Prevention and early intervention: An operational model.

A program is described that focuses on significant involvement of parents in the delivery of services to their own young children with behavior problems or handicaps. The goal of the program is to provide intervention as early as possible in the child's life by training parents as agents of change either before the problem occurs or in its early stages. Professional staff design and adapt change strategies for the parents to apply directly in the clinic and in "real life" circumstances at home. Trained and experiencd parents then become the foundation of the program. They train new parents entering the system and utilize the professional staff as resources. This model of using parents is discussed in relation to current funding trends and the need for cost-effective systems of service delivery.