Home-based intervention services for emotionally disturbed youth are also commonly known as in-home services, family-centered services, family-based services, intensive family services, or family preservation services. They have developed as a way to deal with serious family problems that often result in the removal of a child or adolescent from the home and placement in a more restrictive setting such as a hospital, foster home, detention facility, or residential treatment center. American society has a long tradition of solving family problems by placing troublesome family members in out-of-home care. After documenting deficiencies in the foster-care bureaucracy, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 was passed which requires child welfare agencies to provide services to prevent unnecessary placement. Home-based services are based on the belief that the family is the most powerful social institution and the family should be supported and maintained whenever possible. Home-based programs also emphasize family empowerment. Most home-based programs deliver services on the family's own "turf" which tends to be less intimidating, less threatening, less stigmatizing, and more acceptable. Home-based services have been successful with a wide variety of populations. In the selection of home-based workers, programs generally look for a particular combination of educational background, previous experience, and personal qualities. Although home-based therapy emerged as recently as the 1980s it has already made major contributions to the mental health field. (ABL)