Family Connections
Description

This is a multi-component program that accompanies families in their homes to help them meet the basic needs of their children and prevent the risk of child neglect.
The intervention is based on principles of active case-finding in the community, individualized assessment of each family’s needs, the application of case-specific interventions, the building of therapeutic alliances with the families involved, the use of family empowerment approaches, a diagnostic and intervention perspective that focuses on strengths rather than weaknesses, and the design of goal-oriented service plans for each family.
Components that define intervention in practice include emergency assistance, family home-based interventions, service coordination with referrals geared toward case risk management, and multifamily recreational activities.

Impact evaluations

An impact evaluation showed that the program has produced significant effects by increasing protective factors (parental attitudes, parental competencies, and social support) and reducing risk factors (depressive symptoms, parental stress). In addition, the intervened children show improvements in safety (physical and psychological care) and behavior (decrease in internalizing and externalizing); and a decrease in the propensity of adolescents to commit crimes is observed [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] DePanfilis, D. & Dubowitz, H. (2005). Family connections: A program for preventing child neglect. Child Maltreatment, 10(2), 108–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559505275252