One of HARC’s chief tasks, when it was formed, was to develop a national home visiting research agenda to inform policy and practice. In 2012, we distributed a survey asking stakeholders to nominate research priorities. Overall, 1,770 people nominated at least one research priority. There were 4,267 priorities nominated in all.
The HARC management team synthesized these into a list of the Top Ten Home Visiting Research Priorities:
- Strengthen and broaden home visiting effectiveness.
- Identify core elements of home visiting.
- Promote successful adoption of home visiting innovations.
- Promote successful adaptation of home visiting innovations.
- Promote fidelity in implementing home visiting innovations.
- Build a stable, competent home visiting workforce.
- Promote family engagement in home visiting.
- Promote home visiting coordination with other services for families.
- Promote the sustainment of effective home visiting.
- Build home visiting research infrastructure.
For more information, please download and read the Home Visiting Research Agenda. The report, which was released for public comment in 2013, outlines the approach and methods of drafting the agenda and provides rationale for each priority.
The research agenda is still valid today. HARC will now be using “precision home visiting” as an overarching theme that cuts across all of the research priorities in the research agenda and will focus on specific innovative research and development methods to accelerate the translation of research into policy and practice that improves services and health.