< tap to go back to guide home
This is the Best Practices guide.
Tap on a topic and then subtopic below to navigate this guide.
This is the Best Practices guide.
Tap on a topic and then subtopic below to navigate this guide.
Supporting the family members of and the caregivers to the people we serve is an essential part of our mission. For some services, family training is reimbursed as a health care service. For others, it is unfunded, but equally essential.
Whether or not interventions with family members are reimbursable as a health care service, when a recipient has family members or caregivers whom the recipient has identified member of their support team, practitioners should make it a priority to:
You work your shift and go home. Sometimes (although not always) it's exhausting. When you leave, however, Mom, Dad, or another caregiver is still there. They're on duty 24/7. Appreciate them!
Listen to the needs and perspectives of the caregiver. Offer affirmation for what they're experiencing. Build a relationship of trust by seeking first to understand, then being understood. (Read: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey) Effective support and education starts with understanding the caregiver, and offering support and education only once that foundation of trust is established.
Appreciate that different cultures and different families may have family and child-rearing values and methods that are different from your own experience. Respect and appreciate those differences. Support them in your assessment, planning, and goal-setting.
Avoid blaming caregivers. They're doing the best they can with the cards they've been dealt. They may often experience their own guilt and frustration when things aren't going well. Offer a consistent message of support, encouragement, empathy and compassion.
One goal of caregiving training and support is to establish consistency between what we are doing in treatment and what caregivers are doing at home. You may have ideas or a perspective on how things can go better, but you won't get buy-in by telling. Motivational interviewing is a process of exploring options and examining pros and cons, and letting caregivers arrive at their own conclusions how best to proceed. Education is a process of providing objective information, not advice, and not judgement.
Refer to the following guidance on how to include family and caregiver support and training in each service.
| Service | Guidance |
| Adult Mental Health - Targeted Case Management | Interventions and interactions with family members and caregivers when the recipient is not present are not considered contact for the purpose of Case Management billing. Follow the guidelines in the introduction to this section to provide high quality supports to family members and caregivers. |
| Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services | Direct interventions with parents and caregivers when the recipient is not present are not specifically reimbursable under ARMHS. Follow the guidelines in the introduction to this section to provide high quality supports to family members and caregivers.
When ARMHS recipients are caregivers, however, and they indicate this is a need, ARMHS practitioners can help them build resilience, self-care, and parenting skills as a part of interventions in any of the following domains:
|
| Behavioral Health Home Services | Family and Caregiver Support and Training is a core element of Behavioral Health Home services. As such, contact with caregivers is considered equal to contact with the recipient.
When Family and Caregiver Support and Training is identified as a need, develop objectives in the Health Action Plan, provide education and supports using resources approved by the Integration Specialist, and document using the service type: Family and Caregiver Support and Training . |
| Children's Therapeutic Supports and Services | While interventions with parents or caregivers are not a specifically reimbursed service in CTSS, Family Skills Training can incorporate elements of this, so long as these interventions are directly targeted at the needs of the child. In other words, Family Skills Training can help parents and caregivers identify steps they need to take to more effectively parent and intervene with their children.
When writing Treatment Plan objectives for CTSS that involve changes in parent behavior and response, describe the desired changes in parent behavior in the methods, and measure the desired response of the child in the outcome statement. And as for all other services, refer parents to support resources as described in the introduction to this section. |
| Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention | Family and Caregiver Support and Training is a reimbursable acticity in EIDBI services.
When Family and Caregiver Support and Training is identified as a need, develop objectives in the EIDBI Treatment Plan, provide education and supports using approved resources, and document using the service type: Family Counseling and Training . |
| Psychotherapy | Psychotherapists must always provide services that meet the needs of the recipient within the bigger picture of the family and caregiving relationship. Use Family Psychotherapy as the service type when family members participate. Family Psychotherapy may include interventions when the direct recipient is not present, when appropriate. |
For the best and most up-to-date support groups for families and children visit NAMI Minnesota:
This guide is a living document. We want to improve it with your help. Do you have questions? Found a typo? Find yourself wanting more information? Please send us your thoughts about anything in this chapter by tapping on the link below.