Family
Support:
A New Approach to Child Well-Being
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Parenting
is harder than it used to be. Not so long ago, families
could count on nearby relatives, neighbors, and friends
to share in child care, give advice and encouragement,
and serve as role models. But high rates of divorce
and single-parenthood, soaring numbers of women in
the workforce, and increasing geographic mobility
have left many families isolated from these traditional
informal support networks.
Family support programs offer all parents what informal
networks once supplied: help in raising healthy, happy
children. Family support represents a whole new philosophy
of community serviceone that builds on the family's
strengths, focuses on the entire family within its
culture and community, and gives the family a central
role in the planning, design, and delivery of carefully
planned and implemented services. Family supports
and resources empower parents, build communities,
and help prevent such problems as child abuse and
neglect, low birthweight, teen pregnancy, and dropping
out of school.
Family
supports give parents the opportunity to reach out
to one another and learn together. Sup ports include
parenting and family nurturing classes, home visiting,
parent-child groups and family activities, information,
and help in obtain ing services. Resources respond
to practical needsfor example, baby clothes and toy
ex changes, child care and transportation sharing.
| How
Family Support Differs from Traditional Services |
| Family
Support Services |
Traditional
Services |
| Address
needs before crises happen |
Intervene
only after crises happen
|
| Respond
flexibly to family and community needs |
Offer
only specific services or treatments |
| Focus
on families |
Focus
on individuals
|
| Build
on each family's specific strengths |
Emphasize
family problems |
| Reach
out to families |
Have
strict eligibility requirements |
| Respond
quickly to needs and have drop-in services |
Have
office hours and waiting lists |
| Offer
services at home or in homelike centers |
Are
based in offices |
Source: Allen et al.,
1992, cited in Family resource Coalition (1996), Making
the Case for Family Support.
When
support is offerred to families early, children benefit.
Effective immediate support enhances parenting skills
and reduces parenting stresschanges that can have
a positive impact on children's intellectual development
and emotional health.
Recent
neuroscience studies indicate that sensitive, responsive
nurturing during the years from birth to 3 is critically
important for children's brain development. The wiring
that connects brain cells is growing explosively during
these early years. Parents who learn the importance
of holding, talking to, and playing with their infants
can provide a rich environment in which more connections
formconnections that are funda mental to rapid processing
of information, normal emotional development, and
good communica tions skills.
Negative
experiences in infancy can also change the brain.
Parents who are stressed and depressed tend to nurture
their children less, punish them harshly and without
a clear reason, or even abuse them. This kind of parenting
creates chronic stress in the child. The child's stress
causes an excess of a harmful chemical that can damage
the growth of brain structures that regulate emotion,
memory, and alertness. Children with high levels of
the stress-related chemical have problems with attention
and self-control, and many show hyperactivity and
impulsive behavior.
When
families are connected to other families in their
communities, parents and children benefit.
Helping networks have a positive effect on
parents' ability to deal with stresses than can lead
to child abuse and neglect. Net works also build parenting
skills and improve the likelihood that parents will
stay in school and find employment.
-
Healthy
Start Hawaii is a voluntary community-based
program for new parents who are experiencing
stresses that can lead to child abuse. They
are invited to accept a range of home visiting
services that can continue for the first 5 years
of their child's life. The program has reduced
maltreatment in these families to less than
1%.
-
The Addison County Parent-Child Center in Vermont
provides a combination of home- and center-based
services, educa tion, and child care. Among
families served at the Center between 1983 and
1987, the percentage of parents who had received
high school diplomas increased from 10 to 70%,
employment (including part-time) increased from
30 to 71%, and incidents of abuse declined from
21 to 2%.
When
communities work together at the neighborhood level,
everyone benefits.
Culturally sensitive, neighborhood-based
support systems cement connections to society, leading
to such socially positive out comes as lower rates
of juvenile delinquency, fewer teen pregnancies, and
higher rates of employment.
The
Syracuse University Family Development Project provided
an array of educational, health, and other human
services through home visits that began before the
children were born. A 10-year follow-up study found
that only 6% of the children in the program had
a history of juvenile delinquency versus 22% of
a comparison group. A 14-year comparison showed
that 20% fewer of these children had dropped out
of school, half as many had become pregnant as teenagers,
and twice as many had found employment.
| Family
Support is Cost-Effective |
Every
dollar spent on family support and empowerment programs
saves money that might be spent on out-of-home services.
According to the Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund,
for every $3 the Commonwealth spends on prevention
programs, it saves $6 on out-of-home services. The
message is clear: the costs of family breakdown are
very high.
What
Services Cost
| Type
of Service |
Estimated
Annual Cost per Child/Family |
| We
can pay for: |
|
| Family
support networks for parents |
$400 |
| Family
support services for young children |
$1800
- $2000 |
| Newborn
home visiting |
$1700
- $3500 |
| OR
we can pay for: |
|
| Medical
care |
$9000 |
| Foster
care |
$17,000 |
| Group
care |
$38,000 |
| In-patient
mental health care |
$40,000
- $100,000 |
Sources: National Committee
to Prevent Child Abuse, Massachusetts Department of
Social Services, Children's Trust Fund.
| What's
Happening in Massachusetts |
Family
support in Massachusetts is a grassroots movement
that emerged through collaborations between families
and staffs in a variety of private agencies responding
to the need for a family support component to their
services. Most programs piece together funding from
an array of sources, both public and private. Here
are some examples of programs.
-
Community
Connections Coalitions in 18 communities
set up comprehensive family support programs
in neighborhoods.
-
Massachusetts
Family Networks in 18 communities offer
home visits, child development education, health
and developmental screening, family activities,
and other services.
-
School-Linked
Services in more than 50 communities
offer parent outreach and skills training activities
in schools and parent/family resources centers.
-
Family
Resource Centers in 7 locations offer
parenting education, home visiting, family health
services, support groups, special family-oriented
events, and job training and education.
-
Voluntary
Newborn Home Visiting, a state-funded
program, is expected to get underway during
fiscal year 1998, offering an array of services
to all first-time parents, age 19 and under.
This
report was prepared by Massachusetts Kids Count, a
statewide child data project of MCC and the Massachusetts
Advocacy Center, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
End
note: Data supplied by the Family Resource Coalition,
the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, teh
Special Committee on Family Support, and the Massachusetts
Children's Trust Fund.
(c)
1997 Permission to reproduce text portions of this
report is granted provided Massachusetts Kids Count
1997 is cited.
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