Duke University: Care Infrastructure for Whole Child and Family Health

As the federal government directs focus to ‘care infrastructure’ researchers and practitioners are demonstrating where federal investment can be most effective. Real-world experiences are demonstrating the need for an underlying foundation of knowledge to maximize investments in supports for families and how rigorously researched models can serve to create this underlying network.

Strengthening the continuum of care and facilitating the ability for families to link with community resources and service providers creates positive health outcomes across one’s entire community. Local systems are often fragmented and families with young children are often on their own in navigating their local system. This can lead to inequities as those with more access and resources often benefit the most- and some families cannot access the critical supports they need.

Family Connects International, a Duke University Child and Family Policy program (with support from the Center for Child & Family Health), creates a transformative system to triage, assess and connect families of newborns to their community supports. Family Connects is currently implemented or in active planning in 17 states.