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The IFPS model of North Carolina’s Family Preservation Services Program, as established in legislation, is a short-term, intensive, crisis-intervention program with services provided primarily in the family’s home or community. Where feasible and in the best interest of the child and the family, the purpose of the program is to keep the family unit intact by providing the type of intensive family centered services that help create positive long-term changes in the home environment. Special efforts are also made to engage absent and/or noncustidal parents in the intervention process. Critical elements of the Program design are:
• Services are targeted to families with children at imminent risk of out-of-home placement;
• Services are time limited – families receive intensive family services for a maximum of six consecutive weeks;
• Services are home-based – at least one-half of a caseworker’s time spent providing family preservation services to a family is spent in face to face contact in the family’s home and community;
• Services focus on promoting family competence – building on strengths and the family’s own resources;
• Services are provided in a culturally competent manner with understanding of and respect for cultural and ethnic diversity;
• The services provided are both therapeutic and concrete;
• Family preservation caseworkers are available to each family by telephone and on call for visits 24 hours a day, seven days a week;
• Caseloads are small – family preservation workers provide services to a maximum of four families at any given time
• Family preservation caseworkers have specialized training and support to provide this service.
Families eligible for Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) are those with one or more children ages birth through 17 years who are determined to be a danger to themselves or others (including other’s property), or are endangered by persons in the home, and the endangerment is sufficient to put the child(ren) at imminent risk of out-of-home placement. The priority for case assignment are those children at risk of placement into the social services system, and at least 75% of cases served each year shall be DSS referred cases, but referrals may also come from the mental health/developmental disabilities/substance abuse or juvenile justice systems. The populations for whom this service shall be made available include children who are:
• alleged or found to be abused, neglected, or dependent;
• emotionally or behaviorally disturbed;
• undisciplined or delinquent;
• determined to have medical needs that, with assistance, could be managed in the home.
(1.) Out-of-home placement means the removal of a child from his/her own home with placement in a non-relative setting for a duration of two weeks or more. Responsibility for his or her supervision, care and essentials of daily living is given to the social services, juvenile justice or public or private mental health/developmental disabilities/ substance abuse systems.
(2.) Imminent risk of out-of-home placement is defined as follows:
A. The child is considered at “imminent risk of placement” if;
• There has been a substantiation of abuse, neglect or dependency (as determined by the local Division of Social Services prior to the referral to IFPS); AND
• There is a rating of ‘high’ or ‘intensive’ on the Family Risk Assessment (DSS form 5230) or Family Risk Reassessment (DSS Form 5226)3; OR
• The child is not considered to be at imminent risk of removal from the home (because there is not a rating of ‘high or ‘intensive’ on the Family Risk Assessment (DSS Form 5230) or Family Risk Reassessment (DSS Form 5226), but there is a substantiation of abuse. OR
• There has been a finding of In Need of Services (as determined by the local Division of Social Services prior to the referral to IFPS), AND
• There is a rating of ‘high’ or ‘intensive’ on the Family Risk Assessment (DSS form 5230) or Family Risk Reassessment (DSS Form 5226)4;
B. For child protective service cases, completion of the Investigators Family Risk Assessment Factor Worksheet is required after a decision to substantiate a complaint of abuse of neglect or a finding of in need of services is made [NCAC 41I.0306(b)].5
(3.) Juvenile Justice Referred Cases
The child is considered at “imminent risk of placement” if:
(a.) There has been an adjudication that the juvenile is delinquent or undisciplined, and the juvenile violates protective supervision or probation, or there are new charges, OR
(b.) The juvenile has been placed on Level 2 disposition by the court6.
(4.) Mental Health Cases
The child is considered at “imminent risk of placement” if:
(a.) it is determined by the child’s treatment team that if IFPS is not offered, the child would be referred to a residential or inpatient setting, AND
(b.) A standardized assessment tool must be completed demonstrating that the child is at imminent risk of removal from the home if IFPS services are not provided. The Community Based Programs Team of the Division of Social Services must approve the tool utilized prior to referrals based on that tool being accepted.
Services that North Carolina legislation requires to be provided under the Program are:
• Family assessment
• Intensive family and individual counseling
• Client advocacy
• Case management
• Development and enhancement of parenting skills
• Referral to other services, as appropriate
Beyond these six required services, it is expected that the local IFPS programs will provide or help families obtain a broad range of therapeutic, supportive and concrete services to address the particular objectives in the families’ own treatment plans. Local programs may budget from IFPS allocations received through the Department of Health and Human Services to provide monetary assistance to families when needed and not available from public assistance or other community services
The six required services are defined and described as follows:
1. FAMILY ASSESSMENT
Family assessment is an ongoing process, which continues from intake through termination of services. The purpose of the family assessment is:
• to identify the family’s strengths, resources, needs, and problems;
• to help family members identify measurable, realistic, achievable, and time-limited treatment goals;
• to help family members develop strategies for achieving their goals.
Consistent with System of Care practice the family assessment is comprehensive and considers the family’s strengths as well as needs within its entire social context (i.e. nuclear family, extended family, school, work, church, neighborhood, etc.). Family assessment information is gathered through:
• ongoing observation of family members in their natural environment;
• family and individual meetings;
• a social history gathered over time through interactions with family members;
• reports from other professionals;
• assessment instruments completed by/with family members.
Specialized assessments are considered on a case-by-case basis. These may include neurological, nutritional, speech and language, developmental, offender, and psychological, as well as alcohol and drug screenings, blood chemistry, vocational evaluations, etc.
2. INTENSIVE FAMILY AND INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING
Counseling in this context means the therapeutic interaction between IFPS caseworkers and family members focused on problem-solving and skill-building. Intensity is characterized by small caseloads (averaging two families per worker) and high service hours of up to 20 hours per week per family, within a limited time frame (four to six consecutive weeks per family). Counseling services may include individual, couple, family, and group counseling. During counseling, the worker and family members:
• establish a trusting relationship;
• define and clarify family issues and perceptions;
• assess the need for change and develop and implement strategies for making those changes;
• evaluate progress and make appropriate changes in strategies and goals;
• effectively terminate the relationship.
3. CLIENT ADVOCACY
Client advocacy means providing the family with information about the services available to them in their community and helping the family to obtain them. It also means helping families learn to advocate for themselves and to negotiate with bureaucracies and service systems to obtain needed help.
4. CASE MANAGEMENT
Case management in this context means that the IFPS caseworker takes responsibility for assuring that the needs of the family as a whole are assessed, that service plans are created with the family and reflect their priorities and goals, and that the efforts of all service providers involved with the family are coordinated and consistent with the service plan. This is also consistent with the foundational philosophy of System of Care. The goals of family-centered case management are to:
• develop joint service plans which delineate the roles and functions of all agencies involved with the family;
• ensure that the efforts of all agencies are directed toward common goals;
• ensure that methods and techniques of various service providers do not conflict or confuse family members;
• ensure assessment of a family’s need for follow up services and to plan with appropriate agencies for follow up services to be provided.
5. DEVELOPMENT AND ENHANCEMENT OF PARENTING SKILLS
Through the assessment, counseling, and case management processes, parenting skill deficits will be identified. The worker offers instruction in these skills and provides support as parents implement newly learned skills. This involves a wide range of parenting activities and functions such as nurturing, age appropriate expectations, adequate supervision, acceptable discipline, behavior management, communication, anger control, etc.
6. REFERRAL TO OTHER SERVICES AS APPROPRIATE
In keeping with System of Care the worker provides family members with information on the range of useful community resources and helps the family access necessary services. The family makes its own decisions about which services it will use and participates in meetings with service providers.
IFPS caseworkers are expected to possess a wide range of skills and abilities in crisis intervention, assessment counseling/therapy, communication and teaching. They must be flexible, sensitive to multicultural differences and able to work effectively with families of diverse backgrounds. With these skills and abilities they must draw from an extensive repertoire of specific strategies and techniques to meet the diverse needs of different families. Among the intervention strategies utilized in family preservation service are:
• Defusing, engaging and confronting clients;
• Family assessment and goal setting;
• Developing service plans and contracts with families;
Addressing concrete needs that impact family functioning;
• Teaching behavior management, problem solving and communications skills;
• Teaching anger management;
• Teaching assertiveness skills to families;
• Teaching parenting skills;
• Developing individualized plans and techniques with families to help them manage addiction, depression or violence among family members;
• The use of networking and effective referrals to on-going services.
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For questions or clarification on any of the policy contained in these manuals, please contact your local county office.
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