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

Appleseed Community Mental Health Center recognizes national case management week Oct. 10 to 16

National Case Management Week is Oct. 10 to 16. This week is an opportunity to recognize the dedication, compassion and quality of client care outcomes achieved by case managers across the health care continuum. The benefits of receiving case management are numerous including, but not limited to, individualized needs assessments, care coordination, client education, problem-solving skills, case monitoring, resource linkage and management, advocacy, and discharge planning.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

If you are in a circumstance in which you are being abused and anyway physically, emotionally, verbally, or sexually reach out for help by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800.799.7233. Visit www.safehavenofashland.org for more information about Ashland County domestic violence resources.

Appleseed Offering Youth Alcohol and Drug Prevention Education at Ashland High School and Community Survey Through “Communities

Appleseed is distributing a community survey to gain information about community perception about youth co-occurring disorder while collecting valuable input on service needs in Ashland County. To participate in Appleseed’s Youth Co-Occurring Disorder Survey, please go to https://forms.gle/YpxapNEtFoKC7X9G7. The survey will close on October 31, 2021.

Hello! I am a licensed therapist and an adjunct counseling professor at Ashland Theological Seminary. My class was blessed this summer to have Jeremy Smith share on trauma informed care. It was such a well done presentation and the students walked away with a new lense in which to be present with their clients. Thank you Appleseed and thank you Jeremy for the continued work you do for our community!