Montgomery County, Maryland has been conducting a pilot program that has been providing in home services to high risk, first time parents and families.

After ten years in operation, the family services agency there concludes that the program has reduced both child abuse and neglect dramatically, nearly to nonexistence.

Outcomes are actually superior to those in the general population.

The pilot program fosters self-sufficiency among mothers, which heads off development of risk factors for abuse.

Targeted risk factors include “limited education, maternal depression, insufficient knowledge of normal child development, poverty, substance abuse issues, limited self-sufficiency, or [having] experienced abuse or neglect as a child”.

The results of the study appear to be empowering – and repeatable anywhere.

Read more in this Reuters article: County-Wide Home Visiting Program Found to Reduce Child Abuse and Neglect.