According to two evaluations, Child First parents receive between 77% and 91% of services they need and request. The Child First Care Coordinator teams with the Clinician and facilitates the family’s access to family-driven, comprehensive, well-coordinated, individualized services and supports throughout the community. These services “wrap-around” the child, parents or caregivers, and other members of the family.
The Care Coordinator uses the service component of the Plan of Care to facilitate the parent’s executive functioning capacity. The Care Coordinator serves as coach and mentor, scaffolding the parent’s learning. The Care Coordinator helps the parent prioritize what is most important to her and her children, deciding among service possibilities, and developing a plan (with timing and steps) to access the services. The Care Coordinator supports the parent in actualizing the plan, helping her monitor the process and evaluate the results, and helping her decide if a new or different course of action is needed. This thoughtful, reflective, and intentional process is new to most of our parents.
The Care Coordinator provides hands-on assistance:
- obtaining information and partnering with the community providers
- researching program appropriateness and availability
- making and facilitating referrals to provider agencies.
Child First offers transportation support when needed. The Care Coordinator addresses barriers to service access, always reflecting on the meaning of a service to a family, and how it might interfere with a parent’s willingness to participate. Hence, this service is often referred to as “reflective care coordination.”
