Family Mental Health Services

Keeping Families Strong Program

The Keeping Families Strong Program plays the key role of intervening with families with risk factors for having their children removed from the home due to histories of trauma, behavioral, and/or mental health concerns. This program uses the Integrative Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST) and the Family Systems Trauma (FST) models to effectively treat trauma while involving the entire family and their natural support systems.

The I-FAST model is an evidence-based supported family treatment model and follows Treatment focuses on specific symptoms and problems that parents identify as their main concerns. This model utilizes both the agency and clients' strengths and resources and is effective in bringing positive outcomes in families that have children and adolescents with severe emotional and behavioral problems. -I-FAST

The FST technique is a component of the evidence-based model, Parenting Love & Limits® (PLL) System of Care. According to the PLL logic model, the goal of the FST technique is to use structural and strategic family therapy directives to address the family or individual’s unhealed wounds in the here-and-now from a family systems perspective. Through these techniques, benefits include a reduction in risk factors and increase in protective factors.-FST

The Keeping Families Strong program is funded in part by Ashland County United Way.

Risk Factors

Families with a history of mental illness
Children from low-income households
Low education
Highly stressed or isolated families
Single parent families
Families where there is considerable occupational and/or marital discord
Maternal depression
Substance use disorder
Ineffective communication
Aggressive or hostile behavior
Children whose parents discipline approaches are inconsistent/unpredictable, physically abusive, or critical
Families with one or more children who are at-risk of out-of-home placement

Benefits

Youth are less likely to be removed from the home
The family has an increased positive behavior and mental health
Increased parent involvement
Decreased trauma levels
Increased family functioning
Decrease in criminal recidivism or return to foster care
Fewer days of residential or foster car
Fewer psychiatric and behavioral diagnoses

Recent Updates

Summer break is here

To support your child’s mental health, plan fun activities with your kids. A daily plan can make a world of difference to your children’s mental health.

Appleseed Community Mental Health Center awarded BBB accredited charity status

The BBB measures a variety of factors, including board oversight, fundraising practices, finances and measuring effectiveness. The depth of BBB charity evaluation goes beyond that typically included in financial statements and government filings, as well as a deeper dive than other charity monitoring organizations.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Look Around, Look Within: Your surroundings say a lot about your mental health. This Mental Health Awareness Month, challenge yourself to look at your world and how different factors can affect your mental health.

Outstanding environment for employees! Loved every minute of my time with Appleseed.