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

July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. The American Counseling Association writes: Minority Mental Health Month is a nationwide effort developed by Mental Health America to “shed light on the multitude of mental health experiences within Black, Indigenous, People of Color and others that face disproportionate inequities due to systemic barriers and historical adversity.” Marginalized, oppressed, and disenfranchised people have unique concerns, trauma, stress, obstacles, and challenges because of historical experiences, cultural differences, and social disparities.

Forgiveness

What is forgiveness? According to the Mayo Clinic forgiveness involves “a decision to let go of resentment and thoughts of revenge.” It is not forgetting the act that hurt you. However, forgiving can lessen the offense’s hold on you and take away the remaining control the person who hurt you has on you.

Appleseed reaches GuideStar’s highest Seal of Transparency for the Third Year in a Row

Appleseed earned the 2021 Platinum Seal of Transparency, the highest level of recognition offered by GuideStar, a service of Candid. By sharing metrics that highlight the progress that Appleseed is making toward its mission, the organization is helping donors move beyond simplistic ways of nonprofit evaluation such as overhead ratios.

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!