Spotlight on Georgia’s Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Evaluation of a New Central Intake System

Georgia has long supported efforts to provide coordinated systems of care for children.

With funding from the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, Georgia developed a central intake system and piloted it in seven at-risk counties. This article highlights findings from an evaluation that aimed to determine whether the system helped link pregnant women and new mothers to community resources and services to support the health and development of their children.

Central intake provides a single point of entry to connect families with services in the community, including home visiting. Upon entry, families are screened and referred to services to address any identified needs.

Georgia’s initiative included three components:

• Establishing a central information and referral center to promote maternal and child health and development resources in the community
• Adding an additional screener in each county to increase screenings and referrals of families who access the central intake hub
• Implementing a new data system, accessible to local departments of health and home visiting programs, to host screening and referral data for pregnant women and new mothers, including electronic birth certificate data from local hospitals