About
Healthy Families Tennessee – Southwest / West Tennessee Parents as Teachers are programs offered through Jackson Madison County General Hospital, and serves families in Madison, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henderson, Gibson, Dyer, Lake, Lauderdale, Benton, Crockett, Chester, Decatur and McNairy counties. The programs are free and voluntary, and enrolls families prenatally or postpartum, before the child turns three.
Services at First Five Initiative vs Healthy Families
Home Visitors and Parent Educators meet with parents in the comfort of their home and cover a variety of topics including attachment and bonding, cognitive, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and social-emotional development, nutrition, positive discipline, and family specific values. Home Visitors and Parent Educators monitor the child’s growth and development and conduct screenings to ensure milestones are met within appropriate time frames.
Safe Baby Court mission is to improve outcomes for children aged 0-3 in the child welfare system by driving best practices, providing tailored resources, and supporting families to ensure safe, stable homes. First Five Initiative’s Safe Baby Court serves Madison and Lauderdale counties.
Resilient West Tennessee is a program that aims to spread the knowledge about how to build resilience in youth that counter balances the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events in a child’s early childhood. That are likely to cause mental and physical health issues as the child becomes an adult. Resilience and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) help to counterbalance ACEs by using skills and techniques to mitigate and reduce the harm caused by ACEs. Our Goal at Resilient West Tennessee is to reach as many adults in West Tennessee to spread this information to help our next generation.
Specialties at Healthy Families Tennessee
First Five Initiative is the umbrella for Safe Baby Court, Resilient West TN ACE’s, Healthy Families Tennessee-Southwest and West Tennessee Parents as Teachers. Both programs are free, voluntary and are designed to provide families with information and support to build healthy relationships with their children. Once the referral is received we will contact the family to connect them with the program that will best meet their needs.
Download a Referral Form, or complete this online form to refer yourself or a family.
