News

For 110 years, the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice has been evolving to respond to the changing needs of our community. As Vermont’s oldest and largest home health and hospice agency, the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice is taking a leading role and actively engaging in efforts to reform Vermont’s healthcare delivery and payment systems.

To this end, the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Board and leadership are making strategic decisions regarding how the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice can most effectively serve the community in this rapidly changing healthcare landscape. The UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Board recognizes a need to concentrate our resources on services and programs most closely aligned with the agency’s home health and hospice mission, expertise and capacity – meeting the community needs we are most suited to address.

As a result of these strategic decisions about the agency’s future, the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice has decided to engage in a thoughtful and thorough community process – expected to take a year or more – to determine the best organizational structure for the sustainability of the Family Room, and to transition the Family Room, one of 15 state-designated Parent Child Centers, to another organization or to operate as a free-standing center.

The UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice has been committed to maternal and child health services since our founding in 1906 and we will continue to provide home-visiting services to families and children in our community.

The UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice opened the Family Room in 1988 to give families a space to receive ongoing community-based support and we have supported it for 28 years because we believe strongly in the importance and value of the program to families. We understand the connection between quality early childhood services and health outcomes later in life.

“The Family Room is a great community resource. As community members and parents, UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Board members fully recognize the positive impact this program has on families in our community,” said UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Board Chair John Maitland. “That is why the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice has decided to establish a community-wide process to transition the Family Room to different leadership as the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice necessarily shifts its focus to its home health and hospice mission.”

Given the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice’s commitments to mandated home health and hospice programs and our need to respond to changes in the healthcare system, we recognize the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice is no longer best equipped to give the Family Room the resources required to meet the needs of the community it serves. Therefore, the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice is undertaking a comprehensive and inclusive community process, which is expected to take a year or more, to plan for the Family Room’s future. During this process the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice will continue to manage and support the Family Room.

The UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice is already engaged in a process working closely with parents, community partners and supporters to plan for the Family Room’s future sustainability. This process will continue and the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice will continue its active role in preparing the program for success either as a standalone organization similar to most of the other Vermont Parent Child Centers, or as part of another umbrella organization.

During the transition, the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice will continue its work with the Parent Child Center Network advocating at the Vermont Legislature for more state funding of Parent Child Centers – which has not seen in an increase in 20 years. Family Room parents have joined these efforts, lending their powerful voices and sharing their stories to advance this important work.

“The UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice is very grateful to have such an engaged and passionate community of families, partner organizations and community leaders who are invested in the success of the Family Room and have expressed willingness to work closely with us during this transition,” said UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice President Judy Peterson.

The UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice is committed to working with families and community partners to create and facilitate a comprehensive, inclusive and respectful process to implement this change. We will continue to provide updates throughout the transition planning process.

If you have questions, please contact Nicole Haley, Assistant Director of Development & Community Relations, at 802-860-4439 or haley@uvmhomehealth.org.