Pediatric Parenting Connections (PPC)
for families with children ages prenatal – 5 years
Pediatric Parenting Connections (PPC) places highly-qualified family educators into pediatric practices to provide evidence-based education and support for parents of young children. Subjects for education and support services include:
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Positive parenting and discipline
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Child development
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Breastfeeding and nutrition
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Sleep
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Behavior
PPC provides age-appropriate developmental screenings for children, depression screenings for parents, and referrals to appropriate community resources and providers for families.
PPC model + benefits
With PPC, current and future pediatricians provide warm hand-offs while delivering medical care beyond a clinic’s walls, addressing child health needs within the context of their family and community.
Imprints Cares has validated the outcomes of PPC over 13 years. At the core of PPC — and key to its success — is the international evidence-based Parents as Teachers (PAT) model.
Pediatric Parenting Connections...
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Streamlines referrals to connect more families to needed resources
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Is easily implemented in resident and non-resident medical practices
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Provides warm hand-offs to ensure families don’t get lost in the system
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Addresses social drivers of health outcomes
How it Works
Sample Case 1
Emmy is 2.5 years old. Her mother shares a concern with Emmy's pediatrician regarding a possible speech delay.
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The pediatrician provides a warm hand-off for an in-office assessment by a PAT-trained Imprints Cares Family Educator.
If the assessment is borderline, Emmy is referred to PAT for intensive home visits. She is reassessed in 2-3 months. If she is progressing, PAT visits continue. If not, PAT visits are supplemented with a referral to Early Intervention.
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If a speech delay is evident, Emmy is referred to Early Intervention.
Sample Case 2
Kayla is a young mom who is struggling to breastfeed her son, Kyle.
Kyle's pediatrician refers Kayla to a PPC-certified breastfeeding educator.
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After in-person support and follow-up, Kayla successfully breastfeeds Kyle.
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PPC impact
PPC impact is tracked with qualitative and quantitative metrics including:
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Indicators of normal child development.
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Health and indicators of ACES and toxic stress.
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Changes in parental behavior.
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Preventive health: breastfeeding, well-child checkups, health literacy, vaccinations, etc.
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Outputs: Referrals made/kept, parent satisfaction, parent participation in workshops/group meetings
The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes the importance of future pediatricians addressing child health needs within the context of their family and community. As part of the Wake Forest Pediatric Advocacy Program, all residents attend an Imprints Cares orientation and shadow a PAT family educator on a home visit. PPC improves early intervention, provides secondary prevention of child maltreatment, and increases referrals to development services.
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Last year PPC staff received 851 referrals and were able to serve 654 families
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135 children were referred to early intervention services
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276 families were referred to our PAT, FFN, and Book Babies home visiting programs
Imprints Cares is a PAT Blue Ribbon affiliate and received the Losos Prize in 2017 due to PPC. Through our full spectrum of evidence-based programming, Imprints Cares has continued to innovate and serve more families with even greater effectiveness.
"The patient surpassed his birth weight at just 7 days of age. He couldn't have done that without all your help! You're amazing, and I look forward to working with you more in the future!"
– Pediatric resident, in response to breastfeeding support from Imprints Cares
