ERIC Number: ED306753
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1988-Aug
Pages: 32
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Family Supports in the USA: Current Trends in Policy and Practice.
Traustadottir, Rannveig
Family support services are systematic efforts to support natural, adoptive, or foster families who have a family member with a disability. Programs vary in the types of services offered, goals, and number of families served. The most promising approaches to family support provide services that are flexible and individualized, build on informal sources of support and existing social networks, maximize community participation, provide children with permanent homes, and place control in the hands of families themselves. Barriers that hinder the development of family support services include funding mechanisms that favor institutional care, administrative confusion, role of public agencies versus private responsibilities, traditional service models that substitute for rather than support the family, pressure to maintain the status quo, unequal access to services, and lack of federal policy. Family services can be supported on the grounds that they are based on current service ideology and research-based literature, are consistent with existing legislation, save money, and reflect traditional American family values. To fully implement family support services requires adoption of social change in three spheres: the sphere of ideology, the sphere of practice, and the sphere of legal initiative. (JDD)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Information Analyses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Inst. on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (ED/OSERS), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Syracuse Univ., NY. Center on Human Policy.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the International Conference on Family Support (1st, Stockholm, Sweden, August 14-19, 1988).