A case study of a community-based family support centre in Quebec

Abstract

The last decade has seen a growing interest in community-based family support centres as a valuable alternative to traditional psychosocial interventions. Positive effects in several areas are thought to occur even if we do not know precisely how. In these circumstances, it is very difficult to know if we are speaking of the same thing and the same intervention models and goals when we are speaking about community-based centres supporting families. Furthermore, outcome evaluation with international validity becomes very difficult if not impossible. Therefore, in order to build basic knowledge about these centres, to build up the means to create valid outcome evaluations, to examine sensitive outcomes, and finally to set the basis for international comparison, we have undertaken a case study of a Family Pïouse from Quebec. We present here our analyses relative to the Centre’s context, nature, structure, special characteristics and processes.