A federal family health program is providing funding to the state of Arkansas. According to Little Rock television station KARK, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced over $7 million will be divided between 55 counties through the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. The local areas to receive the funding include Marion, Fulton, Izard, Searcy, Stone, Boone and Newton Counties.
The grant allows the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) to continue providing voluntary, evidence-based and promising practice home visiting services to women during pregnancy and to parents with young children up to kindergarten entry. Last year, Arkansas’s MIECHV programs served over 2,400 households, and 54 percent had incomes at or below the federal poverty level.
MIECHV serves nearly 42 percent of the nation’s counties with high rates of low birth weight infants, teen births, families living in poverty or infant mortality. The program gives pregnant women and families, especially those considered at-risk, resources and skills to raise children physically, socially and emotionally healthy and ready to learn. It also addresses the Health and Human Services’ clinical priorities including mental illness and childhood obesity.
For more information on the home visiting progams in Arkansas, go online to healthy.arkansas.gov.
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