Implementing Family Assessments in Early Intervention Programs to Promote Family-Centered Care

Early Intervention (EI) Providers often use family assessments to gain insight into the priorities, stressors, and needed resources of the families they serve. One of the most commonly utilized family assessments in EI is the routines-based interview (RBI). A major downfall of the RBI is that it is labor intensive requiring up to two hours to complete. Due to the time commitment of the RBI, some families may opt out of completing it causing providers to miss out on a key opportunity to ask families about their priorities, concerns, support system, and available resources. This presentation will introduce attendees to alternative family assessments that can be quickly administered by EI providers to allow them to gain more insight into the concerns, priorities, and resources available to families of the children they serve. Through the implementation of family assessments beyond the RBI, EI providers can build meaningful partnerships with the families they work with to increase family-centered care (FCC). By understanding the priorities, stressors and needed resources of the family, the provider can tailor interventions, provide resources, and make appropriate referrals as needed to support FCC and improve progress towards child and family IFSP outcomes.