The History of
Family Assessment Clinic
The Family Assessment Clinic (FAC) is a child welfare clinic that has provided child welfare services for over 3 decades to Washtenaw County and the State of Michigan. FAC is staffed by a multidisciplinary team of social workers, a psychologist, and a lawyer. Initially, the clinic was at the University of Michigan Hospital and Health Systems (now Michigan Medicine). From 1985 to 1990, FAC was supported by a contract with the State of Michigan Department of Social Services (DSS) (now Department of Health and Human Services) and provided comprehensive family assessments on child maltreatment cases referred by DSS.
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In 1990, FAC moved to the University of Michigan School of Social Work and broadened its service provision to include treatment, primarily of sexually traumatized children and their families, and case record reviews on child welfare cases in civil litigation. Most of the case record reviews involved children harmed by their involvement in the child welfare system. FAC increased placements for graduate students in social work and clinical psychology, while also providing learning opportunities for law students and medical residents.
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The Family Assessment Clinic moved from the University of Michigan in 2013 to Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County, keeping the FAC mission to provide best services and practice in child welfare at the forefront of our work. FAC also became the site for graduate social work placements for other universities in Michigan and Ohio.
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In 2019, The Family Assessment Clinic successfully became an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization, physically located at Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County. In 2021, the Family Assessment Clinic began working with the Washtenaw County Juvenile Courts to begin a new assessment and treatment program, Sexually Reactive Treatment (SRT) available to work with sexually-reactive youth who are under the jurisdiction of the courts. Services include trauma-informed and culturally responsive comprehensive assessments, as well as individual, family and group treatment.