Stumbled on a US Government website that is a LINK>Review of Family Preservation and Family Reunification Programs. Both the preservation and when necessary, reunification, are close to my own heart.
A crisis intervention theory believes that crises are experienced for a short time (i.e., six weeks) before they disappear or are resolved. In the adoption related activist spaces I find myself frequently in – the saying is not to apply a permanent solution to a temporary situation. When I follow the story of an expectant mother worried about her ability to parent, if she hangs in there with parenting, the temporary situations that caused her such a deep concern do usually smooth out. Certainly, a philosophy of treating families with respect, emphasizing the strengths of family members, and providing both counseling and concrete services can make a genuine difference.
Family Preservation programs share a common philosophy of family centered services including focusing on family strengths, involving families in determining their case plan goals, serving the entire family, and treating family members with respect. Some programs provide services to families whose children have been placed in foster care and therefore have a case plan goal of reunification. Though reunification efforts have received considerably less attention than placement prevention programs – both represent a related effort to reduce the length of stay in foster care and to prevent re-entry into the care system in cases where prevention of placement was not initially possible.
For those interested, this paper describes the “state of the family preservation field” and examines in greater depth the characteristics and operations of programs. The report analyzes 38 placement prevention and 26 reunification programs. Although the majority of families served by a family preservation program in most states were referred by the child welfare agency, few family preservation programs limited their caseloads to child welfare referrals. Referrals from juvenile justice and mental health agencies sometimes accounted for a significant percentage (i.e., more than 25 percent) of the families served.
Of the reunification programs examined, seven programs were an integral part of the placement prevention programs– that is, reunification cases were served by the same staff and received the same types of services as placement prevention cases. Services were mostly provided after the child had been returned home. In these programs that were part of a placement prevention program, the reunification program was based on the same theories of behavior and treatment.
If interested, you can continue reading their report at the link above.
Missing Mom 