Program Goals

The goals of Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS) are:

For Parents:

• Ability to keep their children in their care
• Develop parental resilience
• Develop social connections
• Increase knowledge of parenting and child development
• Increase access to and knowledge of concrete supports in times of need and how to obtain them (e.g., housing, transportation, food, clothing, etc.)
• Increase understanding of trauma and its impact on the family system

For Children:

• Ability to stay safely in their home

Logic Model

View the Logic Model for Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS).

Essential Components

The essential components of Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS) include:

• All-inclusive model: With rare exception, there should be no need for child welfare services agency to refer child(ren) or family for additional services. Rare exceptions include:
• Translation services
• Diagnostic and evaluation services
• Residential substance use treatment services
• Detoxification and other medical services
• Substance use outpatient treatment
• Concrete Services:
• Families are assessed to see which concrete needs are needed to keep their children in the home (i.e., not removed).
• Providers of this service will be expected to utilize the funds received from agency through the course of their service delivery to address any concrete assistance needs that the family may have.
• Research-based practice: Providers must be able to document adherence to research-based practice(s) listed as having promising, supported, or well-supported research evidence by the California Evidence Based Clearinghouse and be able to show that staff delivering these practices have had adequate training/certification/credentials (as required by the model being utilized).
• Child Safety: Providers, in order to ensure safety of the child(ren), must visit the child(ren) and identified caregivers in the home at a minimum of one time per week or more frequently, if requested by the child welfare services agency.
• Protective Factors: To ensure providers discuss and target the development of these Protective Factors, providers must complete the Protective Factors Survey, 2nd Edition (PFS-2) within 30 days of receiving the Family Preservation Services referral, and every 3 months thereafter, for as long as the provider is working with the family under the Family Preservation Services referral.
• Quick access to treatment: Providers of this service will have face-to-face contact with the family within 3 days of receipt of referral in order quickly assess the needs of family and begin service delivery.
• Training: Service Provider employees are required to complete general training competencies at various levels based on the employee’s level of work with the child welfare services agency clients. Training requirements are outlined in the Indiana Family Preservation Services contract. There are multiple training areas that must be covered, with Department of Child Services providing specific curriculum for some, but for most of trainings, the agency delivering INFPS can choose their own curriculum, provided it addresses the topic area (trauma-informed care, for example).

Program Delivery

Child/Adolescent Services

Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS) directly provides services to children/adolescents and addresses the following:

• Child behavior problems such as disruptive behaviors, school truancy, aggression, maladaptive sexual behaviors, defiance, self-injurious behaviors, etc.; familial neglect, poverty, basic needs not being met, etc.

Parent/Caregiver Services

Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS) directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:

• Lack of parental resilience, lack of social connection, lack of parenting and child development, lack of knowledge of concrete supports in times of need, lack of understanding of trauma and its impact on the family system

Services Involve Family/Support Structures:

This program involves the family or other support systems in the individual's treatment: The intervention focuses on helping families identify community resources and supports when needed, particularly around access to concrete supports to prevent foster care entries and keep children safely with their own families.

Recommended Intensity:

At least once a week

Recommended Duration:

Service until case closes or child is formally and indefinitely removed from home of origin. Average service delivery is around 6 months.

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Adoptive Home
• Birth Family Home

Homework

This program does not include a homework component.

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

Contracts with external service providers to deliver model to families.

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

INFPS establishes the follow qualifications for service providers:

• The program shall be staffed by appropriately credentialed personnel who are:
• Trained and competent to complete the service as required by federal and State of Indiana law
• Credentialed according to the requirements of the research-based model(s) used
• Carrying appropriate caseloads. No member of the treatment team (excluding support staff) may carry a caseload greater than what is allowed by the model being delivered, provided that the caseload shall never be greater than 12.
• Provider support staff: Trained in the basic principles of the chosen model and their practice must be coordinated and directed by the direct professional staff
• Provider supervisors: Must possess a Master’s or Doctorate degree in Social work, psychology, marriage and family, related human service field or be licensed by an accredited board in their profession

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Manual details:

• Indiana Department of Child Services. (n.d.). Service standard: Indiana Department of Child Services Family Preservation Services (Per diem model). https://www.in.gov/dcs/files/Family-Preservation-UPDATE.pdf

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact:

• David Reed
  ssw.iu.edu/childwelfare/training/cat/dcs09095
  David.Reed@dcs.in.gov
  phone: (317) 232-4497

Training Type/Location:

Informal consultation is available. Full implementation at the scale done in Indiana is a very large undertaking and will require significant commitment from the interested agency.

Number of days/hours:

Varies depending on interested agency

Implementation Information

Pre-Implementation Materials

There are pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS) as listed below:

Please contact model developer at bottom of page to discuss pre-implementation assessment.

Formal Support for Implementation

There is formal support available for implementation of Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS) as listed below:

Please contact model developer at bottom of page to discuss formal support for implementation.

Fidelity Measures

There are fidelity measures for Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS) as listed below:

Indiana Family Preservation Services has 3 primary fidelity measures:

• Did the service provider utilize a research-based practice with the family they serve?
• Did the service provider maintain basic adherence to the research-based model they chose for a given family?
• Did the service provider make face-to-face contact with the family within 3 days of referral receipt?

The agency has sampled specific families and requested service providers to complete a Surveymonkey survey that answers the three fidelity measures listed above by the 12th of each month following service initiation. Responses are validated by the agency Research and Evaluation team. There is an 8 minute, 33 second Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_howS9Jbyw) that can be accessed through the Indiana Family Preservation public website that trains providers on filling out a survey correctly.

Providers delivering INFPS must follow any chosen evidence-based interventions to fidelity and document doing so. This is a requirement of the manual and the providers’ contracts.

Fidelity Measure Requirements:

INFPS requires the fidelity assessment(s) be used.

Implementation Guides or Manuals

There are no implementation guides or manuals for Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS).

Implementation Cost

There are no studies of the costs of Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS).

Research on How to Implement the Program

Research has not been conducted on how to implement Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS).

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Child Welfare Outcomes: Safety and Permanency

Additional References

No reference materials are currently available for Indiana Family Preservation Services (INFPS).