Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) announced that the
Healthy Families America (HFA) affiliate, the Harford County Health Department, has been accredited as
a provider of high quality home visiting services to families who want to improve their child’s health,
nutrition and developmental outcomes.
HFA is a signature program of PCA America that has been providing home visiting services for more
than 20 years and has been a home to Harford County since 2014. Initially, the program was only for
families of the Aberdeen zip code and recently expanded to serve all of Harford County. The health
department understood expectant and new parents have common questions about their child’s
development and adopted HFA; which connects with families through community partners like hospitals
and pediatricians to find the answers to their questions, meeting within the familiarity and convenience of
the family’s own home.
“The American Dream starts with a happy, healthy childhood,” said Dan Duffy, President and CEO of
PCA America. “As parents, we all have questions from time to time. Our HFA professionals offer
evidence-based best practices to provide answers to questions, individualized support when needed
most, and linkages to community services. As we congratulate the Harford County Health Department,
we also recognize the state and community leadership that has contributed to success in Harford
County.
The accreditation process is based upon a stringent set of 12 critical elements grounded in more than 30
years of research. The process involves an in-depth examination of the site’s operation, as well as, the
quality of the visits made by HFA home visitors.
Harford County Health Officer, Dr. Russell Moy says, “By the accreditation of our Healthy Families
America program, we hope that it’s a reflection of just how dedicated we are to improving and protecting
our community’s health. Be assured that we will continue to strive to improve the quality of service we
deliver.”
Home visitors in each community receive extensive training in a wide range of areas that can cause
stress and worry to just about every new parent: caring for a new baby, ensuring the baby is receiving
the nutrition needed, promoting healthy child development and coping with a myriad of other potential
stresses, such as financial, housing, partner relationship, etc., that may become heightened with an
addition to the family.
Healthy Families America is an effective and proven evidence-based home visiting program according the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. PCA America is proud to support HFA and to be part of a national coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the home visiting field.
The HFA site in Harford County is located at 2015 Pulaski Highway, Suite E, Havre de Grace, MD 21078.
For more information on the Healthy Families Program, visit the health department’s website at www.harfordcountyhealth.com
