ABSTRACT
Attention to desirable outcomes for families with a member with a disability is warranted for at least two reasons. First, it is well known that a wide variety of physical, psychological, and financial indicators for such families are relatively poor in comparison to families without a member with a disability (Bailey, Golden, Roberts, & Ford, 2007; Peer & Hillman, 2014). Second, across all developed countries, family support programs are increasingly required to demonstrate accountability to their stakeholders (e.g., Australian Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, 2012). In light of these two factors, practitioners who provide family support, including family-centred services to families with a young child with a disability, need to understand the mechanisms by which their support leads to desirable outcomes and demonstrate the improved outcomes for the families with whom they work. In some countries, accountability data are limited to measures of the processes that the service engages in when interacting with their client group(s) (Bailey, Raspa, & Fox, 2012). In this respect, such data are problematic because, on their own, evidence of the provision of service is no guarantee that meaningful and valued outcomes for others eventuate. This chapter attempts to addresses this deficiency by clarifying the causal pathways between family-centred practices and desirable outcomes for families, and by highlighting potentially desirable outcomes that family-centred practices should be using as indicators of a successful program of support.
