Effects of Home Visitation on Maternal Competencies, Family Environment, and Child Development: a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Based on the US Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program, the German home visiting program "Pro Kind" offered support for socially and financially disadvantaged first-time mothers from pregnancy until the children's second birthday. A multi-centered, longitudinal randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to assess its effectiveness on mothers and children. A total of 755 women with multiple risk factors were recruited, 394 received regular home visits (treatment group), while 361 only had access to standard community services (control group).

[Patient and consumer information centres according to 65b Social Security Code V--means for high-quality information exchange and counselling].

Counsellors of Independent Health Information Centres according to 65b Social Security Code V provide the public with comprehensive information on health and disease-related themes, as well as on their financial, service, and legal aspects; they also provide extensive counselling and psychosocial support. The counsellors mostly have a university background in educational, social, medical, or legal disciplines; they usually have long-term experience in counselling as well as additional professional qualifications. In addition to the provision of information, independent health information centres must also be active in assuring and promoting their own quality control.