| The wraparound process is a
way to improve the lives of consumers who have complex
needs. It is not a program or a type of service. The process
is used to help communities develop individualized plans of
care. The actual individualized plan is developed by a
Wraparound Team, the four to ten people who know the
consumer best, including the consumer and their family. The
team must be no more than half professionals.
The plan is needs-driven rather than
service-driven, although a plan may incorporate existing
categorical services if appropriate to the needs of the
consumer. The initial plan should be a combination of
existing or modified services, newly created services,
informal supports, and community resources, and should
include a plan for a step-down of formal services.
This plan is family centered rather than
child centered. The parent(s) and child are integral parts
of the team and must have ownership of the plan. No planning
sessions occur without the presence of the child and family.
The plan is based on the unique
strengths, values, norms, and preferences of the child,
family, and community. No interventions are allowed in the
plan that do not have matching child, family, and community
strengths.
The plan is focused on typical needs in
life domain areas that all persons (of like age, sex,
culture) have. These life domains are: family, living
situation, financial, educational/vocational,
social/recreational, behavioral/emotional, psychological,
health, legal, cultural, safety, and others.
All services and supports must be
culturally competent and tailored to the unique values and
cultural needs of the child, family, and the culture that
the family identifies with.
The child and family team and agency staff
who providing services and supports must make a commitment
to unconditional care. When things do not go well, the child
and family are not "kicked out", but rather, the
individualized services and supports are changed.
Services and supports are community-based.
When residential treatment or hospitalization is accessed,
these service modalities are to be used as resources and not
as placements that operate outside of the plan produced by
the child and family team.
Planning, services, and supports cut
across traditional agency boundaries through multi-agency
involvement and funding. Governments at the provincial,
state, district, regional, and local levels work together to
improve services. Outcome measures are identified and
individual wraparound plans are frequently evaluated. |
