About ANFPP

What is the ANFPP?

The Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program (ANFPP) is a part of the Australian Government’s commitment to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The ANFPP was launched by the Health Minister Nicola Roxon, in February of 2008, as part of the Health@Home Plus package with the aim to provide further support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

The ANFPP is based on the successful Nurse Family Partnership home visiting model developed by Professor David Olds in the USA over the last 30 years. The program is an intensive home visiting program aimed at supporting women pregnant with an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander child and their families. It offers a new approach by providing a structured, sustained program delivered by skilled health professionals. Based on visiting mothers and their families in their own homes, the program starts during pregnancy and continues until the child is two years old.

The ANFPP aims to improve pregnancy outcomes by helping women improve their own health while they are pregnant, and then to improve the child’s health and development in the early years.

What services does the ANFPP provide?

The ANFPP delivers supportive assistance for mothers and fathers to help them become the best parents they can be. The ANFPP home visit teams will:

  • support women and families adopt healthy behaviours so they can have healthy babies, healthy children and a healthy lifestyle;
  • help women build supportive relationships; and
  • assist women and their families to access other health or community services if they need them.

What does the ANFPP aim to achieve?

The ANFPP aims to:

  • improve health outcomes for women pregnant with an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander child by helping women engage in good preventative health practices;
  • support parents to improve their child’s health and development; and
  • help parents develop a vision for their own future, including continuing education and finding work.

Where are ANFPP services available?

The program has currently commenced at four sites. The sites are: