SafeCare®

SafeCare aims to improve (1) parental health decision making skills, (2) the safety of the home environment, and (3) parenting skills and parent-infant/parent-child interactions. SafeCare serves families with young children from birth through age 5 years. It was specifically designed to benefit families with risk factors for child maltreatment. SafeCare is an adaption of Project 12-Ways that includes a subset of the Project 12-Ways modules. SafeCare was developed to offer a more streamlined and easy-to-disseminate intervention.

SafeCare is typically delivered in 18 or fewer sessions. Trained SafeCare providers conduct 60-minute weekly or biweekly home visits involving three modules: (1) infant and child health, (2) home safety, and (3) parent-infant/parent-child interactions (Planned Activities Training). Each of the three SafeCare modules typically includes a baseline assessment to observe parents’ knowledge and skills, four parent training sessions, and a follow-up assessment to monitor change. During the parent training sessions, SafeCare providers explain the rationale for each target behavior, model that behavior, ask the parent to practice the behavior, and then provide feedback. SafeCare providers are not required to meet specific education requirements.

This report includes reviews of two adaptations of SafeCare: (1) SafeCare Augmented and (2) an Australian adaptation of a version of SafeCare, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Parent-Child Health and Wellness Project. SafeCare Augmented adds Motivational Interviewing—a technique that explores and builds on an individual’s motivation to change—and additional training for providers on identifying and responding to imminent child maltreatment and risk factors, such as substance use and depression. SafeCare Augmented was adapted for high-risk, rural communities. The Australian adaptation of the UCLA Parent-Child Health and Wellness Project modified that program’s health and safety interventions (created collaboratively with the SafeCare model developer, with identical goals and methods) to fit an Australian context (for example, language was changed to reflect Australian usage). The goal of the intervention is to equip parents of young children with the knowledge and skills necessary for managing home dangers, accidents, and childhood illnesses. The intervention consists of 10 lessons over a 10- to 12-week period.

This report also includes reviews of SafeCare’s parent-infant/parent-child interactions (Planned Activities Training) module and an add-on to that module, Cellular Phone Enhanced Planned Activities Training. The parent-infant/parent-child interactions (Planned Activities Training) module focuses on skills such as engaging in positive interactions and establishing rules and limits, and is administered to mothers during five sessions at families’ homes. Cellular Phone Enhanced Planned Activities Training adds encouragement and skill reinforcement via text messages and phone calls between in-home parent-infant/parent-child interactions (Planned Activities Training) sessions.

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