Antenatal young parents: introducing a pathway to enhance health visiting practice

Although their numbers have declined over the last 10 years, younger (teenage) parents are still one of the most disadvantaged client groups and have significantly poorer health outcomes for both themselves and their children.This article describes the author's creation of a Health Visiting practice pathway for this specific client group. The pathway was planned to promote a standardisation of service from all the health visiting teams across the Humber Foundation Trust area, aiming towards equity of service for all clients in this group. This is particularly important in a Trust which has a very diverse client population covering approximately 930 square miles. The article explores young parents' health issues and summarises why we should invest health visitor resources in this small but very specific client group. As a result of the project work, challenges and opportunities for health visiting practice were identified. Recommendations for both current and future practice are discussed