gives service providers more opportunity to tailor their support and guidance to suit each client’s real-life situation. All of this results in more satisfying provider-client relationships.

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