Child First aims to:
- Decrease stresses related to concrete needs.
- Facilitate family stability.
- Help connect families to vital community resources and service providers.
- Supports the development of strong, loving, and nurturing caregiver-child relationships.
Child First is delivered by a two‐person team consisting of (1) a licensed clinician who specializes in early childhood development; and (2) a family resource partner who works with the entire family unit on the sources of stress that impact their family.
Comparison between CF and Outpatient
- Child First is a research backed Evidence Based Practice.
- Child First utilizes Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) as therapeutic model.
- Child First uses several child/parent assessments to measure progress over time and outcomes are tracked in CFCR software.
- Outpatient providers are not required to have specialized training.
- Child First focuses on young children and caregiver attachment.
- Outpatient does not have a case management component to service delivery.
- Outpatient is usually done in the office not community.
ROLE DEFINITIONS:
Child First Clinician:
The Child First Clinician is a licensed mental health clinician. Clinicians are specialized in areas such as early childhood development, and trauma. Clinicians work to provide child-parent psychotherapy and psychoeducation to help you and your child better understand each other.
Family Resource Partner:
The Family Resource Partner facilitates the coordination of services and the family’s access to multiple resources throughout the community, based on collaborative planning with the parents. The Family Resource Partner listens carefully, always reflecting on the meaning of the service for the family. The Family Resource Partner provides hands-on assistance, obtaining information and partnering with community providers, researching program appropriateness and availability, and making and facilitating referrals to provider agencies.