Reorientation of the Austrian parent-child preventive care programme. Part VI: Health visiting services in the international context and implementation options for Austria

Duration: May 2011 - March 2012
Publication: HTA-Projektbericht Nr. 53:  https://eprints.aihta.at/947

Suggested by: Austrian Ministry of Health
Language: German

Background:
The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment recently published four reports on behalf of the Austrian Ministry of Health dealing with parent-child screening / prevention issues. With regards to international parent-child health strategies, two reports (II and IV) focused on diverse screening services for pregnant women, parents and children in selected (European) countries. Concerning the involved health professionals, it turned out that health visitors represent integral parts of the screening and prevention programmes in several countries. In Austria, pregnant women, parents and children have to consult actively the health services providers (mainly doctors and / or medical specialists). This policy contrasts with many other countries where specially trained health experts (e.g. midwives, public health nurses etc.) provide services in the living environment of the target groups. However, these services are also partly offered in public education institutions (e.g. nursery schools, kindergarten, schools etc.) or they are essential elements of parent-child screening / prevention programmes offered by institutions of public health systems. This follow-up project will deal in depth with country-specific health visiting programmes and it will flesh out potential implementation options for Austria.

Aims of project:
Part VI/1: Training contents, job requirements and competence areas of health visitors in selected countries
Part 1 provides a country overview regarding diverse training programmes and job profiles for health visiting services and informs about related competences and areas of health visitors.

Part VI/2: International evaluation experiences (incl. staff requirements and acceptance rates) and evidence profiles concerning health visiting services that have a particular focus on socio-medical risk groups
Part 2 summarises country experiences and evidence profiles for health visiting services. This part particularly focuses on pregnant women, parents and children that are exposed to potential socio-medical risk factors.

Part VI/3: Status-quo of health visiting services for pregnant women, parents and children in Austria
Part 3 pursues the goal to report on already existing health visiting services in Austria and to investigate evaluation experiences (e.g. acceptance rates).

Part VI/4: Implementation options for health visiting services in Austria
Part 4 concludes on the preceding chapters and aims at discussing potential health visiting models for pregnant women, parents and children in Austria.

Research questions:
Part VI/1:

• Which training contents are offered in international programmes preparing for the job as a health visitor?
• Which competence areas do health visitors in other countries have?

Part VI/2:

• What is the evidence for the efficacy of health visiting services for pregnant women, parents and children with and without socio-medical risk profiles (e.g. substance abuse, teenage-pregnancy, poverty etc.)?
• Which evaluations (e.g. in terms of acceptance rates) have been so far undertaken? To what extent do target groups (particularly those with socio-medical risk factors) make use of health visiting services?
• Which staff requirements (in terms of number of health staff needed) are internationally recommended?

Part VI/3:

• Which health visiting services for pregnant women, parents and children are already offered in Austria? How can these services be accessed by the target groups?
• Which groups of health professionals have so far offered visiting services to pregnant women, parents and children?
• How many health visitors are there in Austria respectively in selected Austrian regions?
• How many pregnant women, parents and children have so far benefited from health visiting services in Austria respectively in selected Austrian regions?

Part VI/4:

• Which implementation options for health visiting services can be developed for the Austrian context?

Methods:
Part VI/1 and VI/3

•  Hand search, Internet search on public sector information, expert interviews etc.

Part VI/2

• Hand search, Internet search, systematic literature search on evidence profiles concerning health visiting services in parent-child screening / prevention programmes

Part VI/4

• Discussion of results and conclusions on Parts VI/1 – VI/3

Time schedule/ milestones (in months, approx.):
5-6/2011: Research, search strategy, literature selection and order (Part VI/1 and VI/2)
7/2011: Data extraction (Part VI/2), Report preparation Part VI/1 and VI/2
9/2011: Report preparation Part VI/1 and VI/2, Research Part VI/3
10-11/2011: Report preparation Part VI/3 and VI/4
11/2011: External review