How Does It Work? What Exactly Is Wraparound?

Achieving positive results in mental health often requires supports and services from many different agencies and organizations. Creating an individualized plan for each family and forming partnerships among the various organizations that serve them improves coordination and helps prevent the duplication of supports and services. It is an all-encompassing Wraparound approach. With Wraparound, formal and informal services and supports work together with the family to come up with a plan that will achieve the best possible result. It involves the people that are most important to the family, builds on the family’s strengths, and ensures that the services provided remain focused on their needs. It also strives to help them remain in their communities, receiving treatment close to home, whenever possible.

What Are the Outcomes?

Tens of thousands of children and youth with serious behavioral, emotional, and mental health needs have made improvements in almost all aspects of their lives. One of the greatest accomplishments is making services and supports family-driven and youth-guided. Family-driven means that families have a primary decision-making role in the care of their children and the policies and procedures governing care for children and young adults in their community. Youth-guided means that youth have the right to be empowered and educated decision-makers in their own care and the policies and procedures governing care for young adults in their community.

How Do We Know It Works?

National data support the effectiveness of Systems of Care. This data has been collected for more than a decade and confirms that the experiences of children, young adults, and caregivers have been positive.

• Improved clinical outcomes after 6 months.
• Emotional and behavioral problems reduced or remained stable for 89% of them.
• Suicide-related histories improved after 6 months.
• Almost 91% of those with a history of suicide attempts or suicidal ideation improved or remained stable in their emotional and behavioral problems.
• They improved or remained stable on school-related outcomes after 6 months. School performance improved or remained the same for 75% of them.
• Co-occurring disorders improved after 6 months.
• Emotional and behavioral problems were reduced or remained stable for 89% for those with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse diagnoses.
• Because communities adopted a strength-based approach to planning services, 91% used strengths to plan services.
• Families/caregivers were satisfied with the cultural competence of service providers. More than 75% of families reported that they were satisfied with their providers’ respect for their beliefs and values about mental health, understanding of their traditions, and ability to find services that acknowledged the positive traditions of their cultures.

Key elements of Wraparound include: 

Strength-based planning that is driven by the youth/young adult/family.

Unconditional support.

Community-based services.

Collaboration among team members.

Flexible funding for creative planning.

Evaluation to find out how everything is working.

What you can expect…

• To be listened to with respect and not judged.
• To be encouraged to speak up and ask questions on behalf of yourself, your youth/young adult, and your family.
• To discuss your goals and create a plan with your team to achieve them.
• To be asked to participate in the services that are offered in order to achieve the goals of your team’s plan.
• To work with providers who respect and value your language,  your culture, and your spiritual beliefs.
• To be connected to services and supports that match the lifestyle of yourself and your family.

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