Office of Family Health Services

The focus of the Office of Family Health’s preventive health programs is to protect the health of women and give children the best start in life.

The Office of Family Health Services (OFHS) provides the leadership, expertise and resources that assist all Virginia residents in reaching and maintaining their optimum level of health and well-being throughout their lives. The focus of the Office’s preventive health programs is to protect the health of women and give children the best start in life. Recent efforts have reduced teen pregnancy and created exciting new initiatives.

Improving the Health of Women Recently compiled data revealed that pregnancy rates among 15-19 year-olds in Virginia dropped by 30 percent between 1995 and 2004, preventing approximately 29,000 pregnancies. Significant contributors were the 24 local teen pregnancy projects and other programs that promote abstinence and work with teen mothers and their siblings to prevent further pregnancies. These efforts have helped avoid countless more children having children and have decreased economic burdens on health, education and welfare systems.

An award of new state funds will enable VDH to serve approximately 1,000 more women in Every Women’s Life, its breast and cervical cancer program, which saw 5,794 uninsured and underinsured women in 23 sites around the state. Women diagnosed through the program may be eligible for treatment through the Medicaid Program.

As many as 14,000 women in Virginia experience depression during or following pregnancy, yet more than half the health providers surveyed said they lacked the skills to identify and treat depression. To fill this gap, Virginia developed the nation’s first Web-based course where providers can improve their ability to help women overcome pregnancy’s most common complication. Since March, almost 1,500 providers have registered for the training.

Improving the Health of Children OFHS launched the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) to study the behaviors, attitudes and experiences of pregnant women. PRAMS data identify women and infants at high risk for health problems, monitor changes and measure progress toward improved health. VDH will use the data to assess and plan perinatal health programs designed to reduce infant death and maternal illness.

Nationally, up to 40 percent of children are not ready to succeed in school. Lifelong success is linked directly to factors in early childhood that foster strong family involvement and improve school readiness. The Virginia Early Childhood Comprehensive System project sought public and private input to develop a state plan to coordinate Virginia’s fragmented early childhood system. Leaders have come together to implement the plan and improve governance structures, integrate care, provide financing and increase family involvement. Uniform performance measures and a data warehouse are being developed to aid in the plan’s evaluation.