High Fidelity Wraparound
Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI)
& Child Mental Health Wraparound (CMHW)
Empowering youth and families through supportive, community-driven connections.
What Is Wraparound?
Wraparound is an evidence-based approach to helping youth and families. It is a strengths-based, collaborative process designed for youth who are experiencing big challenges and may be involved in multiple systems, such as mental health, child welfare, or juvenile justice.
Wraparound brings everyone to one table:
One family, one team, one plan.
How Wraparound Works
The family chooses their wraparound facilitator, who guides the process and supports the family through four distinct phases:
- Engagement & Team Preparation: The facilitator meets with the family to hear their story, identify their strengths, and begin building a team of relatives, friends, school partners, and community supports.
- Initial Plan Development: The team meets to create an individualized plan of care based on the family’s hopes, strengths, needs, and preferences.
- Implementation: The facilitator organizes monthly team meetings where everyone stays connected and on the same page. The team works together to follow the plan, monitor progress, and adjust supports as needed.
- Transition: As goals are met, the focus shifts to long-term success. The goal is to build a support network that stays with the family long after the formal wraparound process ends.
About the Youth and Families We Serve
High-Fidelity Wraparound is designed for Indiana youth ages 6 – 17 who experience complex emotional or behavioral challenges. The primary focus is to keep youth safe at home and connected to their community rather than in out-of-home placements.
Types of Families Served
- Youth with multiple diagnoses or significant functional impairments (such as trauma, debilitating anxiety, or physical aggression).
- All family structures, such as biological, adoptive, foster, and kinship.
- Families that are involved in multiple systems, such as special education, mental health agencies, DCS, or juvenile justice.
- Caregivers who are experiencing high levels of family stress or are managing their own health and recovery needs.
Impact of Wraparound
Our facilitators work alongside the family and their community partners (school, providers, and natural supports) to achieve long-term stability. By “wrapping” around a family with support and using a team-based approach, we aim to:
- Reduce out-of-home placements and acute hospitalizations.
- Connect youth to faster, more accessible mental health support.
- Help youth and families feel empowered to advocate for their own needs.
- Ensure a reliable “safety net” is in place for times of crisis.
- Improve school graduation rates and community safety.
Program Eligibility
To qualify for wraparound services in Indiana, a youth must meet the following criteria:
- Be ages 6 - 17
- Reside in their home or community
- Have two or more Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) diagnoses
- Demonstrate significant emotional and/or functional impairments that impact daily life
- For CMHW program specifically, a youth must be eligible for Indiana Medicaid
* An assessment is required to determine eligibility
10 Principles of Wraparound
- Family voice and choice
- Individualized
- Strengths based
- Natural supports
- Collaboration
- Unconditional care
- Community based
- Culturally competent
- Team based
- Outcomes based
About Choices
Choices provides High-Fidelity Wraparound with a focus on clinical excellence and community partnership.
- Choices has over 25 years’ experience partnering with youth and families.
- Choices has been accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA) since 2011, demonstrating a commitment to national standards of practice.
- Choices has access to an extensive, long-standing network of community providers to ensure families have a wide range of support options.
- All programs are supported by clinically licensed directors with the additional oversight of a Health Services Provider in Psychology (HSPP).
- To ensure the highest standards of the wraparound model, Choices maintains an in-house coach and trainer for ongoing staff development.
- Choices partners with professional translation services (such as GLOBO) to provide support in the family’s primary language.
Submit a Referral
To submit a referral, visit the Indiana DMHA Portal or call 211 and ask for
“Wraparound Referral.”
Questions about Wraparound?
Contact Clinical Director Andrea Anderson: