Citation

Clark H, Lee B, Prange M, McDonald B. J. Child Fam. Stud. 1996; 5(1): 39-54.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF02234677

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The proportion of children with emotional and behavioral disturbances within the foster care system in the United States is continuing to increase. Many of these children experience numerous placement changes each year, often into extremely restrictive settings. The Fostering Individualized Assistance Program (FIAP) study examined the feasibility of applying a wraparound strategy to these children and their foster, biological and/or adoptive families. This FIAP wraparound strategy paralleled the foster care system and involved the clinical case management of a broad range of individually tailored services, driven by a wraparound team of adult key players in each child's life. This was a controlled study which involved the random assignment of 132 children (ages 7-15 years) to the FIAP wraparound group or to a group that received usual foster care services. We provide a description of the FIAP wraparound intervention and findings that support the efficacy of this strategy in improving the placement outcomes for children lost in the foster care system. Discussion focuses on systemic and intervention factors that may be improved upon to strengthen future individualized wraparound processes and evaluation/research efforts.