Family Home Visiting (FHV)

Training Resources

Upcoming Training Opportunities

To view upcoming Maternal & Child Health (MCH) education and training opportunities go to the MDH Maternal & Child Health education and training registration system. This system allows you to find upcoming MCH trainings, including NCAST trainings, Child and Teen Checkups (C&TC) and Hearing and Vision Screening, and to register online. If you do not see a training in the registration system it means it is not currently offered. Check back often to see when new training dates become available.

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May 2012

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Calendar Legend

CD = Chemical Dependency
GGK = Growing Great Kids
IS = Integrated Strategies
NCAST = Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training
PRWR = Promoting Relationships With Relationships
S/E = Social/Emotional Development During the Earliest Years
WWAP = Working With Adolescent Parents and Their Children

Training Descriptions

Chemical Dependency
Description
This training provides participants with basic information about chemical dependency, including the disease concept, symptoms and progression. Participants will learn about the effects of substances of abuse both for the user and during fetal development. Introductory information about motivational interviewing and stages of change is presented with an emphasis on recognizing signs of readiness and willingness to accept help, and how to "tip" the scales of ambivalence when working with clients contemplating seeking help. The presentation will also explore challenges faced by parents in early recovery, signs of relapse and how to support ongoing recovery.

Objectives

The disease process and biological basis of chemical dependency

Symptoms and progression of chemical dependency including diagnostic criteria

Substance use screening tools

Effects of psychoactive substances

Fetal effects of exposure to psychoactive substances

Introductory motivational interviewing techniques and stages of change

Challenges of early recovery and strategies for supporting clients

Intended Audience
This training is designed for staff working with families who have children under the age of five.

Contact Hours - 5

Training Webpage
View Chemical Dependency training registration webpage

Growing Great Kids
Description
Growing Great Kids (GGK) is a comprehensive curriculum that supports the development of nurturing and empathetic parent-child relationships pre-birth to 36 months. It does so with-in the context of the parent-child relationship, child development and health, provision of care, building parenting skills and addressing the family's concerns. The 4 1/2 day training is skill-driven and designed to provide home visitors with a practical, conceptual framework. Participants gain the necessary tools to support parents through a hands-on highly interactive seminar experience.

Objectives
Participants will develop strategies to:

Build relationships with families that focus on program goals

Support the development of parental empathy and nurturing parent-child relationships

Conduct activities that support childhood health, growth and development

Integrate the latest information on supporting early brain development into daily parenting practice

Enhance family relationships

Address concerns and explore solutions from a Strength-Based, Solution Focused Approach

Cultivate critical thinking and problem-solving skills

Promote parental self-care and health

Intended Audience
Practitioners providing home visits or supervising home visitors in programs that conduct home visits with pregnant women and families with children under age 3. It is expected that staff attending work in programs that have made the decision and commitment to implement the GGK Curriculum. Supervisors of home visitors in programs new to GGK are strongly encouraged to attend with their staff.

Contact Hours - 40

Training Webpage
View Growing Great Kids training registration webpage

Integrated Strategies
Description
Integrated Strategies for Home Visiting is a competency development seminar for practitioners partnering with families, starting prenatally or shortly after birth, to strengthen their family relationships and to optimize the developmental and health outcomes for their children.

Objectives
By the end of the training, Home Visitors will be able to motivate and communicate with parents of infants and young children to:

Support parents to form secure attachment relationships

Be involved in their child's development

Strengthen the foundations of their family

Gain problem-solving skills

Supervisors will gain skills in management systems, support home visitors, clinical supervision and quality management.

Intended Audience
Public Health Nursing, Home Visitors and Supervisors from MAHF, Other Home Visitors and Supervisors from Community Based Home Visiting Programs.

Contact Hours - 28 and an additional 7 hours for supervisors

Training Webpage
View Integrated Strategies training registration webpage

Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training
Description
The NCAST Parent-Child Interaction (PCI) Feeding and Teaching Scales are used for measuring parent-child interaction and communication behaviors. The Sleep Activity Record (SAR) can help pregnant mothers and caregivers promote predictable behaviors in their babies through specific activities, routines and interactions. This workshop offers health professionals, in-depth training in the use of the Parent-Child Interaction (PCI) Feeding and Teaching Scales in addition to the Sleep Activity Record (SAR).

The Feeding and Teaching PCI scales:

Are valid and reliable measures for assessing parent-child interaction

Easily identify strengths as well as weaknesses

Assess problems early in the caregiver/child communication/interaction pattern at a point when intervention is most effective

Provide separate but parallel observations of the caregiver-child pairs

Can be pre and post measures

Participants will attain reliability through videotape observations provided by the NCAST Program Instructor through the University of Washington in Seattle. For those who do not achieve observational reliability on the first attempt, retest dates and locations will be determined between the participant(s) and instructor as needed.

Objectives
At the conclusion of the NCAST PCI and SAR training, participants will be able to:

Identify infant sleep/awake states, potent and subtle engagement and disengagement cues and caregiver-child adaptation

Utilize the SAR record with caregivers and children

Systematically observe and analyze caregiver-child interactions

Achieve reliability on the PCI Feeding and Teaching Scales

Intended Audience
Family Home Visitors who want to gain skills in using a valid and reliable tool to observe and rate caregiver-child interactions to assess for areas of strength and areas needing improvement and as a guide for planning interventions and want to achieve reliability on the PCI Feeding and Teaching Scales.

Contact Hours - 36

Training Webpage
View Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training training registration webpage

Promoting Relationships With Relationships
Description
This case-based experiential training provides an opportunity for home visitors working with families and their young children to increase their skill and knowledge of relationship-based practice.

The training includes three distinct learning segments:
Prior to Training
An on-line component includes reading articles and quizzes to anchor learning, and is completed independently prior to attending the training.

Training Days
Two days of in person training will combine didactic as well as group experiential learning, drawing on the expertise and knowledge of participants.

Follow-Up Training Day
One follow-up day will be scheduled 30 days later to provide an opportunity for participants to apply the learning from PRWR to real cases presented by participants.

The goal is to integrate experience with new learning and experience group reflective practice.

Objectives
Participants will enhance skills and knowledge of relationship-based practice in the following competency areas:

Engaging fathers and extended family members.

Effective communication skills.

Building family understanding of child development.

Helping parents observe and interpret child behavior.

Use screening tools and share results with families.

Manage difficult situations.

Intended Audience
Staff providing home visits with pregnant families or those with children under the age of 5

Contact Hours - 25

Training Webpage
View Promoting Relationships With Relationships training registration webpage

Social/Emotional Development During the Earliest Years
Description
This training is designed to provide participants with in-depth knowledge and understanding of the intricacies of social/emotional development during the earliest years. As professionals working with families with very young children in the family home visiting and/or Child and Teen Checkups settings, we know attachment is important and that all learning takes place in the context of a relationship with a primary caregiver. This training explores the mechanisms promoting healthy social/emotional development. Participants will gain new insights about the integrated nature of development and complexity of the emotional life of the infant, toddler and preschooler. This training will also include segments focused on best practices in developmental and mental health screening, talking with parents about screening results and Minnesota's Help Me Grow Program.

Objectives

Identify age appropriate social/emotional development during the first 5 years and the factors influencing healthy social/emotional development

Describe differences in infant attachment patterns, relationship to parental (adult) state of mind and underlying developmental principles

Understand the interconnection between the developmental domains and the relationship between "school readiness" and healthy development

Understand how attachment patterns impact development throughout the life span

Explore instruments for developmental and mental health screening for use by family home visiting and/or Child and Teen Checkups providers and strategies for sharing screening results with parents

Understand Minnesota's Help Me Grow referral process and services to support children ages birth - 5.

Intended Audience
This training is designed for staff providing services which include home visits and/or well child exams through Child and Teen Checkups with families who have children under the age of 5.

Contact Hours - 6

Training Webpage
View Social/Emotional Development During the Earliest Years training registration webpage

Working With Adolescent Parents and Their Children
Description
Working with Adolescent Parents and Their Children focuses on the unique challenges faced by home visitors when working with adolescent parents. Through experiential, cased - based learning activities home visitors will have an opportunity to develop strategies to establish effective relationships with young families, provide services in a way that is culturally sensitive, and promote healthy relationships between these young parents and their young children.

Objectives

Understand the development of the adolescent brain and the implications for behavior, cognition, parenting and relationships.

Understand the contrast between the adolescent's developmental "tasks" and the tasks involved in maternal role development - the importance of using this "developmental lens" in our work.

Understand the legal status of adolescent parents.

Understand how developing relationships and engaging adolescent parents are different from working with adult parents.

Practice strategies to promote healthy relationships between pregnant and parenting adolescents and their infants.

Practice strategies for communicating effectively with adolescent parents and multigenerational family members.

Intended Audience
Staff providing home visiting services to young families with children under the age of 5

Contact Hours - 9

Training Webpage
View Working With Adolescent Parents and Their Children training registration webpage