Home Based

Providence makes every effort to provide services to our clients in the least restrictive, most comfortable setting available. In many cases, the client's home represents the ideal location. Obvious benefits of home-based counseling include convenience and comfort for the client, which can overcome many barriers to traditional office-based care. Therapeutic advantages include the potential for the clinician to view the family in a natural environment and to direct treatment from the standpoint of the family. Cultural differences can also be surmounted when visiting clients in their own home, as this influences clinicians to adjust their thinking to that of their clients.

Providing services in a client's home reveals the realities of a family's life to a skilled therapist. Clients may unknowingly attempt to represent themselves in an unrealistic manner for an isolated hour in a therapist's office, but in their own home clients are more at ease with themselves and their surroundings. This physical environment offers the therapist indicators of strengths, lifestyle choices, cultural background, and/or financial challenges. While meeting in the home, the therapist can observe the clients' response to circumstances that would not occur within the confines of an office. In addition, the therapist observes relational interactions among family members that are more natural as they communicate with one another in their own home.

The home-based therapist works with the child and family to determine the frequency and duration of appointments. Occasionally, home-based services are used intensively as an alternative to out-of-home placement or in times of transition, such as when a client returns home from residential treatment. Intensive home-based services offer the client and family time to adapt to changes in the home without losing momentum often gained through out-of-home placements.

Another aspect of home-based care is a strong component of crisis intervention and stabilization. A Crisis Field Worker team consisting of at least one Master's level clinician, a clinical supervisor, and psychiatrist are on-call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Safety and welfare checks provided during the weekend can help children and families get through times that may be exceptionally difficult without support. Home-based stabilization visits can help a family de-escalate a crisis and avoid hospitalization or another out-of-home placement of a child, which empowers the family to address difficulties directly and effectively.

Providence encourages families to participate fully in developing their goals and the means to successfully achieve these goals. Home-based services are provided throughout our network to a variety of client populations regardless of funding source.