Healthy Families program works to build support for Eagle County’s kids and new families
Family Connects works with other local programs
Courtesy photo
It’s hard to measure things that don’t happen, but that’s one goal of the county’s Healthy Families program.
The program, a project of Eagle County, with the help of Your Hope Center, has set an ambitious goal: By the end of 2025, 80% of students who receive school-based counseling will report measurable mental health improvement when discharged from the program.
Joan Dieter is the Healthy Families Manager in the Eagle County Department of Public Health and Environment. Dieter said Healthy Families’ role is to support both school-based and home-based programs. The program has been able to do that because of the ability to hire people, several of whom are bilingual and bicultural.
“It’s amazing to see what we have now compared to five years ago,” Dieter said. “We have a lot of structure (for kids) in the past five to seven years.”
While Dieter acknowledged that it’s hard to measure prevention, she noted that 80% of those who took a “mood and feelings” questionnaire in the fall of 2023 reported improved mental health.
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Continuing challenges include sustainability, particularly billing and retention, as well as recruitment and secure housing.
The county’s role in the larger mental health picture focuses on the home, with the Families Connect program. That program can start before a child is born. That program brings support into a home, particularly for first-time parents.
Eagle County residents can have a nurse visit their home for free. That visit — in English or Spanish — includes “a lot of conversations,” Dieter said.
Nurses ask new moms if they’re supported, or if they need connections to resources. Those connections can be referrals to items including car seats or breast pumps, as well as emotional support for the family.
“No one exists by themselves,” Dieter said, adding the the program’s goal is to provide family support in their homes.
“We hope to expand that circle of support,” she said.
Dieter noted it’s “hard to welcome a child into your home…” The idea of Family Connect is to build support to welcome those new arrivals.
Family support is the tie-in to mental health, for both kids and for maternal anxiety and depression. Family needs can have a significant impact on a child’s mental health, Dieter noted.
But building that support system is tough, Dieter said.
Family Connect can help provide medical, housing and mental health assistance to families, as well as connections to resources.
Family Connect is just one part of a team effort.
Teresa Haynes of Your Help Center is part of the team looking at helping kids.
While Your Help Center can’t help with housing or financial instability, clinicians there can help address those experiencing various behavioral issues.
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Haynes, a clinical psychologist, said clinicians at Your Hope Center use “multiple sources of information,” including schools and homes.
“It’s a team approach … there are different lanes, with a lot of crossover, but with common goals,” Haynes said.
The good news, Haynes, said, is “Our community is paying attention and prioritizing (care).”
