	Family Preservation and Stabilization Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

PA-FPS 1: Access to Service

Services are available to families who need assistance improving family functioning, increasing child well-being, and keeping children safe at home.

PA-FPS 1.01

Services are available to families facing challenges that affect child and family safety, well-being, and/or stability when:

children are at risk of being placed in out-of-home care, or need services to facilitate family reunification; and
children can remain in, or return to, the home without compromising the safety of any family or community members.

Research Note: Intensive programs were traditionally intended for families with children at “imminent” risk of placement, and one study found that treatment effects were strongest among the highest risk cases. However, programs may define “imminent” differently, and research suggests that services are generally not delivered to families with children truly at risk of placement. Further, research indicates that it can be difficult to successfully target these families, even when doing so is an explicit program goal. This finding reinforces the importance of measuring broader aspects of child and family functioning rather than focusing solely on placement prevention.

PA-FPS 1.02

When families are referred and mandated to receive services by an agency with statutory responsibility, the agency works with the referring agency to promote efficient case coordination and collaboration.

Interpretation: Services are often provided through the child welfare, juvenile justice, or mental health systems.

NA Families are not referred to services by other agencies.

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	PURPOSE: Family Preservation and Stabilization Services improve family functioning, increase child well-being, ensure child safety, reduce the need for placement in out-of-home care, and enable children in out-of-home care to return safely to their families.

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.


	OUT-OF-HOME CARE Services for persons living in environments outside of their usual households. Foster Care Services are considered to serve persons in out-of-home care.


	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.


	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.


	CASE A general term used to designate clients (including individuals, families, and groups) served by an organization for purposes of monitoring the provision of services. A foster care case is generally based on the placement of an individual child, although casework for the child may include services to the child's family. A child protective services case is based on an entire family household if a family assessment model is used; otherwise a case is defined as a child.


	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.


	PREVENTION Actions taken to minimize and/or eliminate social, psychological, or other conditions. Prevention can occur at the individual, group, community, and societal levels and enhances opportunities to achieve positive fulfillment.