Child Preventive Services is a
program which serves families with severe and multiple problems.
Some problems include child or adult mental illness, mental
retardation, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, and child sexual
abuse. We work with parents who
are unable or unwilling to provide proper discipline, direction, or care for
their children. Preventive’s
goal is to improve family functioning so that children can remain in their
own home and prevent foster care. New
York State law requires that Preventive Services be offered prior to placing
a child in foster care, unless remaining in the home presents serious risk
to health and safety or if the child is at imminent risk of harm.
In
order to best serve our customers, the agency has found it beneficial to
have two (2) units that specialize themselves by the age of the children in
a family. The Early
Intervention Preventive Services Unit typically serves families with
children under the age of twelve (12), while the Adolescent Preventive Services Unit typically serves families with
teenagers. This allows for the
agency’s casework staff to have a keen understanding of the inherent
developmental differences of the children they serve, while having an
awareness of the community based resources available to best meet the
families needs.
Early Intervention Preventive Services
Preventive Services Caseworkers serve as case managers. An initial
assessment is conducted with each family, wherein information is gathered
from any service provider working with the family.
This may include counselors, physicians and school officials, amongst
others. Once the assessment is
complete the family may be referred for other appropriate additional
services to ensure child safety and to promote family preservation. Frequently
used services may include but are not limited to day care, parenting classes,
parent aide services, mental health counseling, specialized sex abuse
treatment, public health nursing, transportation, Family Group Conferences,
mentoring, and Community Maternity Services. The caseworker assists the
family in accessing the needed services, and also monitors the delivery of
service by other providers. Caseworkers also provide casework counseling services that help families
to identify and enhance their strengths; to empower families to utilize
community supports in order to provide safe, stable home environments on
their own, without continued intervention from social services.
During
the summer months, Preventive services provide additional supports for
children, including day care through Washington County Head Start, YMCA, or
other registered day care providers. Children’s
committee funds are also accessed for overnight camping opportunities.
Caseworkers are proactive in locating other positive recreational activities
for families.
Adolescent Preventive Services
The Adolescent Preventive Services Unit focuses
on the adolescent, Persons-In-Need of Supervision (PINS), and Juvenile
Delinquent (JD) populations. This
unit administers the PINS-Adjustment
Program, wherein youth who are deemed to be ungovernable and/or
incorrigible are referred to the agency for adjustment services.
The Designated Assessment Team (DAS) comprised of professionals from
the mental health community, alcohol and substance abuse community, as well
as other human service agencies assess for service needs and subsequently
develop a treatment plan which is then monitored by unit staff.
The
Adolescent Preventive unit also provides pre-court
assessments on all Juvenile Delinquents in order to assist in making any
appropriate referrals, as well as to assist the
County
Attorney
in determining the necessary terms and conditions to be set forth by the
court.
The Family
Resolutions Project (FRP) also falls under the responsibility of this
unit. Referred families are
offered Family Group Conferences, wherein the caseworker coordinates and
attends a family meeting to assist families in recognizing their own
inherent strengths and abilities to plan for themselves and their family
members needs.
With
the exception of non-negotiable bottom-lines centered around child safety, the
family is empowered to develop a plan for the safety of children, while
maintaining the integrity of the family unit and capitalizing on the
resources within the family. It
is particularly important to note, the most, if not all of these family
group conferences take place during non-traditional work hours, such as
evenings, weekends, and Sundays in order to maximize the family members
ability to participate.
A
similar approach to Family Group Conferences, the 72-hour Conferencing
Approach continues to be put into practice.
This approach involves holding a family conference within 72 hours of
an out-of-home removal with the intent of developing a safety plan and
putting any services into place that might allow for the planned return of
the child/children.
* The receipt of state and federal funding will allow the agency to
provide necessary training for staff.
Two initiatives for
Adolescents Services have been developed in response to needs identified by
DSS Staff and other youth serving agencies and began providing services in
January 2005. They are Juvenile Drug Court
which is designed to review cases for admission to the new treatment
court program and the Juvenile Community
Restoration (JCR) Program, under a cooperative agreement with
Washington County Youth Bureau. An agency supervisor and staff member
attended a number of training sessions during the course of 2004 to ready
and plan for the January 2005 start-up date.
