What is Wraparound Care?
Whether you’re fostering a child or raising your own, childcare is immensely meaningful and rewarding. But it can also be extremely difficult. That’s why it’s important to consider your options when it comes to methods and resources, particularly when a child in your care struggles with behavioral health. We dive into the concept of wraparound care and how it could help you.
What Is Wraparound Care?
Wraparound is a strategy of behavioral healthcare that “provides a comprehensive, holistic, youth- and family-driven way of responding when children or youth experience serious mental health or behavioral challenges.” In practice, a group of people (both volunteers and experts) surrounds—or wraps around—the child and their family by meeting their needs through professional and community services. This approach consists of developing a wraparound team that advises and supports the family as they work to achieve their childcare goals.
Wraparound Childcare
Wraparound care is typically conducted in four phases, as outlined below:
- Engagement and team preparation: Orienting the family and youth to the wraparound process, stabilizing any immediate crises, facilitating conversations that explore family strengths and goals, engaging other team members, and making necessary meeting arrangements.
- Initial plan development: Developing an initial plan of care and a crisis plan, and completing necessary documentation and logistics.
- Implementation: Implementing the wraparound plan, revisiting and updating it as needed, and maintaining team cohesiveness and trust.
- Transition: Planning for the end of the formal wraparound, including post-transition support and crisis management, celebrating successes, and establishing continued follow-up.
Throughout the wraparound process, the family and the wraparound team make use of professional and community services available to them. These wraparound services include:
- Case management
- Counseling (individual, family, group, youth, and vocational)
- Crisis care and outreach
- Education/special education services, tutoring
- Family support, independent living support, self-help, or support groups
- Psychiatric consultation, community-based in-patient psychiatric care
- Health services
- Legal services, protection, and advocacy
Wraparound care is all about a community coming together to support a family. Friends, neighbors, and professionals work together to meet needs and help foster families thrive. If you want to support families on their foster journey, we encourage you to look up wraparound care programs near you and get involved. Your participation makes a huge difference.
