Early Intervention with Multi-Risk Families: An Integrative Approach

Helping families who live in environments with multiple risk factors&;including poverty, domestic violence, teen parenthood, mental illness, and substance abuse&;requires that professionals and paraprofessionals work together to provide the best possible interventions. This much-needed book shows service providers how to help these multi-risk families by using an integrative model

that brings together the most effective intervention techniques from a variety of theoretical approaches, parenting strategies, and innovative programs. Professionals will learn how to effectively engage parents if they are resistant to intervention, and they'll discover specific, practical ways to help parents

• become more self reflective about their parenting and empathetic toward their children
• examine and gain control over their defenses and ways of dealing with stress that are negatively influencing their parenting
• strengthen their sense of competence and social support
• develop positive perceptions of their children
• deal with unresolved loss and trauma
• enhance their interactions with their children
• regulate their own emotions and those of their children

• develop good planning and problem-solving skills

Extended case studies vividly illustrate key points and techniques and present an integrated model of intervention, making this an ideal professional development resource for psychologists, social workers, early childhood educators, home visitors, and other service providers. To help program administrators ensure high-quality early intervention, the book also demonstrates how to plan and set up service delivery systems within and across individual programs, structure and train effective teams, develop sound organizational policies, and understand and address the effects of burnout and vicarious trauma on staff members. The book is also an excellent resource for university and colleges that train early intervention practitioners who work with families in multi-risk environments.

Dr. Landy is a developmental and specialist clinical psychologist at Family Pathways, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, Perth, Western Australia. She is also an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and an adjunct professor at York University in Toronto.

Dr. Landy has worked for more than 20 years in the field of early intervention. Among her many published works, she has written several articles and contributed to books on various topics related to the assessment and treatment of infants, young children, and their families, including "Parenting Infants from Birth to Two Years," in Parenting in America (ARC Clio, 2000) with Rosanne Menna; "Assessment and Evaluation in Community Settings," in the World Handbook of Infant Mental Health (John Wiley ©2000); and "Difficult Behaviours: When Your Child Seems Out of Control," from The New Baby and Child Care Encyclopedia (Family Communications, Inc., 1995).

Dr. Landy has been involved in a variety of aspects of early intervention, including program development, program management as director and clinical director, research, consultation, teaching and training, and clinical practice. The programs she has initiated and developed include a tracking system for infants and young children in which mothers and children were assessed for any risks during the children's first 5 years and provided with interventions when necessary. She has also been instrumental in creating developmental services and community-based services for families at psychosocial risk.

Dr. Landy's current interests and activities include assessment and treatment of young children with severe developmental, behavioral, and emotional and social problems of various kinds; intervention with high-risk families with young children; program development; and training. Dr. Landy has long been an advocate for programs that can reach and be relevant for the most at-risk families.

Rosanne Menna, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. She is a clinical psychologist and is active in the supervision and training of clinicians. She became involved in the area of early intervention and treatment of high-risk families while she was a postdoctoral fellow in developmental psychopathology at the Hincks-Dellcrest Institute.

She has published articles and contributed to books on topics concerned with child development, parenting, developmental psychopathology, and the assessment and treatment of children and their families. Her research focuses on the development of competence and coping in children and adolescents and the risk for developmental psychopathology. In her private practice she works with children, adolescents, and families; supervises clinicians; and offers consultation to mental health agencies and child care centers.