Family Support & Development

Families want the best for their children, to nurture their growth and development. Families with children who have special needs want the same for their children, but often face additional challenges, including great stress, social isolation, and financial strain. Families may become overwhelmed, and find it difficult navigating the service system for their child, and to find social and emotional support for themselves. “Family Support” helps families access a broad array of supports and services, including formal supports (such as paid respite care) and informal supports (such as parent-to-parent connections) and a community system of services that promote the well-being of families and their children with special needs.

Care Republic’s Family Guidance,  Support & Development Program aims to:

  • Increase the strength and resilience of families
  • Support parents as they help their children with special needs achieve their full potential
  • Improve community capacity to serve families with children who have special needs
  • Helps families make critical connections to other families and resources in the community
  • Provides individualized, family-driven support that respects family culture, values, and preferences

Care Republic’s Family Guidance,  Support & Development Program works with families, communities, and service providers to promote and provide support for families with children who have special needs – which includes special health care needs, developmental and learning disabilities, and behavioral/mental health diagnoses.<--break->“></p> <p>Family Support includes:</p> <ul><li>Information about diagnoses, disabilities, and resources – how to find services</li><li>Parent-to-parent support – connection to others who have had similar experiences</li><li>Workshops and support groups – training and strategies you can use</li><li>Social activities – fun and recreation for the whole family</li><li>Family advocacy and policy development – involvement in shaping family and disability-related policies and services</li></ul> <p>How do Families and Children Benefit from Family Support?</p> <p>Families find information and emotional support, and learn about enhancing their child’s development and well-being – all of which promotes improved outcomes for families and children.</p> <h4>Benefits</h4> <ul><li>Increases families’ level of knowledge about their child’s condition</li><li>Increases families’ feeling of competence in their caregiving</li><li>Connects parents with similar experiences</li><li>Fosters development of new social relationships</li><li>Reduces the sense of isolation</li><li>Provides opportunities for families to support others and to improve the service system</li></ul> <h4>When do Families Seek Support?</h4> <p>Families with children ages birth to young adulthood seek family support for lots of reasons. Here are just some:</p> <ul><li>Understanding a new diagnosis</li><li>Infant born prematurely or in the NICU</li><li>Transition to early intervention, preschool, public school, post-secondary education or employment</li><li>Family moving to North Carolina</li><li>Finding local services and service providers</li><li>Advocating for educational rights and services</li><li>Financial planning for families with children who have special needs</li><li>Finding special services such as getting a ramp built or inclusive summer camps</li><li>Parenting education and strategies</li><li>Workplace support for employees with children who have special needs</li><li>Dealing with stigma and bullying</li><li>Balancing the needs of typically developing siblings</li></ul> <hr class=

Health and Wellness

Community Outreach and Support

Community Outreach and Support

Community Health Assessment

&

Community Health Improvement

Community Health Assessments & Health Improvement Planning

What Is a Community Health Assessment?

A community health assessment (sometimes called a CHA), also known as community health needs assessment (sometimes called a CHNA), refers to a state, tribal, local, or territorial health assessment that identifies key health needs and issues through systematic, comprehensive data collection and analysis. Community health assessments use such principles as

  • Multisector collaborations that support shared ownership of all phases of community health improvement, including assessment, planning, investment, implementation, and evaluation
  • Proactive, broad, and diverse community engagement to improve results
  • A definition of community that encompasses both a significant enough area to allow for population-wide interventions and measurable results, and includes a targeted focus to address disparities among subpopulations
  • Maximum transparency to improve community engagement and accountability
  • Use of evidence-based interventions and encouragement of innovative practices with thorough evaluation
  • Evaluation to inform a continuous improvement process
  • Use of the highest quality data pooled from, and shared among, diverse public and private sources

The Public Health Accreditation board defines community health assessment as a systematic examination of the health status indicators for a given population that is used to identify key problems and assets in a community. The ultimate goal of a community health assessment is to develop strategies to address the community’s health needs and identified issues. A variety of tools and processes may be used to conduct a community health assessment; the essential ingredients are community engagement and collaborative participation.

The Catholic Health Association defines a community health needs assessment as a systematic process involving the community to identify and analyze community health needs and assets in order to prioritize these needs, and to plan and act upon unmet community health needs.”
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What Is a Community Health Improvement Plan and Why Is It important?

A community health improvement plan (or CHIP) is a long-term, systematic effort to address public health problems based on the results of community health assessment activities and the community health improvement process. A plan is typically updated every three to five years.

The Public Health Accreditation Board defines a community health improvement plan as a long-term, systematic effort to address public health problems on the basis of the results of community health assessment activities and the community health improvement process. This plan is used by health and other governmental education and human service agencies, in collaboration with community partners, to set priorities and coordinate and target resources. A community health improvement plan is critical for developing policies and defining actions to target efforts that promote health. It should define the vision for the health of the community through a collaborative process and should address the gamut of strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities that exist in the community to improve the health status of that community.