Healthy Start Screening

Healthy Start utilizes the Florida Prenatal Screen, a simple and brief questionnaire that helps identify factors in a pregnant woman’s life and environment, both medical and psychosocial that might impact the growth and development of her infant.  The Florida Prenatal Screen is the first step in introducing your patients to a home visiting program. Each program has its unique benefits for Moms, Dads and other family members involved in the care of the newborn.

• Healthy Start
• TEAM Dad
• Healthy Families
• Nurse Family Partnership
• Parents as Teachers +

Program visitors can meet with families in their home or location of their choice. All programs have trained staff offering flexible options and a variety of support and services. All programs can help with:

• Support during pregnancy
• Parenting and parent-child interaction
• Breastfeeding education and support
• Depression screening and referrals
• Counseling and nursing services
• Child development screening and referrals
• Mom self-care and reproductive health
• Fathers’ Services
• Well-woman care and family planning
• Well-baby care
• Connections to community resources for family needs

In addition, each home visiting program in Pinellas County has unique features such as parenting activities, a medical focus, working with families working through substance involvement or assisting high-risk populations. Each program has eligibility requirements and our Family Partners will assist your patients in making the right choice.

Florida Prenatal Screen Instructions:  

Healthy Start Coalition’s Community Liaison provides one-on-one training and screening instruments for all prenatal care providers in Pinellas County.  After staff is trained, she should be contacted again as new employees are hired or transferred into this screening responsibility to properly screen and score the tool.  In addition to personal training, detailed provider instructions for completing the screen are on the back of the white copy of the screen and scoring instructions are on the back of the pink copy.  Once the patient’s score is determined, Healthy Start Case Management Services should be offered if:

1. The prenatal screening score is six (6) or more, or
2. The prenatal screening score is less than six (6) and the patient is at risk for an adverse outcome based on factors other than score, including:
   1. maternal illness (requiring ongoing medical care, i.e., obesity, gestational diabetes or hypertension) (question 21)
   2. homelessness
   3. domestic violence (question 9)
   4. HIV status
   5. substance abuse
   6. mental illness (untreated or diagnosed, i.e., severe depression or suicidal tendencies) (questions 6, 7 & 8)
   7. developmental or intellectual disability
   8. lack of supports
   9. child abuse or neglect

Once a confidential screen has been received in the Registration Department, moms are contacted by a Family Partner to complete the registration process. When eligible, care coordination will be offered by one of the programs.

In order to provide services to clients in a timely manner, the white copies of screening forms must be mailed WEEKLY!  A copy is given to the patient and a copy must be placed in their medical record to prove that you are following Florida Statute 383.14 by offering Healthy Start screening to all clients.

Healthy Start Coalition provides labels for mailing the screening forms to the Registration Department:

Pinellas County Health Department

c/o Healthy Start

Dr. M. L. King Street North

St. Petersburg, FL  33701

For personal training or more information, contact:

Lisa Brown, Community Liaison

Healthy Start Coalition of Pinellas, Inc.

Office # – (727) 507-6330, ext. 230

lbrown@healthystartpinellas.org

Thanks to all of you for making our community a healthy one!