This study examines the relationship between different areas of family need and the utilization of home-based, post-investigation services (HBPS) following a child protective services (CPS) investigation. This analysis used data collected as part of a longitudinal study of the Partnerships for Families (PFF) initiative in Los Angeles County—a community-based child maltreatment prevention program offering HBPS to pregnant women and families with children aged 5 years or younger who were at risk of child maltreatment.
Slightly more than half of the caregivers had need in at least one of the three areas of concrete need (51%). This ranged from slightly more than one quarter for living conditions (27%) and caregiver support (29%) to 40% for financial conditions. Almost half of the caregivers (47%) had at least one of the two educational needs; this was roughly 38% for caregiver–child interactions and developmental stimulation. Slightly more than 40% had at least one of the three clinical needs—nearly 50% for interaction between caregivers, 23% related to mental health, and 8% related to substance abuse. The most prevalent areas of need included clinical need related to interactions between caregivers (48%), followed by concrete need related to financial conditions (40%) and educational need related to developmental stimulation (38.4%), an indicator of need related to parenting.