On July 8 the building of the Health Directorate of Sofia Municipality hosted the ninth meeting of the Sofia Local Advisory Council on the home-visiting service under the Nurse-Family Partnership Program. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together program stakeholders (institutions, NGO representatives, nurses under NFP Program, health mediators) who have to determine the future of the Program. The results achieved under the program in Sofia since it was launched in 2016 were reported and the European campaign “First Years, First Priority” in which the TSA is a partner, was presented.
Since 2016 over 160 pregnant women and mothers of children up to 2 years of age in Sofia have been included in the home-visiting service of the NFP program. 61 of these women are active users of the service at the moment, and 70 have completed it successfully. As of June this year 146 babies were born in Sofia, 55 of whom are still actively using the service. 80% of the women who joined the program completed it. The average age of conception is 16 years, and the upper limit for signing up for the home visiting service is 22 years of age. More than 7,000 times specially trained midwives and nurses have visited the homes of young women, and during the pandemic they met through the method of telehealth, thanks to the tablets that were provided to the mothers by Sofia Municipality.
The data shows that 260 women have signed up for the program in Sofia and Plovdiv so far, and 73% of them stayed in it. A total of 206 babies were born under home care since 2016, with nearly 8,600 home visits being carried out.
Nurse-Family Partnership Program
Bulgaria is the first country in Eastern Europe licensed to test the model of the Nurse-Family Partnership Program which provides specialized care to for pregnant women and mothers with children up to 2 years. According to this model, specially trained teams of nurses and midwives make home visits to families, providing moral and physical support to women and children at this early stage of their development, and taking into account the importance of prenatal development. The program involves economically disadvantaged families and Roma families. The Nurse-Family Partnership Program has been implemented in Sofia since 2016, and was first introduced in Plovdiv in 2019. The users of the service in Plovdiv live in Stolipinovo and Sheker neighborhoods. The main goals of home care are related to ensuring a successful outcome of the pregnancy, a better health and development of the child, and economic independence.
The Nurse-Family Partnership Program has been implemented by the Trust for Social Achievement (TSA) in Sofia and Plovdiv, in partnership with "Sheynovo" Hospital and St. George" Hospital.