7.3 Characteristics of the IIS Model
IIS is designed, first and foremost, as a crisis intervention model which emphasizes teaching and skill building during periods when the family is in crisis and most susceptible to change. Components include the following:
- Referrals will be accepted 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- An IIS Specialist visits the family within 24 hours of referral and services commence immediately.
- The services are provided in the family’s home or natural environment that may include neighborhoods, school or work settings.
- The intervention is intensive – twenty hours a week or more are devoted to each family. An average of eight to ten hours per week of face-to-face or telephone contact with families is expected.
- Services are time limited – usually four to six weeks.
- The primary specialist is available to the family 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Back up will be assured and provided by an IIS supervisor or another specialist familiar with the family.
- Each specialist will carry only two cases.
- Flexible dollars are available for emergency needs as well as for client reinforcement.
- Specialists help clients with concrete advocacy and service coordination needs as well as therapeutic/clinical needs.
- The intervention represents a cognitive-behavioral model which emphasizes teaching and skill building.
- Services focus on family empowerment.