Home Visitor Referral Toolkit

The purpose of these materials is to encourage referrals of women and families who may benefit from home visiting services as a source of additional support through pregnancy and the early years of a child’s life.

Use this toolkit to:

  • Collaborate with community programs and other home visiting stakeholders
  • Conduct outreach to health care and human service providers who work with pregnant and/or postpartum women and families
  • Provide information on the benefits of evidence-based home visiting home visiting to encourage referrals for women and families who may benefit

Click here to download a checklist for using this toolkit.

If you are a health care provider, please visit our provider resource page for more information.

Schedule a visit

Schedule a visit lasting 5 or 15 minutes with the doctor, nurse, social worker, or other professional administrative staff of those in your community who work with pregnant and/or postpartum women and families.

Use Community Mapping

Use a community mapping  strategy covered in our training module Home Visiting 101.

Click here to complete this online training module.

Click here for a community mapping template.

Collaborate

If your community has multiple programs, collaborate and conduct the outreach visits together.

Remember the “Four C’s of Community Outreach:”

  • Connection:  relies on the simple exchange of information for mutual benefit. For example, a home visiting program providing information about its programs to the service providers in the area to facilitate referrals.

  • Coordination:  exchanging information that causes a change in activities for mutual benefit and common purpose. Requires more time and trust than Connection. For example, programs changing their hours to extend services to the community.

  • Cooperation:  the exchange of information, a change in activities, and a sharing of resources for mutual benefit and common purpose. This requires organizational commitment and shared resources, such as manpower, technology, or financial resources. For example, programs sharing space with each other to increase capacity.

  • Collaboration:  a formal, sustained commitment by several organizations to enhance each other’s capacity for a common mission by sharing risk, responsibility, resources, and rewards. May require a written MOU (memorandum of understanding). For example, two programs coming together to offer joint professional development opportunities for staff.

For a checklist of suggested community outreach strategies, click here.

Make a Case

During your visit provide an overview of the evidence supporting the benefits of home visiting services.

Bring copies of healthcare provider resources and encourage providers to visit the EIV website.

Emphasize the shared goals of home visiting in partnership with the provider–the goal is to increase positive outcomes together.

Ask for a Commitment

At the close of the visit ask the provider to commit to referring pregnant and postpartum women to you that they feel will benefit from home visiting services

Leave behind the Prescription for Home Visiting Pads with your business cards and contact information. Click here to download.

Give providers the EIV Universal Referral Form. Click here to download.

Document Results & Follow Up

Keep a file of a summary of who the visit was with and any pertinent comments about the meeting. Put the file with the notes in a central place in your office or electronically and commit to updating and visiting all partners on an ongoing annual basis.

Make sure to follow-through on all referrals and consider using the referral form on this site.

A PRESCRIPTION FOR HOME VISITING

Use this prescription to connect with providers.

Download these print ready pads to use as a tool to encourage provider referrals.