Reachables® Training
Produced by Families Forward Virginia
Families Forward Virginia has graciously given Saavsus access to the training materials and video content they developed under a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These materials are solely owned by Families Forward Virginia in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health. This film was produced with Zach Keifer of Folk Hero Films.
Goal Setting in Home Visiting
The following six video chapters feature home visitors interacting with real clients to help them learn and develop goals for themselves and their children. They are supported in their efforts with the use of Reachables Family Goal-setting Cards. Each video addresses a discrete topic documenting the interactions of the home visitors and their clients. The home visitors who work with Reachables discuss issues related to the home visit sessions.
Chapter 1 – Introducing Goals (4:57)
Home visitors broach the subject of understanding and setting goals with their clients. They use Reachables cards to help them identify and prioritize those goals, and recognize tasks, barriers, and choices to consider.
Chapter 2 – Using Reachables (5:04)
The home visitors discuss how they prepare and select their Reachables cards prior to their client visit. They plan for activities to distract children during the goal setting discussion with mom. The Reachables cards are used to identify the client’s goals and they serve as a starting point for the conversation about the steps needed to achieve those goals.
Chapter 3 – Barriers to Achieving Goals (6:10)
Now that goals have been identified the home visitors help their clients address the barriers that need to be overcome. Potential solutions and specific prerequisites and tasks needed to make those solutions possible are discussed. Home visitors point out the need for organization and persistence to achieve each task along the way to attaining the client’s goal, recognizing the challenges each client is dealing with – “make the barrier the goal”.
Chapter 4 – Setting Reasonable Goals (6:42)
The focus of this chapter is to examine how to help the client identify the tasks they need to accomplish in order to attain goals. Home visitors work with clients to establish time lines for completing tasks. Treating completed tasks as goals achieved and ensuring that tasks undertaken are attainable is discussed.
Chapter 5 – Motivation and Relationships (10:00)
The need for the home visitor to build trust and a relationship with the client so they share needs and accomplishments is addressed. Showing clients that attaining their accomplishments is a great example for their children is an important motivation. Empowering clients to set goals that are meaningful to them enhances their motivation to accomplish those goals.
Chapter 6 – Keeping Up with Goals (6:49)
Use of forms to track goal setting and document this information with the client is discussed. The need to follow up on task completion at each client visit is stressed in order to ensure progress with goal attainment. Making goal setting an ongoing process is affirmed as highly confidence building for the client.
This project was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant #: X10MC29509 –Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Grant.
Support Materials
We are pleased to make available a form for tracking goal progress similar to the one used by the home visitors featured in the video. Many thanks to Healthy Families Oregon and Healthy Families Rappahannock for helping us put this together.