Wraparound services are a type of comprehensive, holistic, and individualized care that aims to support individuals with complex needs in any community. The services are youth and family-driven, meaning that the child and family team work directly with the family to identify their own needs and strengths. Wraparound services differ from many service delivery strategies in that they follow a strengths-based, needs-driven approach, building on individual and family strengths to help families achieve positive goals and improve well-being.

Wraparound services are provided in the home, school, or community setting to address a child or family’s needs while allowing them to remain in their community. The services are generally family-centric and coordinated by care coordinators in collaboration with family members and professionals, including clinicians, in-home behavioral support specialists, resource coordinators, and others.

Wraparound services can include a comprehensive spectrum of mental health and other services and supports organized into a coordinated network to meet the diverse and changing needs of children and adolescents with severe emotional disorders and their families. The services provided through wraparound programs can include case management, counseling, crisis care and outreach, education/special education services, tutoring, family support, independent living supports, self-help or support groups, among others.

Wraparound services require a high degree of collaboration and coordination among the child- and family-serving agencies and organizations that make up the system context of a Wraparound program. In addition, other community- or system-level supports are necessary for Wraparound to be successfully implemented and sustained. Research on Wraparound implementation has defined these essential community and system supports for Wraparound and grouped them into six themes.