CHIP conducts monthly home visits with its clients. The primary goals of the visit are to assess the family’s overall well-being, identify their needs, and offer tailored support and resources. CHIP focuses on health, safety, and emotional stability while fostering a collaborative environment for the family.
A home visit involves:
Ultimately, the goal of the home visit is to empower the family, promote self-sufficiency, and improve overall health and well-being. CHIP strives to build trusting relationships that create a foundation for long-term positive outcomes.
Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley empowers caregivers of enrolled children to become confident guardians and advocates for their children during their most critical stages of development. CHIP of Roanoke Valley’s Family Strengthening program aims to increase family self-sufficiency, improve parenting knowledge, and prepare children to enter kindergarten ready to learn.
Services offered through Family Strengthening Services include:
Kindergarten Preparedness
Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley places a high value on preparing children to enter kindergarten ready to learn. CHIP is dedicated to supporting enrolled families in this important endeavor.
As part of our efforts, CHIP Family Case Managers assess and support the literacy skills of enrolled children and ensure that each child receives a book at every home visits.
CHIP Family Case Managers conduct monthly home visits to educate families on the benefits of preschool and guide them through the application process. Additionally, they provide educational activities that can be completed at home with the child and caregiver. CHIP Family
Our Family Case Managers work diligently with enrolled families to ensure that children entering kindergarten have all necessary documents, complete the registration process, and are connected with community afterschool programs.
Developmental Education and Support
Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley Family Case Managers conduct monthly home visits with enrolled children and caregivers. Within the first 90 days and at regular intervals thereafter, all enrolled children undergo developmental assessments. Utilizing the data from these assessments, CHIP Family Case Managers devise customized plans for each family. Children who require additional support and intervention are referred to external resources as necessary.
Injury Prevention
Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley teams are dedicated to delivering comprehensive education on injury prevention from prenatal care through kindergarten and beyond. Through close collaboration with families and community partners, the CHIP team works diligently to prevent unintentional childhood injuries and fatalities.
CHIP Family Case Managers consistently provide in-depth education on Shaken Baby Syndrome and Abusive Head Trauma, while also offering support and guidance to families in developing a Frustration Plan in conjunction with the provision of local and nation child abuse hotline contact information.
CHIP acknowledges the dangers associated with unsafe sleeping practices. The organization’s Family Case Managers and Nurses diligently provide extensive education to families on the creation and preservation of a secure sleeping environment for infants. In specific cases, CHIP is capable of offering a safe sleeping space, such as a pack and play, to enrolled caregivers with children under one year of age who lack a suitable sleeping arrangement
Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley assists with connecting guardians and their children to needed medical resources, such as a primary care provider, medical specialists, pediatric dentists, and a mental health counselor. Our staff aide families in making sure those appointments are scheduled and kept, thereby enhancing the health of each child. CHIP Community Health Nurses review medical records and coordinate care with the child’s doctor and dentist. Assistance with setting up transportation through a client’s managed care organization is provided, with CHIP offering back up transportation services to these appointments on an as needed, case-by-case basis.
Health care coordination is specific to the needs of each family. This may begin with prenatal education or extend to support services for a child that has been discharged from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Registered nurses may also provide respiratory case management, oral health education and fluoride varnishes, nutrition education and injury prevention education. CHIP of Roanoke nursing staff assist children in receiving and completing the recommended immunizations, well child visits, and developmental interventions by kindergarten entry.
Services offered through Health Care Coordination include:
ORAL HEALTH
CHIP nurses are dedicated to ensuring families and children without an established dental home receive dental services starting from the eruption of their first teeth or by age one, whichever comes first. Preventive dental care is crucial for children at risk for dental caries and long-term dental disease. CHIP of Roanoke takes a comprehensive approach to oral health, beginning in the prenatal period to ensure pregnant women have access to dental services throughout their pregnancy.
The educational component of CHIP of Roanoke Valley’s program uses the Virginia Department of Health’s “Bright Smiles for Babies” curriculum. This curriculum equips parents with knowledge about proper oral hygiene, nutrition, and oral health literacy to reduce high-risk behaviors such as pre-chewing food, sharing utensils, and putting children to bed with sugary drinks, which can lead to early childhood caries. Additionally, CHIP partners with local dental offices to host “CHIP Clinic Days,” allowing enrolled families to establish a dental home and receive routine care with minimal wait times and at little to no cost.
PRENATAL CARE PROGRAM
Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley is dedicated to enhancing healthcare for pregnant clients and their babies, aiming to give children a strong start in life. Community Health Nurses work with pregnant clients of all ages to encourage positive prenatal choices, ensure optimal birth weight, and reduce infant mortality rates. CHIP nurses help connect families to desired resources during pregnancy, such as childbirth classes and lactation support.
Our program educates pregnant clients about preventive care, including the importance of regular prenatal checkups and specialist support for health risks like high blood pressure and diabetes. We also provide mental health counseling before, during, and after pregnancy. Additionally, CHIP staff offer parenting education and assist families in establishing a medical home for the child’s well-child visits, sick visits, and specialty care if needed.
RESPIRATORY DISORDER MANAGEMENT
Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley’s Community Health Nurses provide monthly home visits throughout a child’s program enrollment if they are identified as having asthma, other respiratory disorders, or are prescribed respiratory care medications. These home visits are designed to complement the care that a child with asthma or a respiratory diagnosis receives through a primary care provider or pulmonologist.
In-home assessments of asthma triggers, assistance in medication management and respiratory education are provided for enrolled children and their families. Medical records and thorough health assessments are utilized to obtain information about a child’s asthma profile including environmental triggers, medications, history of attacks, frequency of emergency visits and hospitalizations, and treatment recommendations. CHIP nurses complete the Asthma Management Education (AME-O) course taught by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America to provide the best care possible for these children.
PLAY THERAPY
CHIP offers developmentally appropriate therapeutic treatment to enrolled children through utilization of Child-Centered Play Therapy. Play Therapy is a clinically recommended treatment for children ages 3-10, who are experiencing relational, emotional, social, and behavioral challenges. Play Therapy aims to provide a clinically safe and free space for children to express their thoughts and feelings through their natural way of making sense of the world around them and in them- through PLAY. Caregivers play an intricate and vital role in the emotional well-being of their child and therefore are included in treatment with their children sometimes directly by participating in sessions and other times indirectly, which involves separate sessions with caregivers to offer support to promote relational safety, connection, and attunement through attachment-based psychoeducation.
SHORT TERM EMOTIONAL HEALTH SERVICES
CHIP offers other short-term emotional health support services to enrolled adult caregivers, including support groups (offer based on demand and commitment of three (3) or more caregivers to attend) and mental health chats (MH Chats).
Caregiver support group design is a caregiver with therapeutic support model, and covers topics such as, emotional regulation/co-regulation, self-care, relational connection, etc. The purpose of the caregiver support group is to offer non-judgmental support, foster opportunities to exchange wisdom with other caregivers, and to assist in expanding caregivers’ village of support.
MH Chats with therapist help with problem-solving specific events and brief skill acquisition. MH Chats are not therapy. MH Chats are limited to six (6) appointments with each appointment being scheduled for 30 minutes.
Child Health Investment Partnership (CHIP) of Roanoke Valley offers outpatient therapy to enrolled caregivers and enrolled children. CHIP offers traditional therapy to our adult caregivers; utilizing several common and specialized, evidenced-based therapeutic modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Supportive Counseling, Solution-Focused Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy-informed, and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). CHIP offers its therapeutic services to enrolled caregivers using a hybrid model of in-person (in clinic and the community) and telehealth.
CHIP does NOT offer 24/7/365 Emergency on-call or crisis services.
CHIP of Roanoke is rated a 4-star charity by Charity Navigator.
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