A pilot program launched at Aulneau Renewal Centre in the summer of 2022 has garnered great outcomes for families and more permanent funding. The Rapid Assessment and Family Therapy Program (RAFT) is serving parents and children from the Eastman region, specifically those who have come to Child and Family Services (CFS) for support.
“Since there’s such a high demand for services through CFS, we’ve been welcomed as part of the team to help relieve some of the case workers who are inundated with investigating, helping or problem solving with families,” explains Casey Holliday, a psychotherapist based in Steinbach. “Intake workers refer cases to us, and they give us six sessions to try to better understand the need. There are goals that come with the referral, which relate to why the families have reached out for support. We see if we can help or mitigate issues within the six sessions and if the families need more long-term services, we can make that recommendation.”
The real impact for families is receiving help at a time when they need it most. “We’ve come to think of it as a bridge program, in a sense,” continues Holliday. “This is solution-focused therapy, which includes education and exploring how their situation came to be, how it impacts them and some really tangible actions and ideas to take away with them. We can start working on ways to relieve tensions quickly.”
Holliday explains that for the families she and her colleague LeAnn Pich are working with, there can be a broad array of issues that need attention. “We see a lot of parent and child conflict, intimate partner violence, parenting concerns, relationship concerns and a lot of depression and anxiety,” she shares. “For many clients, our services often come in the wake of some kind of crisis. We see trauma responses and substance abuse, and sometimes those make rapid interventions more difficult because there are some deeper and more long-term needs for support.”
That said, Holliday has found the program to be affirming for both herself and those she’s working with. “There’s a lot of participation from the families,” she says. “They sought out the supports, so they are really eager to listen and put ideas into play. A lot of the clients are willing, ready, and wanting more supports. Once they know what it feels like to be supported, they’re hooked. It’s nice to see people having a positive experience with CFS, and that clients are sharing those sentiments with us, that this has been good for them.”
Initially, the pilot program supported 5 families, and with the addition of Pich to add more capacity, they are now serving 17 families. “For me as a therapist, this is really satisfying work because these are people who wouldn’t otherwise get the supports, the understanding, or the help they need. They’d be stuck in the same patterns, and it feels really nice to be able to help,” concludes Holliday.