The late 1970s and early 1980s are considered pivotal times for the development of respite and family support services, particularly through the demands and initiatives of parents of children with disabilities.
[13][14][15][16] By the early 1980s, states such as New York had established family support programs and agencies, New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, and "model programs"[17][18] were identified nationally which served children and their families in the community (e.g., MacComb-Oakland, Michigan, Dane, LaCrosse, and Columbia counties, Wisconsin).
[14] New models of family support services were initiated, including professional models which involved both traditional respites for the families (i.e., the opportunity for a break from the stress of caring for children with "special needs") and individual recreation opportunities in generic agencies/sites for the son or daughter (versus traditional in-home babysitting child care).
Some of these reasons include coping with a family member that might be suffering from mental health issues, addiction, and the emotions that come with such changes.
[40] For other sessions though, you will have discussions, develop skills and abilities to problem solve, and express feelings and thoughts in a productive manner.
[39] The amount of time that will be dedicated to these family therapy sessions is decided by the psychologist, clinical social worker, or therapist that is working with you.
It does not immediately fix your issues, but when you stick with it, there has been a lot of positive feedback which has helped in learning great skills, and problem-solving.
Family support services today are viewed as important for families with individuals with diverse disabilities (e.g., motor-neuron disease,[68] AIDS, epilepsy cerebral palsy, autism)with a greater emphasis on choice in support services (e.g., counseling,[69] training and information, respite).
[79] In line with the parent-professional partnerships of the 1980s and 1990s, the Oregon Research Institute published a book on Support for caregiving families.
[80] The book included the progressive professional stances on family stress and support,(For critique, see Racino & Heumann.
)[81][82] Value-based services based on the Center on Human Policy's statement in support for children and their families (1987),[83] the role of parents in quality services,[84][85][86] coping skills (often addressed by behavioral or skills training),[87] human development and informal support,[88] and family life cycles, including infants and early intervention, school-aged children (school programs), transition to adulthood (and supported employment), and eco-behavioral/clinical treatment of families (stronger in fields such as mental health), among others.
[102][103][104][105][106][107] Original approaches involved services to Native Americans on reservations (often poverty) or as "assimilation into white society"[108] in contrast to approaches involving housing integration of "diverse populations" (e.g., Asian Americans) in mixed-income housing in small cities.
[109] Today (2012), the American Indians, for example, own and operate casino gambling in the US and obtain funds for their own social services.
[114][115] In addition, major federal initiatives in transition planning in the US resulted in a variety of approaches to moving from child-centered to adult services, based in part, upon theories of adolescent development.
[119][120] The changing demographics of aging in the US have been well documented in diverse fields[121] with its public-facing the need to revamp the nation's Social Security system.
[122] The latter can no longer, as developed in the Depression Era, financially support the growing aging population which outstrips the younger generation paying into the system.
[130] Such "ecologically-grounded models" which are expected to improve or "mediate child and parent outcomes" have often been the first targeted in difficult economic times; the "full-fledged family support movement" of community-based agencies was reported in 1992 as "struggling to operationalize a new set of services and a new way of doing business with families".
[131] By the 2000s, internationally, the support of parents who themselves have intellectual disabilities moved to new prominence with extensive, multi-decade research[132][133][134] after initial programs and studies in the US as early as the late 1980s and 1990s.
[146] In the National Goals and Research for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities,[147] support of families and family life across the lifespan was considered one of the major goals of the extensive work group of leaders in that field (e.g., Ann Turnbull, Rud Turnbull, John Agosta, Elizabeth Erwin, Glenn Fujuira, George Singer, and Leslie Sodak, among others).
Helle Mittler, from Great Britain, reported on the TASK Force of the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicaps which highlighted Face to Face in the United Kingdom, Young Muslim Women's Association Comprehensive Programme in Jordan, Service Brokerage in Canada, Swasahaya Sumachaya, Mysore, and Karnataka Parents' Association in India, Market Place Support Group in Côte d'Ivoire, Africa, Brothers and Sisters Groups in Nicaragua and India, Fathers' group in the United Kingdom, and Parents and Professionals Learning Together in Bangladesh and Pakistan.