In this book a blue-ribbon group of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers provide an overview of the numerous programs that have emerged in the past decade in response to the changing needs of families. Addressing the historical and social context of current family support efforts, the range and variety of the programs, available research, and the challenges of funding, staffing, and managing them, it chronicles past problems and accomplishments and offers specific recommendations for the future. "A timely and important book."—T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. "This remarkable volume surveys a multitude of services available to support the increasingly beleaguered family; the focus is on local services, in the context of organizations and outside them. the book's emphasis on available services makes it a key resource for health professionals, but its aim is broader-to foster advocacy of change in organizational and governmental policies."—Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic