The Effective Child and Family work
The Effective Child & Family (ECF) -work focuses on developing, researchig and implemeting practices that support child wellbeing and prevent develpomental problems. The Effective Family -work is carried out in all kind of services, as well as in early education and schools.
Interventions, training and consultation
The Effective Child & Family work is built up around certain preventive interventions and approaches as well as through needed strategies to diffuse and implement them in everyday praxis. The work has spread widely in Finland and trought different kinds of training packages a nationwide network of trainers has emerged. Through the trainers and specific strategies to build the infrastructures in to organisations ECF -work is locally maintained and sustained.
The aim is to support the child´s everyday life
The aims of the ECF is to support the child´s development and prevent transgenerational problems. The focus of the work is on the child´s evereyday life at home, on early education, in school and during leisure time.
The promotive and preventive interventions are carried out on a variety of professional environments, sush as maternity care, early childhood and education and schools, and various child, youth and adult services.
When the promotive and preventive work is systematically implemented in the mucipality as a whole – in both child develpomental contexts (early education and school) and all kinds of service structure for cross-organizational and multi-professional collaboration is developed.
The use of the interventions
The following interventions are part of the ECF -program and its training packages:
The interventions are used in muncipalities, in all kinds of services and among different professionals, in family-focused work in the churches, and in the private sector as well as in different NGOs providing services for child and adult e.g.
- Social and health care for children, adolescents and adults
- Early education and school system
- Probation services
- Vocational schools (social- and health care education)
- Reception centres and centres for minors
- NGOs
Training
The Effective Child & Family -work includes a nationwide trainers network delivering the training packages through which they participate in the nationwide diffusion and implementation of the intrventions. The training packages structured
- Let´s Talk about Children training program: 12 hours (teachers) or 18 hours (service professionals)
- The LTC trainers training: 5-6 days
- The Effective Child and Family (ECF) training program: 12 days including the LTC -intervention and the ECF -family intervention
- The ECF trainers training: 8 days
Consultation
The ECF -team offers consultation to service providers on how to develop the organisational infrastructures of ECF -work and how to establish a child- and family-centred service model.
Consultation is provides for how to
- Develop a LTC service model
- Build cross-sectoral governance systems
- Train employees and maintain know-how
- Build a public informaton policy
- Create an evaluation and feedback system
The Effective Child & Family work started in 2001
The ECF interventions, training packages and consultation practices have been developed since 2001, in the beginning in the National Institute of Health and Welfare (THL). In its early days the focus was on paying attention to children and their needs in adult services, mainly adult specialist care. In 2010 the focus was expanded to include more basic services for both children, adolescents and adults as well early education and school systems.
Since 2014 the Effective Child & Family interventions home base has been MIELI Mental Health Finland.
Contacts
Tytti Solantaus
Reasearch Professor Emerita
The Effective Child and Family work
+358 44039194
firtname.lastname@gmail.com or
tlp@mieli.fi
Let´s Talk about Children
Whats up with our parents?
How can I care for my children?
