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expanding the number of families served), such a move may simultaneously address
other challenges as well.
As outlined in the following section, these complementary strengths, and the
resulting synergy, are also an example of what can be accomplished when services are
integrated.
8.2 A POWERFUL EXAMPLE OF THE BENEFITS OF INTEGRATED PREVENTATIVE
SERVICES
The programs involved with this study had fully integrated two preventative
services – volunteer and paid home visiting – that most often are housed, managed, and
delivered separately. Further, both the additional services that were housed within
these three programs (such as parent-child groups) and the close partnerships with
other services (notably, public health) enhanced families’ access to services, as well as
service providers’ communication regarding families’ well-being. This structure
provided both on-going, relationship-based services, which allowed for the prevention
and early identification of difficulties, and – from within the same program – ready
access to more intensive intervention and support services when needed. As discussed
below, this is a rarity within the prevailing residual, targeted and reactive social and
family service ‘systems’ in Anglo-Saxon countries.
Integrating a prevention component into services
In researching this thesis, it has become clear to me that in most wealthy,
western Anglo-Saxon countries, it is not the norm for staff from health and social service
agencies to provide preventative in-home services. Rather, staff-based services tend to
be both goal-oriented and specific to either a vulnerability or a pre-existing problem (as
in the example in Section 7.2.3, involving a mother who had stopped breastfeeding).
Once a goal is reached, or a problem is averted or resolved, the staff member’s
involvement may end (particularly in programs with no user fees); in the absence of a
particular vulnerability, longer-term preventative home visits are not offered. This is the
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