Wraparound services represent a highly individualized method of care coordination designed to address the complex needs of families and youth. It is not a specific therapeutic service, but rather a strengths-based, team-driven planning process intended to create one cohesive, comprehensive strategy for a family facing significant challenges. This method focuses on coordinating support across various aspects of their lives to achieve long-term, positive outcomes. The ultimate goal is to keep children and adolescents safe and successful within their home and community environments, avoiding restrictive or institutional placements.
The Core Philosophy of Wraparound
Wraparound planning is grounded in core philosophical principles that distinguish it from traditional, fragmented service delivery models. The principle of “Family Voice and Choice” is central, meaning the perspectives, cultural values, and preferences of the family and youth are prioritized during all phases of the process. This ensures that the plan is not mandated by agencies but is instead co-authored and driven by the family.
Another foundational tenet is the “Strengths-Based” approach, which shifts the focus away from deficits toward recognizing and utilizing a family’s existing capabilities and assets. The approach must also be “Community-Based,” implementing services and support strategies within the most accessible and least restrictive settings possible. This promotes the integration of the child and family back into their local community life.
Assembling the Wraparound Team
A collaborative team is formed at the outset, with the youth and family serving as the central, decision-making members. The family chooses who participates, ensuring the team is composed of individuals committed to their long-term well-being. This group typically includes two distinct types of support: formal and informal.
Formal supports are professionals and service providers, such as social workers, therapists, teachers, or representatives from various state agencies involved with the family. Informal supports, also known as natural supports, comprise individuals drawn from the family’s existing social network, including extended family, friends, neighbors, or mentors. The intent is to leverage these natural supports to build a sustainable network that remains connected to the young person long after formal agency involvement concludes.
The Four Phases of the Wraparound Process
The wraparound plan is developed and executed through a four-phase process facilitated by a trained care coordinator or facilitator.
Engagement and Team Preparation
The facilitator builds trust with the family, conducts a strengths-based assessment, and helps the family identify and recruit team members. This phase also involves understanding the family’s vision for the future and stabilizing any immediate crises.
Initial Plan Development
The team collaboratively creates a Plan of Care. This plan details specific, measurable goals, identifies the underlying needs that must be met, and outlines the strategies and interventions required to achieve the family’s vision. Every team member is assigned action steps and clear responsibilities.
Implementation
This phase involves putting the plan into action and continuously monitoring its effectiveness. The team meets regularly to review action steps, measure progress against established indicators of success, and revise strategies that are not yielding desired outcomes. This continuous review ensures the plan remains responsive to the family’s evolving needs.
Transition
Transition begins when the team agrees that the core needs have been met and the family has achieved sustainability. Planning focuses on preparing the family and youth to move out of formal wraparound services by connecting them with a sustainable mix of formal and natural supports. The team also develops a post-wraparound crisis management plan to ensure the family can maintain their progress independently.
Target Population for Wraparound Services
Wraparound services are typically reserved for youth and families who are experiencing the most complex and intense behavioral or emotional challenges. The youth involved often have severe mental health difficulties and are at high risk of being placed outside of their home, such as in residential treatment centers or psychiatric hospitals.
A defining characteristic of the target population is their involvement with multiple child and family-serving systems simultaneously, including mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and special education. The uncoordinated nature of these multiple systems often compounds the family’s difficulties, making a unified, cross-system plan necessary. Wraparound is intended for those with multi-faceted needs that cannot be adequately addressed by a single service or agency alone.