IHT Core Element: Preparing to Exit
Preparing to Exit from IHT begins with the family vision for a preferred future and flows through all stages of the intervention. With regular checks on progress, the IHT team and family move together toward the family vision. Specific actions, as the family approaches the planned discharge date, include validating youth and family progress, planning for setbacks and sustainability, and learning about family member experience of the service. Unplanned exits, or a severe increase in youth needs, require efforts to ease difficult transitions, re-engage family members, and learn what we can in order to prevent abrupt discharges in the future.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE OUTCOME: Planning for exit from the point of intake emphasizes the hope that changes will endure over time with less professional intervention. Planning attends proactively to safety, community connections, changes in life circumstances, and other variables that may affect the end of treatment and after-care planning. Careful collaboration is essential to guide when and how to complete an episode of care. Ending treatment may be cause for celebration of a family’s strength in improving their situation. Unplanned exits are an opportunity to learn about how practitioners, collaborating partners, and the system of care can better support positive outcomes.
RESOURCES AND TOOLS
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Phases of Treatment
Collaborative Helping Maps
The Family Centered Services Project website has information on how to use collaborative helping maps
See also Appendix P of the IHT Practice Guidelines for more information
IHT Progress Indicators
Medical Necessity Decisions
Transition planning: Empowering families of transition age youth (webinar recording)
GotTransition.org -- a website to help young people and families navigate the transition from pediatric to adult health care