In June, the Trust for Social Achievement welcomed an official delegation from the Latvian government during a week-long visit to Bulgaria. The purpose of the visit was to explore the possibility of implementing Latvia’s version of the Nurse-Family Partnership program at the national level. TSA has been successfully running the model in Bulgaria for the past decade.
The Latvian delegation consisted of eight government officials representing the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Policy, and the Council of Ministers. The group also included a representative from the National Association of Midwives in Latvia. The TSA team working on home-visiting for vulnerable families held a series of meetings with the international guests, providing detailed insights into the service model and the specifics of outreach work with young mothers. The team also shared wider contextual information on the Bulgarian healthcare system and the challenges related to access to health and social services for children and families at risk.
A key event of the visit was the meeting with experts from the Bulgarian Ministry of Health. During this session, the Ministry reaffirmed its commitment to developing a national home-visiting model by the end of the year. TSA’s extensive experience will play a central role in constructing this new national framework, the Ministry confirmed.
The Latvian delegation also had the opportunity to meet with the Director of Sheinovo Hospital in Sofia. The hospital has been a long-standing TSA partner in implementing this model. The delegation toured the wards of the hospital and learned more about the Bulgarian maternal and child health care system.
In both Sofia and Plovdiv, the Latvian representatives joined field visits with the Nurse-Family Partnership teams. They attended six home visits to pregnant girls and young mothers, gaining first-hand experience of the outreach and support strategies used by the family nurses.
"We are extremely impressed by what we saw – the professionalism of the family nurses, the comprehensive support for the families, the challenging field work, which in no way demotivates the home-visiting teams. This experience is extremely helpful to us, as Latvian national institutions begin to prepare for the implementation of this successful model. Seeing first-hand how it is implemented in Bulgaria is invaluable", said Alice Kruska, psychologist and coordinator of Latvia’s implementation team.
This high-profile visit is a significant moment of pride for the entire TSA team. It recognizes the positive impact of the organization’s work over the past 10 years and highlights how its experience can inspire and guide policy efforts in another country! We are confident that Latvia is now one step closer to implementing this effective home-visiting model nationwide.