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CHANGE #04-2009
MARCH 2009
In its 1991 Session, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted legislation directing the Department of Human Resources (now the Department of Health and Human Services) to develop and implement a Family Preservation Services Program and to create an Advisory Committee on Family-Centered Services in order to provide guidance on this process. The legislation—codified as The Family Preservation Act (Appendix A)—grew out of the efforts of a coalition of advocates, legislators, educators and agency professionals who were deeply concerned about the needs of North Carolina’s children at risk for placement outside the home and the extent to which existing programs were meeting these needs. This legislation attempted to address both the growing child placement crisis and the need for our broad service systems to become more supportive of and to focus more clearly on maintaining and strengthening families.
As established in this legislation, the intensive model of North Carolina’s Family Preservation Services Program incorporates characteristics of the Homebuilder’s Model in that it is a short-term, intensive, crisis-intervention program with services provided primarily in the family’s home or community1. Requirements in the Program Design for the Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) Program specified in the legislation are as follows:
(1.) Each eligible family shall receive intensive family preservation services—beginning with identification of a child who is at imminent risk of out-of-home placement—for an average of four weeks but not more than six consecutive weeks;
(2.) At least one-half of a caseworker’s time spent providing family preservation services to each eligible family shall be provided in the family’s home and community;
(3.) Family preservation caseworkers shall be available to each eligible family by telephone and on call for visits 24 hours a day, seven days a week;
(4.) Each family preservation caseworker shall provide services to a maximum of four families at any given time.
The Advisory Committee on Family Centered Services2 was responsible for directing the implementation of IFPS programs in North Carolina. The committee recognized from the beginning of its deliberations that the Family Preservation Services program represents one model along a continuum of family-centered placement prevention services. The committee also recognized that in order for Family Preservation Services to be effective the program must be viewed within this larger continuum of services. All family centered services are closely related in philosophy, rationale, and origin. They differ in specifics of program design such as target population, client eligibility, caseload size, intensity and duration of services, and practice techniques. However, all family centered services share the following attributes:
• keeping families together when possible, focusing on the entire family rather than just the child;
• promoting family competence and self-direction;
• providing flexible and convenient services to the family that are home- and community-based;
• networking with other child and family service providers;
• offering a comprehensive array of services that meet a range of needs.
In addition to being committed to a family-centered approach to services provision, the family preservation program adheres to particular Goals/Objectives as well as Values/Beliefs:
The goal of North Carolina’s Family Preservation Services Program is to prevent unnecessary placement of children away from their families by providing in-home services aimed at restoring families in crisis to an acceptable level of functioning delivered within a System of Care framework. These services are designed to meet the following objectives:
1. Stabilize the crisis which put the family at imminent risk;
2. Keep the child, family, and community safe by defusing the potential for violence (physical, sexual, emotional/verbal abuse);
3. Help families develop the skills, competencies and resources they need to handle future crisis situations more effectively.
There are specific values and beliefs that undergird the standards and guide practice for Family Preservation Services. It is critical that Family Preservation Services providers and supervisors have a firm understanding of and commitment to these values and beliefs about families. They include:
1. Safety of the children is the first concern;
2. Children have a right to their family;
3. The family is the fundamental resource for the nurturing of children;
4. Parents should be supported in their efforts to care for their children;
5. Families are diverse and have a right to be respected for their special cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious traditions; children can flourish in different types of families;
6. A crisis is an opportunity for change;
7. Inappropriate intervention can do harm;
8. Families who seem hopeless can change and grow;
9. Family members are our colleagues;
10. It is our job to instill hope.
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Division of Social Services are working in a number of ways to help our public child service systems become more family centered in their methods and practices using a System of Care philosophy. The foundational philosophy of the NC System of Care (hereinafter SOC) is family- centered practice. The six SOC Principles are:
• Interagency collaboration
• Individualized strengths based care
• Cultural competence
• Child and family involvement
• Community based services
• Accountability
North Carolina’s child welfare practice model unites System of Care philosophy with our Multiple Response System. MRS and SOC will help North Carolina achieve the safety of children while helping the parent/caretaker to learn more effective parenting practices. To understand this practice model it is important to understand what it means to provide a family-centered approach to the delivery of services. The six family-centered principles of partnership are:
• Everyone desires respect
• Everyone needs to be heard
• Everyone has strengths
• Judgments can wait
• Partners share power
• Partnership is a process
This manual will address the specific policies and standards that guide the delivery of one such model: the Intensive Family Preservation Services program in North Carolina.
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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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