Dr.s Fritz Redl and David Wineman are considered by many, to be founders of the moment to treat hurt children with dignity, understanding, compassion, and love.
Their classic books, collectively considered by some to be the "Bible" when it comes to working with challenging behavior, are Controls from Within: Techniques for Treatment of the Aggressive Child, and, The Child who Hates: a Sensitive Analysis of Anti-social behavior of Children in their response to the adult world.
Written over fifty years ago, these extraordinary works are still, a must read for anyone working with young people who exhibit behavior that today we diagnose as oppositional defiant, aggressive, or violent.
While we have some extraordinary journal articles, robust research, and literally hundreds of books and articles on helping hurt children, I think these classic works still stand out as important as we work to understand and treat those children who are in need of serious treatment.
A few of my favorite quotes from Redl and Wineman....
Remembering Fritz Redl: "'The children must get plenty of love and affection whether they deserve it or not: they must be assured of the basic quota of happy, recreational experiences whether they seem to have it coming or not. In short, love and affection, as well as the granting of gratifying life situations, cannot be made the bargaining tools of educational or even therapeutic motivation, but must be kept tax-free as minimal parts of the youngsters' diet, irrespective of the problems of deservedness' (1952)."
"We are against the application of physical punishment in any form whatsoever under any circumstances. Even for the normal child, we reject the idea that physical pain will 'teach' the youngster, that the entrance to the character of a child leads through the epidermis of the hind quarters, or that physical pain will solve things by giving the child the chance to pay for his sins and thus end his guilt feelings" (1952).
"Boredom will always remain the greatest enemy of school disciplines. If we remember that children are bored, not only when they don't happen to be interested in the subject or when the teacher doesn't make it interesting, but also when certain working conditions are out of focus with their basic needs, then we can realize what a great contributor to discipline problems boredom really is. Research has shown that boredom is closely related to frustration and that the effect of too much frustration is invariably irritability, withdrawal, rebellious opposition or aggressive rejection of the whole show."
While newer books may be more enticing, current in some respects, and appear more appropriate to our modern day, I think these classic works are worth delving into. They are a foundation upon which we can build a repertoire of skills, techniques, and approaches that can truly help a child heal!
Showing posts with label at risk youth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label at risk youth. Show all posts
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Oh, Those Difficult, Hard to Manage, Out of Control Kids... Keep Them!
As we diligently work to help our hurt children behave appropriately, manage their anger, and free themselves from defiance and violence, it may help to remember that for which they are fighting for.
Anna Quindlin writes,
In our modern society we tend to take things away from misbehaving children; we take away their toys, their privileges, their freedom. We take away parents and loved ones. We take away hugs, and kisses, and nurturing.
Perhaps, just as a tender peony wilts when the sun, water, and nutrients are removed, so too our children will wither when their basic needs for love, attention, and belonging are unmet? Maybe they need more not less? Maybe they need more nurturing, more kindness, more dedication; more reassurance that they are valuable and worthwhile, and lovable.
Anna Quindlin writes,
Could it be that our hurt children, in their struggle for survival are fighting for life? Perhaps they are fighting for attention to know they mean something to someone; for unconditional love to know that they deserve care and kindness just because they are here on this planet? Maybe their fight is for recognition that they exist, or nurturing to help them grow?Recently a young mother asked for advice. What, she wanted to know, was she to do with a 7-year-old who was obstreperous, outspoken, and inconveniently willful? "Keep her," I replied.... The suffragettes refused to be polite in demanding what they wanted or grateful for getting what they deserved. Works for me.
In our modern society we tend to take things away from misbehaving children; we take away their toys, their privileges, their freedom. We take away parents and loved ones. We take away hugs, and kisses, and nurturing.
Perhaps, just as a tender peony wilts when the sun, water, and nutrients are removed, so too our children will wither when their basic needs for love, attention, and belonging are unmet? Maybe they need more not less? Maybe they need more nurturing, more kindness, more dedication; more reassurance that they are valuable and worthwhile, and lovable.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Teenagers Need Unconditional Love and Commitment
I found this excellent article, by Pat O'Brien at Adoption Information Center of Illinois.
I truly think this is the key to the healing of maltreated children and youth... at least one adult who makes an unconditional commitment to them.
The article continues...
Our teenagers need families, they need homes, they need a caring, loving adult who is there for them!
To read the entire article, click: Teenagers Need Unconditional Commitment
Many teens in foster care have been disappointed by adults throughout their lives. Their birth parents were unable to provide for them adequately. Their foster parents couldn't give them the permanent family they needed. Caseworkers may have moved them from home to home, causing painful changes each time. In the end, these teens may feel they've been let down by every adult they've encountered.
How can we help these young people? Pat O'Brien has an answer: "Teens in foster care need at least one adult who makes an unconditional commitment to them. They need that commitment before anything constructive can follow."
I truly think this is the key to the healing of maltreated children and youth... at least one adult who makes an unconditional commitment to them.
The article continues...
O'Brien is the founder of You Gotta Believe, a New York child welfare agency that specializes in placing teens with adoptive families. "At our agency, we recognize that all teenagers need a parent. We define a parent as ‘at least one adult who makes a unilateral decision to unconditionally commit to a child for a lifetime.' For teens who need a permanent home, anything less is an artificial relationship."
Our teenagers need families, they need homes, they need a caring, loving adult who is there for them!
To read the entire article, click: Teenagers Need Unconditional Commitment
Monday, January 25, 2010
Permanency Pact - A FABULOUS idea to help youth!
I love the idea of a permanency pact.
What is a permanency pact?
A pledge by a supportive adult to provide specific supports to a young person in foster care with a goal of establishing a lifelong, kin-like relationship.
Obviously I am a huge fan of forever families. I think the fact that children need healthy families is beyond questioning and certainly one of the most crucial aspects of healthy growth, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually! Every child deserves a loving family and we should do all we can to create a world where this is possible! It is the dream of my heart.
Yet, the very sad fact is that many youth, over a hundred thousand in the United States grow up in the foster system without a permanent, stable, loving family! They "age out" and are on their own. They go from being abused and neglected to being a ward of the state, to being on their own. This is not a way any child should live. EVER.
We wonder how this can happen to so many children in a modern, civilized world. The answer is something like...the "system" isn't working correctly, some people haven't caught the vision, social workers are too busy, the courts don't get it, there aren't enough adoptive families, workers aren't following the law, no oversight to make sure children are safe, etc. etc. There is plenty of blame to go around.
While many people and organizations are diligently working to help get children into loving families, and a lot of progress has been made in some localities, there is much work to do to provide homes for our youth in the care of the state.
For those children who have yet to be adopted or raised in a forever family, a fabulous idea is to make sure all children have some caring family like support!
Youth need a life-long, kin-like connection with a supportive adult!
To learn everything you need to know about establishing a permanency pact with a youth, read more:
Permanency Pact
What is a permanency pact?
A pledge by a supportive adult to provide specific supports to a young person in foster care with a goal of establishing a lifelong, kin-like relationship.
Obviously I am a huge fan of forever families. I think the fact that children need healthy families is beyond questioning and certainly one of the most crucial aspects of healthy growth, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually! Every child deserves a loving family and we should do all we can to create a world where this is possible! It is the dream of my heart.
Yet, the very sad fact is that many youth, over a hundred thousand in the United States grow up in the foster system without a permanent, stable, loving family! They "age out" and are on their own. They go from being abused and neglected to being a ward of the state, to being on their own. This is not a way any child should live. EVER.
We wonder how this can happen to so many children in a modern, civilized world. The answer is something like...the "system" isn't working correctly, some people haven't caught the vision, social workers are too busy, the courts don't get it, there aren't enough adoptive families, workers aren't following the law, no oversight to make sure children are safe, etc. etc. There is plenty of blame to go around.
While many people and organizations are diligently working to help get children into loving families, and a lot of progress has been made in some localities, there is much work to do to provide homes for our youth in the care of the state.
For those children who have yet to be adopted or raised in a forever family, a fabulous idea is to make sure all children have some caring family like support!
Youth need a life-long, kin-like connection with a supportive adult!
To learn everything you need to know about establishing a permanency pact with a youth, read more:
Permanency Pact
Thursday, January 21, 2010
GAO Report on Seclusions and Restrains - May 2009
Residential Treatment Centers are locked facilities, or institutions supposedly designed to "treat" difficult children. These private businesses and hospitals have become a booming industry in the United States, often charging families, and Social Service departments $500 - $800 dollar a day to keep children locked up.
Now, there are some residential programs that do actually help children. These programs do not use restrains and seclusion, allow children to freely communicate with family, engage youth in therapy with family, have a family type home arrangement, and are NOT considered a permanent living arrangement but are used for specific short term treatment to help children and youth live more safely in a home with a family.
But this article is not about the progressive, humane, and caring centers that actually help children. This is about the many, many RTC throughout the country who base their program on a system that does not work, that harms children, and engages in abusive and cruel treatment of children.
Most people are unaware of what actually goes on in these residential treatment centers, (RTC). Dangerous, potentially deadly restraints are common; seclusions are frequent, and there is little oversight to monitor what is happening to children and youth housed in these institutions.
While we like to think children are being cared for and treated with respect, the reality is that children are hurt, isolated, and often alone, suffering untold abuse, all in the name of treatment. Family members are not allowed to see their rooms, communicate with them on a daily basis, or be an integral part of the program. Family members have little to no understanding of what goes on and are often unaware of the abuse children are suffering.
Last May, after several months of extensive research to determine how restraints and seclusions are used on children in the United States, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), reported its findings to the Committee.
Here is the summary of their findings....
To read more, please visit GAO Report on Seclusion and Restraints
Now, there are some residential programs that do actually help children. These programs do not use restrains and seclusion, allow children to freely communicate with family, engage youth in therapy with family, have a family type home arrangement, and are NOT considered a permanent living arrangement but are used for specific short term treatment to help children and youth live more safely in a home with a family.
But this article is not about the progressive, humane, and caring centers that actually help children. This is about the many, many RTC throughout the country who base their program on a system that does not work, that harms children, and engages in abusive and cruel treatment of children.
Most people are unaware of what actually goes on in these residential treatment centers, (RTC). Dangerous, potentially deadly restraints are common; seclusions are frequent, and there is little oversight to monitor what is happening to children and youth housed in these institutions.
While we like to think children are being cared for and treated with respect, the reality is that children are hurt, isolated, and often alone, suffering untold abuse, all in the name of treatment. Family members are not allowed to see their rooms, communicate with them on a daily basis, or be an integral part of the program. Family members have little to no understanding of what goes on and are often unaware of the abuse children are suffering.
Last May, after several months of extensive research to determine how restraints and seclusions are used on children in the United States, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), reported its findings to the Committee.
Here is the summary of their findings....
GAO recently testified before the Committee regarding allegations of death and abuse at residential programs for troubled teens. Recent reports indicate that vulnerable children are being abused in other settings. For example, one report on the use of restraints and seclusions in schools documented cases where students were pinned to the floor for hours at a time, handcuffed, locked in closets, and subjected to other acts of violence. In some of these cases, this type of abuse resulted in death. Given these reports, the Committee asked GAO to (1) provide an overview of seclusions and restraint laws applicable to children in public and private schools, (2) verify whether allegations of student death and abuse from the use of these methods are widespread, and (3) examine the facts and circumstances surrounding cases where a student died or suffered abuse as a result of being secluded or restrained. GAO reviewed federal and state laws and abuse allegations from advocacy groups, parents, and the media from the past two decades. GAO did not evaluate whether using restraints and seclusions can be beneficial. GAO examined documents related to closed cases, including police and autopsy reports and school policies. GAO also interviewed parents, attorneys, and school officials and conducted searches to determine the current employment status of staff involved in the cases.
FINDINGS
GAO found no federal laws restricting the use of seclusion and restraints in public and private schools and widely divergent laws at the state level. Although GAO could not determine whether allegations were widespread, GAO did find hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death related to the use of these methods on school children during the past two decades. Examples of these cases include a 7 year old purportedly dying after being held face down for hours by school staff, 5 year olds allegedly being tied to chairs with bungee cords and duct tape by their teacher and suffering broken arms and bloody noses, and a 13 year old reportedly hanging himself in a seclusion room after prolonged confinement. Although GAO continues to receive new allegations from parents and advocacy groups, GAO could not find a single Web site, federal agency, or other entity that collects information on the use of these methods or the extent of their alleged abuse. GAO also examined the details of 10 restraint and seclusion cases in which there was a criminal conviction, a finding of civil or administrative liability, or a large financial settlement. The cases share the following common themes: they involved children with disabilities who were restrained and secluded, often in cases where they were not physically aggressive and their parents did not give consent; restraints that block air to the lungs can be deadly; teachers and staff in the cases were often not trained on the use of seclusions and restraints; and teachers and staff from at least 5 of the 10 cases continue to be employed as educators.
To read more, please visit GAO Report on Seclusion and Restraints
Monday, January 18, 2010
A Need For Permanent Families - Recruiting kinship, foster, and adoptive families
From Virginia DSS...
There is a need to design and implement models of diligent recruitment for kinship, foster, and adoptive families to improve permanency outcomes for children and youth in foster care and to meet the diligent recruitment requirements of MEPA. These models must be multi-faceted and recognize that permanency efforts should begin when a child first enters care. Options for permanency should include the early and continued exploration of kin, including paternal and maternal family members, foster and adoptive families who can provide for children with a goal of concurrent planning, as well as thorough exploration of youth's existing and past relationships to find those willing to build commitment to become adoptive parents or enter into some type of permanent relationship with the child. Projects under this program announcement will be expected to meet the diligent recruitment provisions of MEPA. Recruitment efforts should be designed to provide information to potential resource families throughout the community about the characteristics and needs of the available children; the nature of kinship care, foster care, and adoption processes; and supports available to kinship, foster and adoptive families. This includes the provision of information to the community of natural relationships such as, but not limited to, teachers, mentors, coaches, parents of friends, communities, and extended family members.
Effective models to recruit kinship, foster, and adoptive parents must be multidimensional. General, targeted, and child-specific recruitment efforts should all be included. Child specific recruitment efforts should be broadly viewed to include specific family and relationship exploration to work with youth to identify and develop existing relationships and nurture them into long-term connections and even possible permanent legal placements for the youth. The funded projects will collaborate and partner with groups from the communities representative of those groups from which children in care come, to help identify and support potential resource families and to conduct activities that make the waiting children more visible. The target population for this project includes any children or youth in public foster care systems.
There is a need to design and implement models of diligent recruitment for kinship, foster, and adoptive families to improve permanency outcomes for children and youth in foster care and to meet the diligent recruitment requirements of MEPA. These models must be multi-faceted and recognize that permanency efforts should begin when a child first enters care. Options for permanency should include the early and continued exploration of kin, including paternal and maternal family members, foster and adoptive families who can provide for children with a goal of concurrent planning, as well as thorough exploration of youth's existing and past relationships to find those willing to build commitment to become adoptive parents or enter into some type of permanent relationship with the child. Projects under this program announcement will be expected to meet the diligent recruitment provisions of MEPA. Recruitment efforts should be designed to provide information to potential resource families throughout the community about the characteristics and needs of the available children; the nature of kinship care, foster care, and adoption processes; and supports available to kinship, foster and adoptive families. This includes the provision of information to the community of natural relationships such as, but not limited to, teachers, mentors, coaches, parents of friends, communities, and extended family members.
Effective models to recruit kinship, foster, and adoptive parents must be multidimensional. General, targeted, and child-specific recruitment efforts should all be included. Child specific recruitment efforts should be broadly viewed to include specific family and relationship exploration to work with youth to identify and develop existing relationships and nurture them into long-term connections and even possible permanent legal placements for the youth. The funded projects will collaborate and partner with groups from the communities representative of those groups from which children in care come, to help identify and support potential resource families and to conduct activities that make the waiting children more visible. The target population for this project includes any children or youth in public foster care systems.
Commitment to Permanent Lifelong Connections for Foster Youth! Nice!
Research is showing us that the most important key to the success of a child in the foster system is to have a one commited, permanent, life long connection with a healthy adult! We know this, yet too many children are languishing in "the system" without anyone in their lives but workers. I applaud those agencies and localities working to find, support, and sustain these loving and caring connections for youth!
The following document is a fabulous example, from California, of a commitment to youth, to help them find life long, permanent, healthy relationships!
DECLARATION OF COMMITMENT TO PERMANENT LIFELONG CONNECTIONS FOR FOSTER YOUTH
We commit to work within our organizations, agencies, and communities and through the growing permanency for foster youth movement to support and promote these objectives by doing the following:
Promote recognition of and respect for the urgent need to ensure every foster youth has at least one lifelong permanent relationship;
Educate all we come into contact with about the need, urgency, and promising practices for achieving permanence for foster youth;
Support local and statewide projects and efforts to raise awareness, recommend policy changes, increase funding for and provide assistance to improve older youths’ opportunities to develop a lifelong connection with a committed adult before leaving foster care;
Initiate change within our own organizations to support youth permanence and lifelong connections.
Fortify our common commitment to the permanence of foster youth as an obligation of the entire child welfare and human community to the children in our foster care system.
Read more...
Bruce Perry - My Favorite Neuropsychiatrist in the World
I admit it! I am a devotee of Dr. Bruce Perry!
If you haven't discovered this brilliant neuropsychiatrist, and if you are interested in children who are living with the effects of trauma, abuse, maltreatment, and neglect, I invite you to meet Dr. Perry!
You could begin by reading, The Boy who was Raised as a Dog, to get a sense of Dr. Perry's love of children and his creation of the neurosequential approach to healing trauma. His research and methodology are transforming the way we work with and heal children!
From The Child Trauma Academy,
If you haven't discovered this brilliant neuropsychiatrist, and if you are interested in children who are living with the effects of trauma, abuse, maltreatment, and neglect, I invite you to meet Dr. Perry!
You could begin by reading, The Boy who was Raised as a Dog, to get a sense of Dr. Perry's love of children and his creation of the neurosequential approach to healing trauma. His research and methodology are transforming the way we work with and heal children!
From The Child Trauma Academy,
Dr. Perry has conducted both basic neuroscience and clinical research. His neuroscience research has examined the effects of prenatal drug exposure on brain development, the neurobiology of human neuropsychiatric disorders, the neurophysiology of traumatic life events and basic mechanisms related to the development of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain. His clinical research and practice has focused on high-risk children - examining long-term cognitive, behavioral, emotional, social, and physiological effects of neglect and trauma in children, adolescents and adults. This work has been instrumental in describing how childhood experiences, including neglect and traumatic stress, change the biology of the brain – and, thereby, the health of the child.Dr. Perry has numerous articles, classes, presentations, and lectures available at The Child Trama Academy!
A focus of his clinical research over the last ten years has been focused on integrating concepts of developmental neuroscience and child development into clinical practices. This work has resulted in the development of innovative clinical practices and programs working with maltreated and traumatized children. The ChildTrauma Academy’s programs are in partnership with multiple sectors of the community and in context of public-private partnerships with the goal of promoting positive change within the primary institutions that work with high risk children such as child protective services, mental health, public education and juvenile justice.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Best Practice Principles - Virginia
I love this... it is a great model for how children and families should be treated by Social Services!
Virginia Practice Principles
The Virginia Children's Services System Practice Model sets forth a vision for the services that are delivered by all child serving agencies across the Commonwealth, especially the Departments of Social Services, Juvenile Justice, Education, Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Office of Comprehensive Services. The practice model is central to our decision making; present in all of our meetings; and in every interaction that we have with a child or family. Decisions that are based on the practice model will be supported and championed. Guided by this model, our process to continuously improve services for children and families will be rooted in the best of practices, the most accurate and current data available, and with the safety and well-being of children and families as the fixed center of our work. These guiding principles for permanency services in Virginia shall be incorporated in all decisions in case planning and service delivery for children in foster care and their families. To achieve permanency for children in foster care, services provision shall be timely and based on the following principles:
We believe that all children and communities deserve to be safe.
1. Safety comes first. Every child has the right to live in a safe home, attend a safe school and live in a safe community. Ensuring safety requires a collaborative effort among family, agency staff, and the community.
2. We value family strengths, perspectives, goals, and plans as central to creating and maintaining child safety, and recognize that removal from home is not the only way to ensure child or community safety.
3. In our response to safety and risk concerns, we reach factually supported conclusions in a timely and thorough manner.
4. Participation of parents, children, extended family, and community stakeholders is a necessary component in assuring safety.
5. We separate caregivers who present a threat to safety from children in need of protection. When court action is necessary to make a child safe, we use our authority with respect and sensitivity.
We believe in family, child, and youth-driven practice.
1. Children and families have the right to have a say in what happens to them and will be treated with dignity and respect. The voices of children, youth and parents are heard, valued, and considered in the decision-making regarding safety, permanency, well-being as well as in service and educational planning and in placement decisions.
2. Each individual’s right to self-determination will be respected within the limits of established community standards and laws.
3. We recognize that family members are the experts about their own families. It is our responsibility to understand children, youth, and families within the context of their own family rules, traditions, history, and culture.
4. Children have a right to connections with their biological family and other caring adults with whom they have developed emotional ties.
5. We engage families in a deliberate manner. Through collaboration with families, we develop and implement creative, individual solutions that build on their strengths to meet their needs. Engagement is the primary door through which we help youth and families make positive changes.
We believe that children do best when raised in families.
1. Children should be reared by their families whenever possible.
2. Keeping children and families together and preventing entry into any type of out of home placement is the best possible use of resources.
3. Children are best served when we provide their families with the supports necessary to raise them safely. Services to preserve the family unit and prevent family disruption are family-focused, child-centered, and community-based.
4. People can and do make positive changes. The past does not necessarily limit their potential.
5. When children cannot live safely with their families, the first consideration for placement will be with kinship connections capable of providing a safe and nurturing home. We value the resources within extended family networks and are committed to seeking them out.
6. When placement outside the extended family is necessary, we encourage healthy social development by supporting placements that promote family, sibling and community connections.
7. Children’s needs are best served in a family that is committed to the child.
8. Placements in non-family settings should be temporary, should focus on individual children’s needs, and should prepare them for return to family and community life.
We believe that all children and youth need and deserve a permanent family.
1. Lifelong family connections are crucial for children and adults. It is our responsibility to promote and preserve kinship, sibling and community connections for each child. We value past, present, and future relationships that consider the child’s hopes and wishes.
2. Permanency is best achieved through a legal relationship such as parental custody, adoption, kinship care or guardianship. Placement stability is not permanency.
3. Planning for children is focused on the goal of preserving their family, reunifying their family, or achieving permanency with another family.
4. Permanency planning for children begins at the first contact with the children’s services system. We proceed with a sense of urgency until permanency is achieved. We support families after permanency to ensure that family connections are stable.
We believe in partnering with others to support child and family success in a system that is family-focused, child-centered, and community-based.
1. We are committed to aligning our system with what is best for children, youth, and families. Our organizations, consistent with this practice model, are focused on providing supports to families in raising children. The practice model...should guide all of the work that we do. In addition to practice alignment,
infrastructure and resources must be aligned with the model. For example, training, policy, technical assistance and other supports must reinforce the model. We take responsibility for open communication, accountability, and transparency at all levels of our system and across all agencies. We share success stories and best practices to promote learning within and across communities and share challenges and lessons learned to make better decisions. Community support is crucial for families in raising children.
2. We are committed to working across agencies, stakeholder groups, and communities to improve outcomes for the children, youth, and families we serve. Services to families must be delivered as part of a total system with cooperation, coordination, and collaboration occurring among families, service providers and community stakeholders. All stakeholders share responsibility for child safety, permanence and well-being. As a system, we will identify and engage stakeholders and community members around our practice model to help children and families achieve success in life; safety; life in the community; family based placements; and life-long family connections. We will communicate clearly and often with stakeholders and community members. Our communication must reinforce the belief that children and youth belong in family and community settings and that system resources must be allocated in a manner consistent with that belief.
3. We are committed to working collaboratively to ensure that children with disabilities receive the supports necessary to enable them to receive their special education services within the public schools. We will collaboratively plan for children with disabilities who are struggling in public school settings to identify services that may prevent the need for private school placements, recognizing that the provision of such services will maximize the potential for these children to remain with their families and within their communities.
We believe that how we do our work is as important as the work we do.
1. The people who do this work are our most important asset. Children and families deserve trained, skillful professionals to engage and assist them. We strive to build a workforce that works in alignment with our practice model. They are supported in this effort through open dialogue, clear policy, excellent training and supervision, formal and informal performance evaluation and appropriate resource allocation.
2. As with families, we look for strengths in our organization. We are responsible for creating and maintaining a supportive working and learning environment and for open, respectful communication, collaboration, and accountability at all levels.
3. Our organizations are focused on providing high quality, timely, efficient, and effective services.
4. Relationships and communication among staff, children, families, and community providers are conducted with genuineness, empathy, and respect.
5. The practice of collecting and sharing data and information is a non-negotiable part of how we continually learn and improve. We will use data to inform management, improve practice, measure effectiveness and guide policy decisions. We must strive to align our laws so that collaboration and sharing of data can be achieved to better support our children and families.
6. As we work with children, families, and their teams, we clearly share with them our purpose, role, concerns, decisions, and responsibility.
Read more.... Virginia Practice Model
Virginia Practice Principles
The Virginia Children's Services System Practice Model sets forth a vision for the services that are delivered by all child serving agencies across the Commonwealth, especially the Departments of Social Services, Juvenile Justice, Education, Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Office of Comprehensive Services. The practice model is central to our decision making; present in all of our meetings; and in every interaction that we have with a child or family. Decisions that are based on the practice model will be supported and championed. Guided by this model, our process to continuously improve services for children and families will be rooted in the best of practices, the most accurate and current data available, and with the safety and well-being of children and families as the fixed center of our work. These guiding principles for permanency services in Virginia shall be incorporated in all decisions in case planning and service delivery for children in foster care and their families. To achieve permanency for children in foster care, services provision shall be timely and based on the following principles:
We believe that all children and communities deserve to be safe.
1. Safety comes first. Every child has the right to live in a safe home, attend a safe school and live in a safe community. Ensuring safety requires a collaborative effort among family, agency staff, and the community.
2. We value family strengths, perspectives, goals, and plans as central to creating and maintaining child safety, and recognize that removal from home is not the only way to ensure child or community safety.
3. In our response to safety and risk concerns, we reach factually supported conclusions in a timely and thorough manner.
4. Participation of parents, children, extended family, and community stakeholders is a necessary component in assuring safety.
5. We separate caregivers who present a threat to safety from children in need of protection. When court action is necessary to make a child safe, we use our authority with respect and sensitivity.
We believe in family, child, and youth-driven practice.
1. Children and families have the right to have a say in what happens to them and will be treated with dignity and respect. The voices of children, youth and parents are heard, valued, and considered in the decision-making regarding safety, permanency, well-being as well as in service and educational planning and in placement decisions.
2. Each individual’s right to self-determination will be respected within the limits of established community standards and laws.
3. We recognize that family members are the experts about their own families. It is our responsibility to understand children, youth, and families within the context of their own family rules, traditions, history, and culture.
4. Children have a right to connections with their biological family and other caring adults with whom they have developed emotional ties.
5. We engage families in a deliberate manner. Through collaboration with families, we develop and implement creative, individual solutions that build on their strengths to meet their needs. Engagement is the primary door through which we help youth and families make positive changes.
We believe that children do best when raised in families.
1. Children should be reared by their families whenever possible.
2. Keeping children and families together and preventing entry into any type of out of home placement is the best possible use of resources.
3. Children are best served when we provide their families with the supports necessary to raise them safely. Services to preserve the family unit and prevent family disruption are family-focused, child-centered, and community-based.
4. People can and do make positive changes. The past does not necessarily limit their potential.
5. When children cannot live safely with their families, the first consideration for placement will be with kinship connections capable of providing a safe and nurturing home. We value the resources within extended family networks and are committed to seeking them out.
6. When placement outside the extended family is necessary, we encourage healthy social development by supporting placements that promote family, sibling and community connections.
7. Children’s needs are best served in a family that is committed to the child.
8. Placements in non-family settings should be temporary, should focus on individual children’s needs, and should prepare them for return to family and community life.
We believe that all children and youth need and deserve a permanent family.
1. Lifelong family connections are crucial for children and adults. It is our responsibility to promote and preserve kinship, sibling and community connections for each child. We value past, present, and future relationships that consider the child’s hopes and wishes.
2. Permanency is best achieved through a legal relationship such as parental custody, adoption, kinship care or guardianship. Placement stability is not permanency.
3. Planning for children is focused on the goal of preserving their family, reunifying their family, or achieving permanency with another family.
4. Permanency planning for children begins at the first contact with the children’s services system. We proceed with a sense of urgency until permanency is achieved. We support families after permanency to ensure that family connections are stable.
We believe in partnering with others to support child and family success in a system that is family-focused, child-centered, and community-based.
1. We are committed to aligning our system with what is best for children, youth, and families. Our organizations, consistent with this practice model, are focused on providing supports to families in raising children. The practice model...should guide all of the work that we do. In addition to practice alignment,
infrastructure and resources must be aligned with the model. For example, training, policy, technical assistance and other supports must reinforce the model. We take responsibility for open communication, accountability, and transparency at all levels of our system and across all agencies. We share success stories and best practices to promote learning within and across communities and share challenges and lessons learned to make better decisions. Community support is crucial for families in raising children.
2. We are committed to working across agencies, stakeholder groups, and communities to improve outcomes for the children, youth, and families we serve. Services to families must be delivered as part of a total system with cooperation, coordination, and collaboration occurring among families, service providers and community stakeholders. All stakeholders share responsibility for child safety, permanence and well-being. As a system, we will identify and engage stakeholders and community members around our practice model to help children and families achieve success in life; safety; life in the community; family based placements; and life-long family connections. We will communicate clearly and often with stakeholders and community members. Our communication must reinforce the belief that children and youth belong in family and community settings and that system resources must be allocated in a manner consistent with that belief.
3. We are committed to working collaboratively to ensure that children with disabilities receive the supports necessary to enable them to receive their special education services within the public schools. We will collaboratively plan for children with disabilities who are struggling in public school settings to identify services that may prevent the need for private school placements, recognizing that the provision of such services will maximize the potential for these children to remain with their families and within their communities.
We believe that how we do our work is as important as the work we do.
1. The people who do this work are our most important asset. Children and families deserve trained, skillful professionals to engage and assist them. We strive to build a workforce that works in alignment with our practice model. They are supported in this effort through open dialogue, clear policy, excellent training and supervision, formal and informal performance evaluation and appropriate resource allocation.
2. As with families, we look for strengths in our organization. We are responsible for creating and maintaining a supportive working and learning environment and for open, respectful communication, collaboration, and accountability at all levels.
3. Our organizations are focused on providing high quality, timely, efficient, and effective services.
4. Relationships and communication among staff, children, families, and community providers are conducted with genuineness, empathy, and respect.
5. The practice of collecting and sharing data and information is a non-negotiable part of how we continually learn and improve. We will use data to inform management, improve practice, measure effectiveness and guide policy decisions. We must strive to align our laws so that collaboration and sharing of data can be achieved to better support our children and families.
6. As we work with children, families, and their teams, we clearly share with them our purpose, role, concerns, decisions, and responsibility.
Read more.... Virginia Practice Model
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Residential Treatment Centers - Do they work? Bazelon Center Information
A must read....
Bazelon Center for Mental Health
Tens of thousands of children with mental health needs are being placed in expensive, inappropriate and often dangerous institutions.
The number of children placed in residential treatment centers (or RTCs)[1] is growing exponentially.[2] These modern-day orphanages now house more than 50,000 children nationwide.[3] Children are packed off to RTCs, often sent by officials they have never met, who have probably never spoken to their parents, teachers or social workers.[4] Once placed, these kids may have no meaningful contact with their families or friends for up to two years.[5] And, despite many documented cases of neglect and physical and sexual abuse, monitoring is inadequate to ensure that children are safe, healthy and receiving proper services in RTCs.[6] By funneling children with mental illnesses into the RTC system, states fail—at enormous cost—to provide more effective community-based mental health services.
Read more....Bazelon Center for Mental Health
Bazelon Center for Mental Health
Tens of thousands of children with mental health needs are being placed in expensive, inappropriate and often dangerous institutions.
The number of children placed in residential treatment centers (or RTCs)[1] is growing exponentially.[2] These modern-day orphanages now house more than 50,000 children nationwide.[3] Children are packed off to RTCs, often sent by officials they have never met, who have probably never spoken to their parents, teachers or social workers.[4] Once placed, these kids may have no meaningful contact with their families or friends for up to two years.[5] And, despite many documented cases of neglect and physical and sexual abuse, monitoring is inadequate to ensure that children are safe, healthy and receiving proper services in RTCs.[6] By funneling children with mental illnesses into the RTC system, states fail—at enormous cost—to provide more effective community-based mental health services.
Read more....Bazelon Center for Mental Health
A Forever Family - quote
“it fueled the fire in my heart to know that one day, finding a forever family who can provide unconditional love, a sense of normalcy, and happiness to your life will no longer be just luck – it will become the standard of foster care.”
Merli
Recommendations from Youth on Permanency
Number of Children and Youth in the System in Virginia
According to Voices of Virginia,
Over 6,900 children in Virginia are in foster care.
Over 55% of children in foster care are 13 and older (3,795 youth).
20% of all children and youth in foster care live in group homes and institutions (1,371 children and youth).
For thousands of these children and youth (38%, 2,635 youth), the goal set forth in their foster care plan does not lead to a permanent family.
We need to get our children home! These children need families. We cannot afford to keep children institutionalized, being raised by workers rather than parents. We must find a way to get them reunited with their families or in a new permanent family.
These children need to be out of the system!
Over 6,900 children in Virginia are in foster care.
Over 55% of children in foster care are 13 and older (3,795 youth).
20% of all children and youth in foster care live in group homes and institutions (1,371 children and youth).
For thousands of these children and youth (38%, 2,635 youth), the goal set forth in their foster care plan does not lead to a permanent family.
We need to get our children home! These children need families. We cannot afford to keep children institutionalized, being raised by workers rather than parents. We must find a way to get them reunited with their families or in a new permanent family.
These children need to be out of the system!
Virginia rate of Adoption
According to Virginia Performs, Virginia had the second lowest rate of public agency adoptin in the nation.
The Commonwealth ranks first among the states in the percent of youth (22.5 percent) who age out of foster care.
This means, of every state in the Nation, Virginia has a larger percent of children who are not adopted but end up remaining in the system until they turn eighteen.
In addition, Virginia ranks fourth from last in the average waiting time between termination of rights from original guardians and finalization of adoption. Virginia's average wait time of 20.9 months means that children who have lost their parents average more time in foster care than their peers in other states.
The Commonwealth ranks first among the states in the percent of youth (22.5 percent) who age out of foster care.
This means, of every state in the Nation, Virginia has a larger percent of children who are not adopted but end up remaining in the system until they turn eighteen.
In addition, Virginia ranks fourth from last in the average waiting time between termination of rights from original guardians and finalization of adoption. Virginia's average wait time of 20.9 months means that children who have lost their parents average more time in foster care than their peers in other states.
Children Need Families
Children need families. They need to have loving adults to care for them. They need people who love them. They need nurturing and love.
Time to get children out of the system and into families.
Whether the family consists of their family of birth, extended family members or a brand new permanent family, children need to be raised in a home with people who love them.
It is time for all of us to open our hearts and homes to help children languishing in institutions and get them into a loving family!
Time to get children out of the system and into families.
Whether the family consists of their family of birth, extended family members or a brand new permanent family, children need to be raised in a home with people who love them.
It is time for all of us to open our hearts and homes to help children languishing in institutions and get them into a loving family!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
