Principles of Family Involvement

Principles of Family Involvement is adapted from Principles of Family Involvement in the Development and Operation of Managed Health and Mental Health Care Systems for Children and Youth, developed by the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, July 1995.

1. Policy Issues

Family members must be part of the decision making team responsible for managed-care system development. This applies to both the public and private sectors.

• The base of parent advocacy needs to be broadened to ensure both depth and diversity of perspectives in planning, policy development, implementation and evaluation of managed care systems. Families reflecting the full economic, cultural, linguistic and racial diversity who are or will be receiving managed care services must be included in development of the systems.

• State agencies must be aggressive in insuring managed care systems involve families in an ongoing way.

• Systems must develop services for the benefit of children and families.

• The managed care system must include health care professionals who have specialized knowledge and skills to treat the many faces of children with mental health needs.

• Family members must have appropriate representation on advisory boards and other groups that have the power to influence the managed care system.

Managed care systems must be consistent with the principles of the system care and the Core Principles of Pennsylvania CASSP.

• Preserving the benefits of interagency collaboration;

• Involvement of family members in decision making about the design, delivery and evaluation of services;

• Supporting a full continuum of care; and

• Providing individualized services tailored to the specific needs of each child and family (including holistic and alternative health care needs predicated by medical necessity or personal religious beliefs).

• Family members must be members of quality management teams and included in the process of determining outcome measures and data collection systems.

• Family members must be included in establishing "best practices" based on their experiences with the system of care.

Family representatives need to be included on the planning teams for all conferences, training and technical assistance concerning managed care.

2. Services Related Concerns

Families must receive:

• Information about managed care principles, practices and system design;

• Strategies for family involvement; and

• Family members must be included in establishing "best practices" based on their experiences with the system of care.

Family representatives need to be included on the planning teams for all conferences, training and technical assistance concerning managed care.

• Education in the importance of an opportunities for influencing systems change.

• Efforts must be made to provide effective outreach to youth and their families in inner city and rural communities in order for them to have equal opportunity to access information and training.

Families must have a definitive role in the development of their child's care plan and service needs.

• The "gatekeeping" function of the managed care system must take into consideration and not compromise the role of the family as decision maker for the child.
• The managed care system must have flexible time frames for services. One size fits all does not work.

The providers in the managed care system must recognize that families may chose to participate at different levels.

• Front line workers must be well trained in meeting family needs and responsiveness to families has to be infused into the organizational culture.

• Service coordinators (case managers) need to receive in-service training from family members concerning wraparound and other appropriate services to support families.

• Service coordinators (case managers) need to pay particular attention to the voices of youth during in-service training.

Managed care systems must support the principles of wraparound (including "zero reject" and family centered care) and cover the non-traditional services designed and delivered through this approach.

• Managed care systems must ensure that a full array of community support service options is developed before limitations on hospitalization and residential care are imposed or when capitation controls resources for mental health care.

• Continuation of relationships family members have developed with mental health providers must be protected as managed care is introduced to replace current fee for service systems.

Managed care systems (both public and private) must have a comprehensive and easy to use appeals process for families to access when they disagree with the service plan or other decisions made by the managed care organization.

Core Principles of CASSP Pennsylvania >>