Validation and Operationalization of Intensive Family Case Management: A Delphi Study

Abstract

Few evidence-based methods for case management in child protection and child welfare are available. That is why Youth Protection Amsterdam Area developed a new method, by integrating their best practices: Intensive Family Case Management (IFCM). Because IFCM was developed in practice, clarity about its core elements and behavior acts was lacking. The purpose of this study was to establish a valid operationalization of IFCM used for implementation purposes such as training, clinical supervision and monitoring. A 74-item draft was developed to describe the behavioral acts of IFCM, based on a literature study and analysis of internal documents and training. To ensure content validity, a Delphi study was conducted. Over two rounds, professionals (1) rated the behavioral acts needed in the application of IFCM on a five-point Likert scale and (2) provided their preferred terminology. Items with consensus ratings of 80 % or more were included in the final description. Selected IFCM experts rated the behavior acts over two rounds. The initial list with 74 behavior acts was reduced to 55 acts with a consensus of 80 % or more.Certain behavior acts were combined, others did not lead to consensus. Based on experts' feedback, the initial terminology of 46 behavior acts was modified. The final 55 acts were categorized in ten core elements. This study explicates the core elements of IFCM and describes the 55 necessary behavior acts in preferred and recognizable terminology. The study describes implications of these findings for the practice and gives recommendations for future research.

A Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effectiveness of Family Group Conferencing in Child Welfare: Effectiveness, Moderators, and Level of FGC Completion

“…When the goals in the care plan are achieved, the child welfare worker prepares the family for case closure. Although the child welfare worker is responsible for all phases, collaboration with the family and, if present, with the extended social network is an important element of the method (Busschers & Boendermaker, et al, 2016). Families randomly assigned to the control group (from now on referred to as CAU-group) received only IFCM.…”

Embedding the Notion of Child- and Family-Centered Care into Organizational Practice: Learning from Organizational Visioning

“…Following the expert Delphi study of Busschers et al (2016), this article further articulates the emergent organizational vision of IFCM, now following a bottom-up approach. By comparing both studies, we see how dynamic a continuous process of visioning can be.…”

“…Early in the visioning process, Busschers et al (2016) identified the core elements of the IFCM vision at CYPSA at three levels, based on an expert Delphi study:…”

Cost-effectiveness of Family Group Conferencing in child welfare: a controlled study

“…After referral to the child welfare agency, the FGC-group as well as the CAU-group were assigned to a child welfare worker and received Intensive Family Case Management (IFCM) [ 14 ], a supervision and case management method, based on Functional Family Parole Services (FFPS) [ 15 , 16 ], for engaging, motivating and working with high-risk youth and multi-problem families. In the first 6 weeks, the child welfare worker established a collaboration with the parents.…”