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The goals of Healthy Families—Arizona
include preventing child abuse, promoting child wellness and proper development,
strengthening family relations, and reducing drug and alcohol dependency. To
accomplish these goals, Healthy Families’ “home visitors” regularly
provide education about child development, health, and safety and refer families
to needed resources. To measure program effectiveness in preventing child
abuse, we compared the proportion of program participants and comparison group
members with Child Protective Services reports. We found no difference in
abuse rates for the two groups with approximately 2 percent of each receiving an
unsubstantiated CPS report. These results are similar to those found in
the February 2000 report. The evaluation includes several potential
interpretations of this finding. Consistent with past reports, we also found
that the program was successful in a number of areas related to health,
development, home safety, and family relations. For instance, most program
children were fully immunized and received periodic developmental screenings.
Families also improved the safety of their homes and reported reduced parenting
stress in several areas, including parental competence, social isolation,
attachment, and depression.
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