Welcome to Unit 2
Phase 3: Unexpected, Immediate Needs or Crises
Situations that arise unexpectedly and need an immediate response or action require basic service coordination skills, but the service coordinator may find it is more difficult to know how to respond. The unexpected need or crisis may take many forms – it can be life-threatening situations for the child, marital stress in the home you are visiting or a parent’s job loss. Some situations may present you with a dilemma in which you have no expertise or experience. You may be able to offer support and resources in some cases and not in others. The key in crisis is for the service coordinator to set clear boundaries which will help to guide their involvement during high stress times. Consider completing this Personal And Professional Boundaries Self-Assessment - (HTML version) and discussing the results with your supervisor.
Supporting the Family
Identifying and Suggesting Additional Resources
Part of building a relationship with a family is being available to respond to their needs. Responding appropriately, however, does not mean that you have to solve every problem or know all the answers, but it is often helpful to know about agencies that can address a family's immediate needs or help them when they are in crisis. How you respond to a family's needs will depend upon what the family wants.
Take the time to review
Strategies
for Dealing with Unexpected, Immediate Needs or Crises to help you
think about what makes appropriate responses.
In summary, below is a list of different activities that may occur when immediate needs and crisis situations arise.
· Developing/reviewing program guidelines for responding to a crisis or immediate need
· Identifying and getting to know other service providers or agencies who can help with a particular crisis such as lack of food, housing problems, alcohol and drug abuse, and child abuse (Birth to 3 providers are considered “mandated reporters of child abuse.” Make sure you know how to make a report in your county.)
· Listening to and supporting the family
· Referring the family to other providers or agencies
· Making calls or visits to solve a problem
· Providing or arranging for transportation to an emergency appointment.
· Visiting the family and child in the hospital
· Revisiting the IFSP based on the new information
· Communicating to other team members changes that may occur as the result of a crisis
Often, service coordinators in early intervention find themselves working with families with multiple and complex challenges. By definition, families with multiple challenges are facing more than one difficulty or stressor. More specifically, families with multiple challenges are typically described in the social welfare literature as simultaneously facing internal or intersystemic problems, and external or intersystemic problems. (Summers et al. 1995, 3)
This definition suggests that the situations are complex, but not beyond intervention. For those in early intervention, the challenge is to focus on family strengths and respond to complex family situations in a respectful manner.
Read the article Families with Multiple Challenges
for a case scenario, useful perspectives and insight.
The way a family responds to a child’s special needs may depend on where a family is in meeting its own needs. The Family Hierarchy of Needs - (HTML version, text-only description) pyramid is another tool that may be helpful in understanding how family members may respond to certain circumstances (Mikus et al. 1994, 43).*
The article Pinpointing
success: Discovering strategies that work with families with multiple challenges is an excellent summary of the practical strategies used by service
coordinators in two Kansas programs. Service coordinators and other providers
should find these very useful for engaging a family with multiple challenges
in early intervention services.*
Identifying and Suggesting Additional Resources
When a family is in crisis, they may require specialized support beyond the basic resources with which you have already connected them. Expect that families may ask you where to get help. Take some time to become familiar with the crisis-related resources available within your community. Here are some ideas/links to get you started (click here for a printable version - (HTML version) of these and other resources):
· Wisconsin First Step: A Toll-free Information and Referral Service – 1-800-642-7837
· Children With Special Health Care Needs Regional Centers
· 211: Emergency Telephone Networks for Social Services
· Mental Illness: NAMI Wisconsin 1-800-236-2988, SAMHSA
· Substance Abuse: DHFS Addiction Services 1-866-211-3380 (including information on gambling and tobacco use in minors)
· Tools for Coping: Tools for Parents of Children with Special Needs
· Child Abuse and Neglect: Prevent Child Abuse Wisconsin Directory 1-800-CHILDREN, DHFS Child Protection Services, Family Resource Centers 1-866-640-3936
· The National Coalition for the Homeless 1-202-462-4822
· America’s Second Harvest of Wisconsin (food bank) 1-800-236-1208 or 1-888-643-7074
· Adjusting to Unemployment (an article) Wisconsin Job Center – 1-888-258-9966
· BadgerCare 1-800-362-3002 Wisconsin’s program to provide healthcare to uninsured families.
This may also be a time to revisit the Health Care and Other Resources in your community which are available specifically to families raising children with disabilities. Look to these programs for additional ideas and supports when necessary. A list of toll-free numbers for families may also be helpful.
Please consider that families under significant stress may need a break from caring for their child with special needs. Many families may qualify for personal care or respite care – services which involve specialized caregiving. Here are some resources to help you identify what help may be available in your community:
· A Parent’s Guide to Home Health Care - (HTML version) is written by a parent and offers a clear and understandable description of home health care services for children with disabilities in Wisconsin.
· The Wisconsin Medicaid Personal Care Handbook describes how this Medicaid benefit works for qualifying families.
· The Respite Care Association of Wisconsin: 1-866-702-7229 provides a list of respite provider agencies.
· Your county Family Support Program may also provide information on the availability of emergency respite care services and funding.
Additional Resources available to assist you with your search of available community resources can be found on the Wisconsin Birth to 3 Training and Technical Assistance web site. Where?
·
Upper left tool bar: Click on Links
Be sure to review those under Wisconsin and Regional
Resources
Application
Station: Providing Supports and Resources
Learn
what your community has to offer or gain insight as you talk with those who
have been through a family crisis. Complete Application
Station: Providing Supports and Resources.
*Material in this unit excerpted from: Tuchman, L., Robbins, S.(1997). Course Guide for Social Work C896-200: Pathways to effective service coordination for families of infants and toddlers with disabilities. Developed by the Pathways Service Coordination Inservice Project of the Waisman Center Early Intervention Program.
These modules were developed from a combination of materials, including:
1) Pathways Service Coordination Project, Waisman Center-University of Wisconsin-Madison, funded by a number of grants from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. These materials were developed and field tested for several years within Wisconsin and several other states throughout the nation, leading to these publications: Pathways Trail Mix: A Collection of Ideas and Training Activities in Early Intervention Service Coordination (1999); Pathways in Early Intervention Service Coordination: A Video & Companion Guide (1996); and Pathways: A Training and Resource Guide for Enhancing Skills in Early Intervention Service Coordination (1996)
2) Wisconsin Personnel Development Project/Birth to 3 RESource Training materials posted on the Birth to 3 Training and Technical Assistance Website
3) Portage Project, CESA 5 Training Materials
4) Materials and forms created by Wisconsin County Birth to 3 Programs
5)
Resources
available on the Internet that have been developed by other programs throughout
the country.