Implementing Intensive Family Preservation Services: A Case of Infidelity

The importance of treatment fidelity in evaluations of all human service programs, including intensive family preservation services (IFPS), is examined in this article. Special attention is focused on the issue of treatment fidelity in IFPS programs attempting to adhere to a specific program model (Homebuilders©), and on the problems that lack of treatment fidelity has caused for research that has been conducted on this and other program models. Attempts to address the issue of treatment fidelity in other program areas offer models for constructing treatment fidelity assessment tools for IFPS. The authors suggest a schema for assessing treatment fidelity in evaluations of IFPS programs that should help to explore relationships among different approaches to IFPS, the consistency with which they are being implemented, and the outcomes that result.