Sustaining new parents in home visitation services: key participant and program factors.

Objectives: As prevention efforts have adopted more intensive service models, concerns over initial enrollment and retention rates have become more salient. This study examines the participant, provider and program factors that contribute to a longer length of stay and greater number of home visits for new parents enrolling in one national home visitation program.

Methods: Retrospective data were collected on a random sample of 816 participants served by one of 17 Healthy Families America (HFA) program sites around the country.

Mother-child separations among homeless and housed families receiving public assistance in New York City.

We examined the incidence, characteristics, and predictors of separations of children from mothers in 543 poor families receiving public assistance, 251 of whom had experienced homelessness during the previous 5 years. Forty-four percent of the homeless mothers and 8% of housed mothers were separated from one or more children. A total of 249 children were separated from 110 homeless families and 34 children from 23 housed families.