The Truancy Diversion Program began as a community focus on the problem of local students who did not complete their high school education. Representatives of local social and court services, the schools, and the Pittsburg State University Family Counseling Training Problem worked to develop a united effort to deal with children at risk of being…

This final report describes the federally funded Parents and Visually Impaired Infants (PAVII) Project, which served 28 families in the San Francisco, California, area. The report describes assessment and intervention materials that the project developed, field tested, and disseminated. It lists the infants' types of visual impairment and…

This paper reports on several projects conducted in Georgia over the past 2 years that move the development of respite care services toward the goal of becoming a "cooperative, collaborative, and coordinated" effort. An overview of respite care in Georgia is provided as well as a summary of strategies used to provide such care. Emerging…

This description of the Cedar Valley Hospice program emphasizes palliative and supportive care for terminally ill patients and their families. The history of the hospice movement is outlined along with a description of the Cedar Valley program and the results of a 1980 program evaluation. The appendices contain a statement of the hospice goals and…

In an effort to provide maximum support for the reading success of its students, a primary school in a rural, coal mining area simultaneously developed a family reading program and a sustained silent reading (SSR) program. The major objective of the family reading program was to encourage parents to read to their children for 15 minutes a day,…

This paper addresses the need for a working partnership between the formal social service system and information network systems in light of decreasing resources and increasing needs of clients. The development of the Community Service Society Natural Supports Program (NSP), a project providing services to families caring for frail older relatives…

A Teacher Corps project designed to improve the quality of education in a school serving a predominantly low income area is described. The major goal of this program was to bring about close ties between the school and the community by involving students' parents in active work with the teachers. One development that evolved from this effort was a…

This manual is based upon a study of 247 old people and their families and five long-term care facilities in New York City. The data indicate that what families do for their aged kin in institutions makes a difference to the older person, and that the ability of families to maintain contact with their institutionalized relative depends, in part,…

"Parent to Parent" is a telephone-contact self-help group for families of special needs children. Support parents are recruited and trained to provide counseling to other parents. Professionals lead the training course, which focuses on listening, understanding, and action planning. Parents carry out the support group's administrative…

A model is proposed for developing home occupational/physical therapy programs for parents of children with physical disabilities, based on naturally occurring teaching opportunities in the family's daily routine. Potential barriers to the collaborative development of such programs are highlighted, and a case study illustrates the application of…

An inservice training program was designed to assist early interventionists in assessing family needs and setting family goals for Individualized Family Service Plans required for handicapped infants. The training increased interventionists' use of family assessment tools and increased the proportion of family goals written as part of a…

This article describes Project Mandela, a federally funded enrichment and family support program for special populations (such as culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged) of gifted learners. Eighty-seven families participated in development of Individual Family Support Plans to enhance children's educational progress. The project found…

This article describes early intervention services provided to families with infants and young children with disabilities in Sweden. The "habilitation model" is based on medical, educational, psychological, and social perspectives placed in a family context. Government legislation stresses intervention focused on the handicapping…

Individualized trans-situational interventions (TSIs) were implemented with three middle-school students at risk for school failure. Problem behaviors in school were reduced and linked to problem behavior reduction in the home when concurrent behavior support was established in the home and at school. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

A 42-item structured observation instrument was devised to rate the family friendliness of the Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT) meetings in Virginia for children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Seventy-nine case presentations at 31 FAPT meetings were observed and overall rating of family friendliness was good (63%). (Author/CR)