Home-Visiting Strategies: A Case-Management Guide for Caregivers (Social Problems and Social Issues)

Rich with proven, practical advice, "Home Visiting Strategies" is a comprehensive guide for in-home case management of vulnerable populations that without direct visits might not receive needed interventions. Drawing on her decades of experience in direct caregiving and classroom instruction of social workers, Terry Eisenberg Carrilio offers a useful primer for students and practitioners in establishing and maintaining the type of intervention program that has proved especially effective in preventing abuse and providing support to overburdened families. This sourcebook covers the range of cases - involving child welfare, mental health, substance abuse, aging, domestic violence, family support, poverty reduction, and school readiness - encountered as part of home-visiting programs. Carrilio offers a pragmatic approach to the case-management process that enables home visitors to maintain structure and focus. She describes effective tools for reaching vulnerable populations, reviews theoretical and research support for the case-management approach, and identifies the organizational and administrative considerations necessary to build a sustained program. Throughout the volume, Carrilio encourages home visitors to take a proactive approach and to keep the conceptual model for home visiting clearly in focus. She walks through each step in the case-management process: engagement, assessment, planning, plan implementation, and termination. Of particular value are the suggestions Carrilio shares about handling issues that commonly arise at each stage of the home-visiting process.