The Family Partner-Key to Family Centered Practice
By Bonny Saulnier
Bonny Saulnier
A story about compassionate family engagement
Pierre Vincent, Family Partner with Wayside Family Networks, telephoned “Anna” (not her real name) to invite her to a Family Team Meeting at the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS) to consider placement of Anna’s three children. Pierre was hopeful that he could help Anna to voice her commitment to her children, despite a stressful relationship with DSS, allegations of neglect on her part, and the looming probability of removal of the children. By the time the family was referred to Family Networks for services, the situation was critical. Few thought that Pierre could have any effect.
At first, Anna refused to consider attending another meeting at DSS. She was distrustful and angry, especially when she learned that the children’s father was flying to Massachusetts from Puerto Rico for the next court date. To complicate matters, a few days before the court date, DSS removed the children from Anna on an emergency basis and placed them in foster care. Anna almost gave up.
Pierre did not. He focused on hope. He talked with Anna about the importance of her showing up at the decision making table to plan for her children. He promised to translate for her at the Family Team Meeting. As a fellow parent, he empathized with her while also modeling how parents can best support their children’s interests. He listened to her anger that decisions about her children were being made by people who “didn’t understand” her situation, and helped her to see that she could influence decisions by bringing her voice to the Family Team Meeting. Eventually, Anna agreed to attend.
The Family Team Meeting was productive and balanced. Anna shared in the decision that the two older children go to Puerto Rico to live with their father for a period of time, while Anna focused on the medical problems of the youngest child and on her own stability. Currently, all three children are reunited with Anna. Anna no longer refuses to attend meetings, and when she sees Pierre at DSS, she continues to thank him for his role in bringing her family back together.
The "fit" with the system
In 2005, DSS issued the challenge to its partnering Area Lead Agencies to share in building a system of care that embodies the Department’s Core Values. “Family Centered” is a key but elusive value. Elements of “family centered” work include engaging parents in decision making about their families, inviting their participation in discussions about the child welfare concerns of the Department, and gathering family input about goals, strengths and needed supports.
Resiliency research shows that when individuals - including parents – are engaged in meaningful decision making about their futures, the results are greater commitment and motivation to make the decisions work. When redesigning the service system, DSS recognized the potential for better outcomes and required by contract that Area Leads engage families in service decisions. How to achieve engagement has been left to each Area Lead.
Wayside, as Area Lead Agency in four DSS Areas, predicted that competing priorities could result in losing sight of family engagement amid the multiple demands on Lead staff designated to coordinate and manage services (Service Coordinators, Care Managers). To keep “family centered” practice a real and tangible part of the work, Wayside carved out a role separate from the Service Coordinators and Care Managers, and named those staff positions Family Partners.
The Family Partner Role
Family Partners, unique to Wayside’s concept of Area Lead Agency, are the men and women in the Area Lead Agency program who make certain that the family voice is heeded at Family Team Meetings (FTM). Family Partners reserve a place, amid all the pressures of emergencies, budgets, documentation, and time demands, to hear what families have to say about their own strengths and needs, their supports, and their hopes.
Family Partners help to prepare family members for the Family Team Meetings where a child’s placement is being considered, when possible, conduct a Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths assessment (CANS) with the family prior to the meeting and support the family’s participation in the meeting.
Preparing for a FTM means helping family members to understand what happens at this meeting, why it is important to participate, who will be there, and what will be discussed. The Family Partner can help the family determine whether to bring other supports to the meeting. Sometimes Family Partners rehearse with families in order to clearly state their concerns or to practice talking about difficult subjects without becoming overly emotional. Family Partners can also support engagement by providing transportation, and translating for non-English speakers.
Prior to the FTM, the Family Partner may sit with parents to complete the CANS assessment. This assessment can guide decisions about appropriate level of care for youngsters who may need out of home placement. Wayside’s consultation with family on the CANS ensures that families have equal chance to assess their own strengths and needs. The Family Partner brings a summary of the family’s assessment to the FTM. Differences between the family and the DSS assessment of concerns can shed light on communication gaps, inaccurate facts, new potential problems, and in the best cases, potential solutions in a family that may be revealed.
At the FTM, Family Partners steer clear of excessive jargon, explain unfamiliar information to the family, ensure that family members are invited to speak, ask for a “time out” if a parent is becoming agitated, and voice family concerns when the family is unable to do so for any reason.
Creativity with community resources
Faced with demands for DSS purchased services that outstrip budget realities, Wayside has experimented with a new role for Family Partners: scouring communities for resources that are supported by other funding.
Sue O’Dell, Wayside Family Partner, was asked to help find community supports for a young family referred for Family Support and Stabilization services. Fearing that their situation would deteriorate while waiting for DSS-purchased services, Sue went to the family, two parents and a toddler, to find out what they thought they might need right away. The father cared for the toddler at home while the mother worked. Her income was not enough to cover day care, and the father couldn’t work due to severe mental illness. His mental illness constrained his ability to care for the child.
Sue did her homework. She combed through resources until she found a local, grant-funded program that offers family support services to families struggling with parental mental illness. It was a perfect match. Meanwhile, the DSS worker accessed a sliding scale day care slot for the family, and Sue helped the mother connect to the area’s family resource center to attend parenting classes on child development and positive discipline.
With Sue’s help and empathy as a parent, this family is surrounded with the supports that they need to care for a child while coping with mental illness and poverty. They have DSS services available as a back-up plan, but they are relying on non-DSS community resources to guide them through their toddler’s early childhood.
Experience counts
Wayside’s Family Partners all have their own parenting experience. Some have birth children, some have adopted or foster children. Some have had their own involvement with social services or have had to navigate mental health services for their child. All of them have compassion for the struggles of parents balanced with deep concern for the safety, permanency and well-being of children.
Wayside Family Partners represent the diversity of the DSS population. Some are parents of adolescents, and some are newer parents. Family Partners speak English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese; they are Caucasian and African American; they are American-born and immigrants. Their wealth of diversity adds to their ability to “get” a family situation in all its complexity.
Wayside’s right from the start commitment to family centered practice, as manifested in the Family Partner positions, has proven successful in engaging reluctant family members, keeping Family Team Meetings focused on shared decision making, and bringing the best of community resources to light. As the system of care develops, these results are keystones in breathing life into DSS’ Core Values.
