Department of Health Services - Health Start Program

Health Start is a community-based program that delivers health education and referral services to pregnant and postpartum women and their families in communities at risk for poor birth outcomes. The program has five statutory goals, including reducing the incidence of babies born at a very low birth weight.  However, evaluators could not report the Department’s progress in reaching those goals because of incomplete and unreliable program data.  The report recommends that the Department improve data collection, program monitoring, and administration. In addition, because the program has limited resources, the Department needs to ensure that service providers understand the risk assessment tool’s role and use it to select women who are most in need of program services.