	Child and Family Development and Support Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

CFD 6: Family-Focused Approach to Service

Services are of the appropriate type and intensity needed to build on family strengths, address risks, and improve family functioning.

NA The organization provides only parent education groups.

CFD 6.01

Families and providers establish respectful relationships that facilitate productive service planning and delivery.

Note: See Research Note to CFD 13.05.

Research Note: One home visiting study found that providers’ and parents’ views about their relationships were strong predictors of service dosage, and suggests that the parent-provider relationship may play a role in determining whether a family will remain enrolled in a program and accept a greater number of home visits. The importance of developing positive relationships is underscored by research suggesting that higher service levels are associated with better outcomes, as referenced in the Research Note to CFD 6.03.

CFD 6.02

Services involve and accommodate all family members to the extent possible and appropriate, and are provided at times acceptable to the family.

Interpretation: The organization can consider factors such as staff availability and safety when deciding the hours services will be offered.

Note: See Research Note to CFD 13.05.

CFD 6.03

The frequency, intensity, and duration of services are:

based on each family’s needs, strengths, and circumstances; and
appropriate to the type of services offered.

Research Note: Literature emphasizes that a relatively high dose of service may be needed for positive changes to occur, and some home visiting research suggests that families receiving higher levels of service experience better outcomes. However, this research also finds that it can be difficult to retain families in voluntary support services and indicates that many families do not receive the levels of service that may be needed to yield beneficial results.

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	PURPOSE: Families participating in Child and Family Development and Support Services delivered through strong community partnerships gain new competencies, improve child health and well-being, improve family functioning, and make family-community connections.

RELATED FILES


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	PLANNING The process of specifying objectives, evaluating the means for their achievement, and exercising deliberate decision making about appropriate courses of action.


	RESEARCH For purposes of COA accreditation, all forms of internal or external research involving persons served except internal program evaluation and outcomes research, or educational projects performed by students and interns that are part of their professional training.


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.