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Indeed, through my correspondence and Internet searches over the past several
years, I have learned that much has changed. Over the past 15 years, some former
volunteer home visiting programs in the U.S. appear to have ceased doing in-home
work: some have switched to paid home visitors working specifically with ‘at-risk’
families, volunteer hospital visits in the immediate post-partum period, and/or
volunteer telephone support. Some American and Canadian programs (Kurnetz, 1983;
L. Nuk, personal correspondence, 2000, 2002), appear to be no longer in existence; I
have not been able to learn what became of them or why.
In Australia, while targeted home visiting programs staffed by professional home
visitors are growing in number (F. Byrne, personal correspondence, 16 August 2010),
several universally available volunteer programs have closed in recent years. For
example, in 2005, Good Beginnings Australia was running home visiting programs at
sixteen sites across the country: eleven volunteer programs, and five mixed-delivery
programs (Good Beginnings Australia, 2005). At the time of this writing, only two of
these sixteen programs remained in operation. In April 2010, the Community Mothers
Programme in Perth, Western Australia, closed due to lack of funding; it had followed
the mixed-delivery model (i.e., nurse visitors and volunteer visitors) of the Dublin
Community Mothers Programme. Meanwhile, in the UK, some universal volunteer
home visiting programs have also closed down, and some have experienced funding
challenges over recent years [C. Suppiah, personal correspondence, March 2010].
Finally, of the eight home visiting programs that were approached to be involved with
this study, all but two expressed concerns related to their funding situation that that
time.
The scope of the present study did not allow investigation into why so many
volunteer home visiting programs are no longer in operation. However, this
international trend raises questions about the reasons for these closures, and what this
may mean for both families in those communities and the programs that are still in
operation. Therefore, it is recommended that research be undertaken as to the reasons
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