Jean Hegarty & Kevin D. Browne 
A Community Health Approach to the Assessment of Infants and their Parents 
The CARE Programme

This book is a practical guide to the CARE programme, a home
visiting programme that aims to assess infants? growth, development
and psycho-social transitions in their first year of life and that
together with the Index of Need checklist aims to engage parents in
risk assessment. It provides evidence-based research for the
programme, and gives clinical examples of how to use the assessment
tools (including the Index of Need) and how to work with parents.
The authors take a ?partnership with parents? approach throughout,
while bearing in mind the practical workload issues that
practitioners face.

Table of Content

About the Authors vii

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xi

1 Introduction: Childcare and Protection -a Public Health
Approach 1

2 Overview of the CARE Programme – the First Year of Life
12

3 The Index of Need 31

4 The Emotional Development of Infants and Their Parents 54

5 Observation of Parent-infant Interaction 70

6 Caseload Management 89

7 How to Help Parents in the Best Interests of the Child 97

8 Child Protection 113

9 Case Illustrations of the CARE Package 121

10 Evaluation of the CARE Programme 134

11 Conclusion – the Cost-effectiveness of Community Nurse
Home Visiting 149

Appendix 1: ‘Looking at Your Needs’ Booklet for
Midwives 157

Appendix 2: ‘Looking at Your Needs’ Booklet for
Health Visitors 163

Appendix 3: Form A 169

Appendix 4: Form B 175

Appendix 5: Form C 185

References 199

Index 213

About the author

Jo Douglas is a child clinical psychologist and was Head of Psychology at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. She is the author of seven books, including Toddler Troubles published by Wiley in 2002.

Kevin Browne is Professor of Forensic and Family Psychology at Birmingham University. He has edited two Wiley books, and was one of Child Abuse Review’s founding editors.

Catherine Hamilton is a lecturer in Applied Psychology at the University of Birmingham. She is co-editor of Early Prediction and Prevention of Child Abuse, which was published by Wiley.