The wrap-around service model represents an intensive, highly coordinated approach to delivering support for individuals and families facing complicated challenges. It is a process designed to provide comprehensive, individualized support that addresses a person’s needs across multiple life domains simultaneously. This team-based strategy is structured to help people with complex needs achieve better long-term outcomes and stability within their communities. The goal of this model is to build a unified support system that is more effective than traditional, fragmented care.
Defining Wrap-Around Services
Wrap-around services are a strengths-based planning process that results in a single, integrated plan of care, rather than a specific service delivery type. This process is driven by the perspectives of the family and the individual, ensuring the resulting plan is relevant to their goals and culture. The model is often guided by the principles established by the National WrapAround Initiative, which define the framework for high-quality implementation.
This approach differs significantly from traditional case management, which typically links a client to a pre-existing menu of services. The wrap-around process actively creates an entirely new support structure tailored to the family’s unique vision and needs. It focuses on developing a holistic plan that coordinates formal services, community resources, and natural supports into one cohesive strategy.
The Core Philosophy of the Model
The foundation of the wrap-around model rests on a commitment to a set of guiding principles that shape every interaction and decision. The primary driver is the principle of being individualized, meaning the plan is custom-built to reflect the unique needs, culture, and preferences of the family. This contrasts with a standardized approach, ensuring the strategies are specifically relevant to the person receiving support.
The process is inherently strengths-based, focusing on leveraging the existing capabilities and assets within the individual, the family, and their community, rather than dwelling on deficits. Planning is also team-driven, bringing together formal providers, such as therapists and teachers, with informal supports like family friends or faith leaders. Services are community-based, intending to deliver support in the least restrictive setting, generally the family’s home and local neighborhood, avoiding unnecessary institutionalization.
Who Benefits from Wrap-Around Care
These intensive services are specifically designed for individuals, primarily youth and their families, whose needs have overwhelmed traditional, siloed service systems. The target population consists of those who experience complex challenges that involve multiple agencies simultaneously, such as mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and special education. Families receiving this care have often cycled through various interventions without achieving sustained success.
Youth who are at high risk of out-of-home placement, such as psychiatric hospitalization, residential treatment, or foster care, are prime candidates for the model’s comprehensive support. The wrap-around process provides a coordinated safety net to stabilize their situation and build long-term resilience within their home environment. By addressing the interconnected nature of their challenges, the model can stabilize families who have historically failed to improve through fragmented care.
The Implementation Process
The delivery of the wrap-around model follows a structured sequence of four distinct phases.
Engagement and Team Formation
In this initial stage, a facilitator works with the family to build trust, identify their strengths and needs, and recruit a diverse team of formal providers and natural supports. The goal is to establish a shared vision for the family’s future and set a collaborative tone for the work ahead.
Plan Development
The team collaborates to create a single, integrated plan of care based on the family’s stated goals and priorities. This phase involves defining specific, measurable outcomes and detailing the strategies and interventions required to meet identified needs across all life domains.
Implementation
This involves putting the plan into action, monitoring the progress of the strategies, and adjusting services as needed. The team meets regularly to track outcomes and ensure the interventions are effective.
Transition
Transition begins when the family has achieved substantial success and demonstrates the ability to manage their needs with informal supports. Formal services are gradually faded out, and the family transitions to relying solely on their natural support network to maintain stability and continue progress. This phase emphasizes celebrating achievements and ensuring the family has a robust, sustainable plan for the future.
Types of Services Included in a Plan
The services included in a wrap-around plan are highly flexible and determined by the individual needs and goals identified during the planning phase. The comprehensive nature of the model means that support is often drawn from multiple service sectors to address the whole person. This includes behavioral health services, such as individual and family therapy, psychiatric consultation, and crisis response planning for managing immediate safety concerns.
Plans frequently incorporate supports that address environmental stressors, such as housing assistance, educational advocacy, and vocational training or employment aid. The model often utilizes non-traditional supports that are unique to the family’s culture or interests, such as recreational activities, mentorship, or cultural resources. This flexible funding approach allows for the purchase of small items or services, like tutoring or specialized coaching, that directly support the plan’s goals.
Key Outcomes and Benefits
The successful implementation of the wrap-around service model yields measurable positive results for both the individuals and the service system. One significant outcome is a reduced rate of institutionalization, meaning fewer hospitalizations and fewer out-of-home placements in residential facilities or foster care. By stabilizing individuals in their home communities, the model supports long-term success and reduces system costs.
Individuals show improved behavioral and mental health outcomes, including a reduction in challenging behaviors and symptoms. The process leads to increased family empowerment, as the family is positioned as the primary decision-maker and owner of the plan. This ownership contributes to greater school stability and sustained success achieved through community-based support.