CITATION: Decker, J. T., Bailey, T. L., Heitkamp, T., & Red Horse, J. G. (2000). Profiling intensive in-home family treatment services: do they work? A 10-year study. Journal of Children & Poverty, 6(1), 21-31.

  • Intensive In-Home services provide comprehensive, intensive crisis intervention and family education to at-risk families in their own homes to reduce stress and to increase the constructive coping necessary to assure the safety of family members and strengthen the family unit
  • Children referred are at risk of being placed outside of the home, need to be reunified with family members after placement, or because of their involvement with the juvenile justice system
  • Aspects of Intensive In-Home services include

Limited caseloads

Work with families in their own homes

Service providers may be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week

Service providers use the resources within the family, extended family, general community, and other helping networks

Sessions may last from one to three hours, one or more days per week, for a duration of one to three months

The most prevalent issues of families receiving services include stress and coping, family communication problems, and parenting skills training

  • Intensive In-Home services include

Primary level of services involve educational goals and programs (i.e. proper child care techniques)

Secondary level of services involve responses to family crisis as they emerge and include early-intervention, juvenile tracking, respite care and intensive In-Home family treatment

Tertiary levels of services involve severe structural change within the family (out-of-home placement, juvenile detention, or residential treatment

  • Social workers strive to build a collaborative, genuine, and supportive relationship with the family to assist them in making the necessary changes for their preservation, maintenance, and growth by

Establishing a service continuum designed to support the family as a whole

Teaching practical life skills and providing environmental supports to promote parental competence

Perceiving services as family supportive and family strengthening

  • The effectiveness of Intensive In-Home Family Treatment programs implemented in North Dakota were evaluated and the results included

Prevention of out of home placement 82%to 85%

2% of children continued in placement

8% of children involve in intensive In-Home therapy were removed from the home

  • Success of family preservation was directly related to

Workers’ attitudes

Workers’ training

Workers’ involvement and pro-active response to family cirses

Workers’ willingness to perform above and beyond prescribed duties

Support workers received from their supervisors

Positive relationships workers established with other organizations

***Research-based article (N = 1,729 family cases)