Module 1: Lesson 3: Element 2

Element 2: Facilitate Family and Professional Collaboration at all Levels

This element holds that the development of a collaborative relationship between the family and the provider is vital to the delivery of good service provision. Providers must work toward involving parents, and other primary caregivers, as partners at all levels of service delivery.

Practice Considerations

• Listen to families and follow their lead.
• Be accessible to families.
• Build confidence and competence in families, and tell them often what they do well.
• Support families in their role as an advocate for their child.
• Create win-win solutions.
• Create family options; be sensitive to energy and resources.
• Assist families to learn how to be good historians, keepers of information, and care coordinators.
• Provide families with information and resources.
• Inform parents about opportunities to affect policy at the community, state, and national level.

Services for the child are greatly enhanced when both the provider and the family value and appreciate the unique types of expertise that each has to offer. Family-centered care requires an attitudinal shift in the way in which we think and feel about one another as parents and professionals. It requires a climate of mutual trust and respect that will result in the provider and the family uniting in the best interest of the child. Parents are active participants in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Individualized Family Support Plan.