Extra Support for Vulnerable Babies and their Families, Caregivers, and Clinicians
When infants return home from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), they are at substantial risk for feeding and growth concerns, and their caregivers are at risk for challenges like depression and anxiety. The Hospital-to-Home™ team supports both.
Hospital-to-Home is designed to foster positive social-emotional, developmental, and medical outcomes for babies from birth to 6 months (adjusting for prematurity) while providing emotional and practical support to families and caregivers.
Hospital-to-Home Services Help Ensure a Bright Future
Research shows that high-risk infants have better outcomes when they receive quality therapy in the home shortly after a hospital discharge. Our Hospital-to-Home team of dietitians, infant mental health specialists, feeding therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists are specially trained to provide that therapy. Services include:
- Full developmental evaluation
- Comprehensive infant feeding evaluation
- Infant mental health screening
- Caregiver screening for PMAD (Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders)
- Caregiver-to-caregiver support
- Communication between service providers
- Coordination of community resources
- Ongoing monitoring of developmental milestones
We also connect caregivers with community resources including support groups, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Early Head Start (EHS), and donated items like diapers, formula, or clothing.
From a Trailblazing Team in Hospital-to-Home Services
The Northwest Center Kids Hospital-to-Home team has served families and babies since 2015. We’ve partnered with a wide range of professionals including hospital personnel, state agencies, medical providers, and community partners to support the needs of this vulnerable population.
When it was finally time to bring Griffin home, gone were the nurses, therapists, interns, residents, and consultants who had monitored his every calorie and breath for months. Now it was just me and my husband making sure he was breathing okay and getting enough calories through his nasal feeding tube—which we had to be sure went into his stomach and not his lungs. It was incredibly scary. When we had our first visit at home from Northwest Center, we finally started to feel like things were going to be okay.
Giselle, mom of Griffin, who spent three months in the NICU
Hospital-to-Home Replication Site Training
For ESIT providers, we offer replication training so you can offer Hospital-to-Home to the families you serve. Please fill out the form below to learn more.