Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, Madison, Wisconsin

Project Description

The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), Madison, Wisconsin, project is titled the Wisconsin Healthy Home Outreach and Intervention Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to decrease risk factors in the home that lead to injury, illness, and death in three underserved populations in Wisconsin by strengthening relationships among healthcare providers, patients, and public health agencies and increasing the use of home assessment and intervention services.

The project has three main components:

a clinical intervention to build capacity of health care providers and patients to identify household hazards and how to access local assessment and intervention services,
a home intervention where local outreach staff conduct home assessments and provide low-cost interventions to reduce the risk of injuries and illness in the home, and
project sustainability by building cross-disciplinary relationships.

Accomplishments

During Year 1, the pilot communities combined to conduct home assessments in 100 homes and provided more than 300 interventions/referrals. Each pilot community brought its community service resources together to develop a referral network.

Barriers

Barriers included staff capacity, follow-ups on referrals, developing partnerships with local hardware stores, and data collection and management.

What Is Next

In Year 2, home assessments will expand to homes outside of each pilot community’s initial target group. Year 2 will focus on developing more clinician awareness of the program and of community capacity to conduct home assessments as a means to generate clinician referrals. Clinicians will also be provided with educational tools and materials on environmental health hazards in the home for both themselves and for their patients from an online library that will be created. Year 2 will also include the development of a poster and self-referral card that will be placed in clinic waiting rooms.

Links and Products

For more information, please contact Brooke Thompson, Program Manager (608-261-9325; brooke.thompson@wisconsin.gov; or c/o WI DHS/BEOH, PO Box 2659, Madison, WI 53701).

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