The Journal of Family Psychology recently published a study by researchers at MDRC that examined the impact of the Child First home visiting program during the pandemic. Child First targets families with children from birth through age 6 who are experiencing challenges with caregivers’ mental health or children’s behaviors. The program, which currently serves thousands of families a year across five states, provides a home-based therapeutic intervention embedded in a coordinated system of care. The COVID-19 pandemic presented unique challenges to Child First, forcing programs to pivot and provide telehealth services while addressing new pandemic-related issues facing families.

The recently published paper reports on a randomized controlled trial of Child First conducted between June 2019 and March 2020 in 10 sites in two states. Although study enrollment ended prematurely because of the pandemic, the researchers were still able to collect one-year follow-up surveys from families. This presented a unique opportunity to examine the impacts of an evidence-based home visiting program that served a large proportion of families using telehealth during the COVID-19 crisis.

Findings revealed that Child First improved employment, residential stability, and substance use outcomes for caregivers and families a year after enrollment. Families assigned to Child First received more virtual services during the pandemic compared to those in the control group. This suggests that Child First was adaptable and able to address the immediate needs of families as their lives were upended due to the pandemic.

Read the full article about the benefits of home-visiting during COVID-19 at MDRC.