The Southeast Utah Health Department has a program called Parents as Teachers which is a home visiting program. Coordinator, Gwen Anderson and Nurse, Amy Ruggeri stopped by Castle Country Radio to discuss all the details about the program.

“About four years ago, the Office of Home Visiting at the state level came to our nursing director and said that our community looks like it would fit the criteria for some risk factors, and asked if they would be willing to sponsor and apply for a grant to have a nurse partnership. This is where nurses would go into the home and work with families, zero to kindergarten entry. They would work on kindergarten readiness, emotional attachment within families, and overall development and so that is what we have done,” explained Anderson. Parents partner with a parent educator or nurse that will focus on their child’s healthy growth and development by developing a personalized plan to fit the family’s needs.

“So the first thing that we always do is check a child’s development. So we’ll do different screeners, and kind of see where the kids are at, if they’re behind in certain areas we focus on that and make sure that we get them up to speed. If we need to refer them to other programs, we do that. So if they need like speech therapy, occupational therapy, we’re always great to refer,” said Ruggeri. Many families have a high medical need, so having a nurse come into the home twice a month is a positive benefit for the child.

To be a part of this program is relatively easy as Ruggeri explains, “That is you just have to qualify for WIC. So its just a financial qualification, if you qualify for WIC or Medicaid you automatically qualify for our program and that is the only determining factor. We are a completely free program.” Parents as Teachers will also help link parents to other beneficial community services and resources as needed.

Interested parents who would like to apply their child for the program can do so online. “They can apply on https://www.seuhealth.com/ there’s referral sheet there that they can fill out. They can call each of their local offices our Emery County, and Grand County, and Price office all have a representative there,” said Anderson. The phone number for the Carbon County office is (435) 637-3671, Emery County is (435) 381-2252 and Grand County is (435) 259-5602.