In-home family-focused reunification: A six-year follow-up of a successful experiment

Abstract

The services provided to 120 children (62 experimental and 58 control) by state welfare agencies were followed for six years. When identified initially, all of the children were in out-of-home placements. After a 12-month follow-up of an experimental 90-day intensive in-home, family-based intervention, 75 percent of the children in the experimental group were reunified with their families, compared with 49 percent of the children in the control group who received routine child welfare services. Over six years, using state computer databases, it was determined that the children in the experimental group required less supervision time, lived at home longer, and were in less-restrictive placements than those in the control group. At the time all public agency involvement was terminated, two-thirds of the experimental families were classified as “stabilized,” compared with approximately one-third of the control group. The experimental treatment had a substantial effect on families, which continued throughout the six-year follow-up period.