Short-term disruption rates and long-term outcomes of a professional parent program

Both traditional and specialized foster care have disruption rates ranging from 36% to 70%. Connecting Children and Families was a professional parent program that provided permanent family placements for children and young adults with significant behavior problems and mental health issues. During the 15 years of the Connecting Children and Families program, the short-term disruption rate was 21%. Long-term positive outcomes (i.e., stability in the family, reunification with birth family, or adoption) occurred for 83% of the children and young adults. This article is a program description of Connecting Children and Families. There were five key elements of this program: (a) The primary treatment was the life itself provided by the professional parents; (b) The parents were paid a significant stipend and they were treated both as professionals and as the parents of the children placed in their home; (c) The program model was one based on continuity of clinical care rather than case management; (d) Treatment interventions were derived from the fields of behaviorism and applied behavior analysis; and (e) The core value of the program was rooted in Wolfensberger's concept of social role valorization.