This phase applies individualized and developmentally appropriate techniques such as communication training, specific tasks and technical aids, basic parenting skills, and contracting and response-cost techniques. In this phase, Family Case Management is guided by individualized family functional needs, their interaction with environmental constraints and resources, and the alliance with the therapist. Each of these phases involves both assessment and intervention components. Family assessment focuses on characteristics of the individual family members, family relational dynamics, and the multisystemic context in which the family operates. The family relational system is described in regard to interpersonal functions and their impact on promoting and maintaining problem behavior.
Intervention is directed at accomplishing the goals of the relevant treatment phase.
For example, in the engagement and motivation phase, assessment is focused on determining the degree to which the family or its members are negative and blaming. The corresponding intervention would target the reduction of negativity and blaming. In behavior change, assessment would focus on targeting the skills necessary for more adaptive family functioning. Intervention would be aimed at helping the family develop those skills in a way that matched their relational patterns. In generalization, the assessment focuses on the degree to which the family can apply the new behavior in broader contexts.