The Delaware FIRST Program is designed to meet the needs of handicapped infants and toddlers through trained family day care providers. The program is based on a developmental family systems approach. It strives to provide families with ongoing support by offering mainstreamed family day care or respite care, by developing and/or facilitating an…

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…

This fact sheet offers basic information on developing and implementing rural respite and crisis nursery programs. It first defines "respite" as temporary relief for caregivers and families of children with disabilities, chronic or terminal illnesses, and/or for children at risk of abuse and neglect. It also defines "rural" and…

The use of crisis nursery care as a viable alternative for the consumer experiencing chronic and ongoing family crises calls for consideration of various programmatic and staffing issues. Combinations of family problems, including homelessness, substance abuse, incarceration, family violence, and chronic illness of a family member, may precipitate…

Over the 3 years of funding, 1983-1986, the Volunteers in Partnership with Parents Project (VIPP), a Handicapped Children's Early Education Program (HCEEP) Model Demonstration Program funded by the U.S. Department of Education, designed and implemented a program model for parents in rural North Carolina who had significantly handicapped preschool…

A report of a project that established systems of respite care and training of parents who have developmentally disabled members in their home is presented. Attention is directed to project objectives, activities, and outcomes and to the following specific components: collection and analysis of data on factors promoting utilization and…

This policy brief reports on a study of how families and agencies cope with growing waiting periods for community services for adults who have mental retardation or developmental disabilities (MR/DD). Preliminary information looks at reasons for long waits, characteristics of families waiting for services, and impact of adult members with MR/DD on…

This final report describes activities and accomplishments of a federally supported program to provide services for children with deaf-blindness in Missouri. The project focused on the development, implementation, and evaluation of a four-component statewide comprehensive service delivery model to serve 193 deaf-blind children and youth through:…

This monograph describes Families First, a family-designed system of mental health care for children in Essex County, New York. Philosophical principles of family-driven service delivery are outlined and illustrated with comments from participants. The planning that went into developing the Families First program is described, including initial…

This volume consists of a background discussion, coordinator's manual, and training manual dealing with developing programs for the in-home respite care (IHRC) of the developmentally disabled. Addressed in the background information unit are the nature of developmental disabilities; program variables, planning, and funding; and practical…