Celebrating 4 Years of Impact: Reflecting on Family Connects Pierce County’s Journey and Looking Ahead
By Guest Contributer: Anisa Smith, DNP, Clinical Nursing Director for Family Connects Pierce County
We’ve reached a milestone, and now, a moment for celebration and reflection!
Family Connects Pierce County has now been operating for four years. The program launched on March 15th, 2021 after more than a year of investigating, forming partnerships, and creating a roadmap to build an initiative that could successfully meet the needs of Pierce County families. Some of you have walked alongside us since the very beginning, and some of you have met us along the path only more recently. We’re grateful for every single one of you.
If you’re unfamiliar with our origin story, the Family Connects model of postpartum nurse support was selected by local leaders as a respond to a problem that the community itself had identified in 2018. At that time, it was clear that parents in Pierce County needed a more robust system of support–especially those with newborns. Without this support, our community was experiencing the highest number of traumatic family separations compared to the rest of the state. When examining the Family Connects model, researchers found that nurse visits to families in the first two to three weeks after birth helped to prevent many challenges down the road, including child welfare involvement and maternal and infant health complications.
At the same time, a network was knit together consisting of resources, programs and organizations that all serve families. We refer to it as the Pierce County Early Childhood Network (PCECN). Family Connects nurses can make sure families have access to PCECN to help them find childcare, a pediatrician’s office, diapers, food, health information, parent groups, and many other things.
I happen to work on the nursing end of things, and I’m delighted to observe that, not only do we connect families to resources, but our nurses and staff are out there doing work that keeps families safe and healthy. How many infants have a safer sleeping environment, thanks to the education or supplies we were able to provide? How many families, concerned about seasonal viruses or stomach bugs, have been able to ask questions and get real advice about their risk? How many birth parents have benefitted by hearing the post-birth warning signs–the line past which they should call their doctor because their symptoms aren’t normal anymore?
How many families have been assisted to find transportation to their appointments, or even just received a friendly reminder to schedule them in the right time frame? How many questions about lactation have been answered? How many parents have been able to explore the changes in their emotions and relationships after the birth of their child, reassured that they’re doing a great job, and offered extra help if need be?
I pose these as questions because there’s no easy way to find numeric answers. (And me, such a data person. Ha!). But I can tell you this: Since launch, we’ve served about 3,712 families. Of those, 2,529 have completed full visits with their nurse.
Not everybody is interested in a Family Connects visit, and that’s okay. Some say they have enough resources and family members around already. Others may be unfamiliar with what we do or assume they will be billed, and therefore hesitant to accept a visit. We’re here to support families how they would like to be supported. One of the metrics we track is our 'population reach'—that is, of all the eligible families, how many of them have completed the full visit.
In the past six months, our population reach is at 46%. Interestingly, 79% of eligible families have scheduled visits, but sometimes they’re not home, don’t answer the phone, or stop responding to texts and never confirm the appointment. What we have learned in four years is that we still have a lot of work to do to normalize postpartum support as a standard of care beyond the six-week check-up in the United States.
Something that we have found to be true–every family needs something after delivering or bringing a child into the home. For some families, it’s a lot. For others, it’s less. Some need help paying for diapers or formula. Some need reliable childcare. Some would like to find a community with other parents they can relate to. Some just need answers to their questions. But the data I can pull about this (which represents all the clients we’ve seen since we transitioned databases in March of last year) indicates that 100% of families we’ve served have had some sort of need. And that’s not me rounding up. It’s every single family.
So this is why we exist, and will continue to do the work. Hopefully, we can continue to build recognition and trust among the families and the community. We’ll also continue searching for ways (read: funding) to expand the program, because it’s clear to me and many others that everybody should at least be offered the opportunity for a Family Connects visit, whether or not they accept it. Everyone should have the knowledge that they’re not alone, and there’s support out there when they need it.
Family Connects Pierce County needs your help!
Family Connects Pierce County is at risk of losing legislative funding to continue program operations. If you would like to support our work, we invite you to take any of the following actions:
Subscribe to the Cradle to Community Blog and Pierce County Early Childhood Network Newsletter.
Follow us on social media: Instagram: familyconnectswa and on Facebook: FamilyConnectsPC.
Join our Community Advisory Board by reaching out to info@familyconnectswa.org.
Write to your legislator asking to please fund Family Connects Pierce County
Use This Template to write your letter of support and connection to the work.
Thank you,
The Family Connects Pierce County Team
