About
right@home is a sustained nurse home visiting program delivered through maternal and child health services, and designed to promote family wellbeing and child development.
The randomised controlled trial, currently underway across sites in Victoria and Tasmania, is based on the Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-visiting (MECSH) program and incorporates additional modules to help parents care for and respond to their children, and create a supportive
home learning environment.
right@home aims to find out how the universal child and family health nursing service might be improved to better meet the needs of all families.
One way to do this is to offer more nurse visits in people's homes for families who might benefit from this type of approach.
Research
There are two phases to this research:
Phase 1: 0-2 years
We wanted to know if these extra visits, offered until babies turn 2 years old, made it easier for parents to learn about things like feeding, parenting and managing their baby's sleep.
Families in the intervention group were offered the program from the antenatal period up to when children turned 2. Families in the control group continued to receive usual care. Now that the children have turned 2, the study has evaluated the impact of the sustained nurse home visiting program on:
- parent care
- parent attunement and responsivity
- supportive home environment
Phase 2: 2-5 years
We want to know if there are long-lasting effects of the extra visits on children's early learning and development by the time they start school. We will continue to follow up these families and children until child age 5 years.
Trial sites
The Victorian right@home trial started in April 2013 at sites in Frankston, Dandenong, Whittlesea and Ballarat, and the Tasmanian trial, at sites in Hobart, North and North West Tasmania, started in July 2013.
Results
The first public reporting of Phase 1 results will occur in May 2017; and for Phase 2, in 2018-19.
Who runs the study
right@home is a research collaboration between the
Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY), the
Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH)
, and
Western Sydney University (WSU).
[SP1] The research lead investigator is Professor Sharon Goldfeld (CCCH).
What makes right@home different
The nurses who participate in right@home are specifically trained and supported to work with parents and carers facing adversity. This enables them to establish professional, warm and productive relationships with parents, and in turn, promote children’s development in the home. This training and support is the
cornerstone of right@home.
Who funded the study
Phase 1 of right@home is funded by a combination of financial and ‘in-kind’ support from the following institutions and departments:
Phase 2 is funded by:
Publications
Research overview
Literature reviews
Peer-reviewed journal articles
Contact