This book gives practical advice to students and professionals for developing truly collaborative relationships with families. Long-term goals and proposed support models are outlined to help practitioners learn to address families' unique needs. Chapters of case examples highlight service integration problems. Section 1, "A Model for Practice," presents five principles of care that help define what is needed for such partnerships to function, including a community base of services, cultural competence, service coordination, family-centered care, and a seamless system of care. Chapters also discuss inservice and preservice training models, supervision issues, and service configurations that support the principles. Section 2, "Families, Professionals, and Systems," features a collection of nine stories about families and professionals and their interactions within different human service systems. The stories are presented from the perspective of the family rather than that of the agency or providers. A story review guide is included to highlight key service concepts and problems families faced in the stories. Each story concludes with a discussion of some of the issues in the story and several focus on issues for general discussion. (Each chapter in Section 1 includes references.) (CR)