Focusing on strengths allows the family and the worker to assess what the family is doing correctly and use those competencies to cause change. Fourthly, they center services in FPS in the home and the community in which the family lives. By working in the families natural environment, the FPS worker can see problems play out as they occur in real life. The FPS worker is also able to provide and teach how to obtain concrete services (transportation, housecleaning, etc.) to the families. Finally, FPS programs are also short-term, intensive services, not lasting more than 12 weeks. "This short time frame helps keep the worker and the family focused on specific goals and the progress that is begin made toward them" (Kinney et al. 1991, pg. 34).
The children benefit immensely from receiving family preservation services. Although many people think that removing the children from the home, the child will be safe, but many studies and data shows that FPS have a better record of safety than foster care or group home placement. "National data on child abuse fatalities show that a child is more than twice as likely to die of abuse in foster care than in the general population" (US Dept of Health, 1999). "An Indiana study found three times more physical abuse and twice the rate of sexual abuse in foster homes than in the general population. In group homes there was more than ten times the rate of physical abuse and more than 28 times the rate of sexual abuse as in the general population" (Benedict and Zuravin, 1992, pg 28, 30). .
Besides keepng the children safer, they also benefit immensely from staying at home. By remaining in the home, safely with their family, children benefit from a number of psychological and developmental advantages. They are able to have a sencs of belonging and place, the security of membership and the assusrance of conforming to social norms. Children also benefit from the the continuance in identy and the special benefits of parent-child bonding.
