MODULE 6: Family First Prevention Services Act and Qualified Residential Treatment Programs
Strategies:
Seriously focus on implementing the strategies highlighted in the other modules of the BBI Family Engagement Toolkit. Whether your child welfare agency is going to proceed with implementing the QRTP level of care or you are providing residential interventions to youth and their families through other systems (e.g., behavioral health, education, juvenile justice), the strategies included throughout the BBI Family Engagement Toolkit are ones that will support the delivery of quality residential and community-based services that lead to improved post-residential long-term outcomes for the youth and families served.
Have an urgent focus on permanency. Whether delivering residential interventions for a child welfare agency or another child- and family- serving system, permanency matters and is the highest priority. Residential interventions can play a critical role in supporting youth and their families by focusing on permanency. Residential stakeholders have the ability to positively impact the lives of youth and families and to support them in achieving long-term, positive outcomes post residential discharge. Permanency is not just a child welfare agency concern; it is a priority and urgent focus for every residential stakeholder.
Focus on successful family engagement and hiring Family/Parent Partners. By having a comprehensive focus on successfully engaging, partnering with, supporting, and offering culturally responsive skill building for families, the likelihood of improved long-term outcomes post residential discharge for youth and families increases. Hiring Family/Parent Partners is one of the most effective strategies to improve successful family engagement.
Build your program’s capacity to work with families in their homes and communities throughout the residential intervention. Ideally, residential interventions are comprised of three components that flow seamlessly together. All three components involved residential staff working with families in their homes and communities. The three components are: 1) pre-admission work and supports at home and in the community; 2) in-residential program work and supports both in the program and at home and in the community; and 3) aftercare work and supports at home and in the community. When leaders ensure, during the in-residential component, that youth are spending time at home as often as possible (i.e. multiple times weekly) and staff frequently are working with families in their homes and communities, the aftercare component seamlessly merges with the services and supports provided during the in-residential component.
Provide aftercare services. To more effectively serve youth and families and ensure long-term outcomes post residential discharge, aftercare services are crucial.
Use strategies to build cultural and linguistic competence and foster equity, inclusion, and diversity. With the overrepresentation of youth of color in the various child- and family-serving systems, it is critical that providers of residential interventions focus intentionally on culturally responsive and appropriate services and approaches, along with having staff who represent the youth and families they serve.
Focus on preventing and eliminating the use of restraint and seclusion. In order to have a trauma-informed and responsive approach, it is critical to work toward the elimination of the use of restraint, seclusion, and other coercive practices that create further trauma for youth receiving residential interventions. Using the evidence based Six Core Strategies© can help providers achieve this.
Become post-residential outcomes focused. Implement a continuous quality improvement focus to monitor outcomes and adjust practices as you work toward supporting youth and families to be successful post residential involvement. Any type of recidivism should initiate a pause to examine what needs to change to be more helpful to the families.
Recognize that accreditation matters. Even if organizations do not have the funding to become accredited at this time, the strategies and resources identified throughout this toolkit will help put in place what is needed to have better quality of service. They will also help in preparation for becoming accredited. Accreditation matters, as more systems are moving to require providers of residential intervention to be accredited. Consider implementing The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (the National CLAS Standards).
Consider providing Family-Based Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (FRSAT) services. Even if an organization is not able to meet the criteria to become a QRTP, they might consider teaming with a substance-use-treatment provider and making programmatic adjustments to provide a family-based residential substance-use treatment program, which is allowed as part of Family First.
Module 6 Family First & QRTP Resources
Building Bridges Initiative Family First Prevention Services Act Informational Document: Comparison of Federal Requirements for Qualified Residential Treatment Programs (QRTP) and Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities (PRTF) (2019, March). Building Bridges Initiative.
Building Bridges Initiative Technical Assistance Offerings to Support Oversight Agencies and Residential Programs with Ensuring Quality Implementation of Family First Prevention Services Act Opportunities for Residential Intervention. (2019, Fall). Building Bridges Initiative.
Kuppinger, A., Hust, J.A., Hunt, P., Mosby, P., Hammack, S., & Caldwell, B. (2020). Putting families first: Strategies to transform and advance family engagement and partnership. In B. Caldwell, R. Lieberman, J. LeBel, & G.M. Blau (Eds.), Transforming Residential Interventions: Practical Strategies and Future Directions (pp. 8–30). Routledge.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (National CLAS Standards)