Continuum of Families Needing Primary and Secondary Prevention Services Do Right By Kids

How Do I Recognize Child Abuse and Neglect

How Can I Help Prevent Child Abuse Before it Happens

·What if CPS does
not register my report?

·What’s my role in
preventing child abuse
& neglect in the
families I see?

·How can I help
parents cope with
family stress?

·Where can I get
materials I can use
to help families?

·What are the
resources in this
community?

·Continuum of Families
Needing Primary and
Secondary Prevention
Services

Continuum of Families
Needing Primary and
Secondary Prevention Services

Families are on a continuum of coping and need different types of services and interventions along that continuum. The following scale can help mandated reporters recognize how they can provide the type of help needed and prevent families from progressing along the continuum.

A Continuum of Family and Children’s Services Needed by Families

All Families
Healthy Families

Advocacy
Income supports
Housing
Health care
Child care
Family centered work policies
Parent education
Development-enhancing education
Recreation
Family planning services
School-linked health and social services
Information and referral services

Low risk families needing
additional support/facing
minor challenges

Family support centers
Family resource programs
Home visiting programs
Family counseling
Parent aide services
Support groups
Services for single parents

At-risk families needing
specialized assistance/
facing serious challenges

Alcohol and drug treatment
Respite child care
Special health services
Special education services
Adolescent pregnancy/parenting services
Mental health services
Services for developmentally disabled and emotionally
disturbed children and their families
Child protective services

High risk families
in crisis or at risk of
dissolution/placing
children at serious risk

Child protective services
Intensive family preservation services
Services for chronically neglectful families
Services for runaway children and their families
Domestic violence shelters
Domestic violence counseling

Families in which children
cannot be protected within
the home/needing
restorative services

Diagnostic centers
Foster family homes
Therapeutic foster homes
Group homes
Therapeutic group homes
Residential treatment centers
Reunification services

Families who cannot
be reunified

Adoption services
Independent living services

Source: The Future of Children, Volume 8. No. 1, Spring 1998 Center for the Future of Children, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Created by Monroe County Department of Human Services.
Reviewed and approved by New York State Office of Children and Family
Services. Copyright 2003.