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Assessment & Treatment Alternatives
Forensic Mental Health Evaluation & Treatment Services
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Forensic Foster Care Program
The Forensic Foster Care Program (FFC) is is an intensive therapeutic foster care program designed to meet the individual needs of children and adolescents with a history of physical, emotional or sexual abuse, neglect, and/or juvenile delinquency. Professional Parents provide support, structure, educational assistance, and linkages to the community, including substance abuse groups, educational awareness, independent living classes, life skills classes, individual therapy, and community service. The goal of Forensic FosterCare is to prevent institutional or multiple foster care placements of children whenever possible. Forensic Foster Care is an effective treatment model that is successful in helping children recover from trauma and assists in facilitating family reunification. Many of these children carry the scars of abuse, neglect, and/or abandonment. Effective foster parents realize that emotionally disturbed children often require fresh initiatives and specialized interventions to help stabilize their adjustments and to promote their further growth. With the help of the foster parent, a foster child can learn to trust, use good judgement, improve their self esteem, resolve conflicts, and appropriately respond to opportunities and life situations.
Qualifying foster parents understand that the children they accept into their homes are experiencing behavioral and emotional symptoms that require specialized treatment interventions. Foster parents do not excuse problem behaviors, but offer substantial resources and defined strategies to overcome them.
Community families are recruited, trained, and supported to provide well-supervised placements and treatment. FFC parents are part of the treatment team along with program staff. They are paid a monthly salary and a small stipend to cover extra expenses. FFC parents implement a structured, individualized program for each youth that is designed to simultaneously build on the youngster's strengths and to set clear rules, expectations, and limits. FFC parents are contacted daily (Monday through Friday) by telephone, and data are collected on the youth's behavior during the past 24 hours. During this call, potential problems are discussed, and plans for the coming day are reviewed. FFC parents are supported by a case manager who coordinates all aspects of the youngsters' treatment program. Additional components of the program include weekly supervision and support meetings for FFC parents; skill-focused individual treatment for youth; weekly family therapy for biological parents (adoptive or other aftercare resource); frequent contact between participating youth and their biological/adoptive family members, including home visits; close monitoring of the youngsters' progress in school; coordination with probation/parole officers; and psychiatric consultation/medication management, as needed.
Weekly meetings with FFC parents are run by the case manager and attended by other involved program staff. During these meetings, telephone data collected during the prior week are reviewed and discussed, and the youths' individualized programs are adjusted as needed. Each individualized program is structured to give the youth a clear picture of what is expected of him/her throughout the day and evening. During the placement period, individualized programs are readjusted to fit youths' changing needs, to reflect progress, and to target new problem behaviors that emerge. The individualized programs help guide FFC parents to be specific in the way they reinforce progress and to consistently set limits and consequences. Individualized programs give youth a concrete way to measure their success. The individualized programs also are used by biological/adoptive parents or relatives during home visits and when youth return home after placement.
Throughout the FFC placement, the youth's biological family (or adoptive family or other aftercare resource) participates in the treatment. Parents attend weekly treatment sessions and have on-call access to FFC staff. During weekly sessions, effective methods for supervising, disciplining, and encouraging the youth are discussed. Biological parents and youth have a number of opportunities to practice these skills during home visits that are scheduled throughout the youth's placement. During home visits, parents run the youth's individualized program which is similar to the one used in the FFC home. Home visits start out being short, one to two hours in length, and as the youth and his/her parents progress through the program, eventually overnight visits are scheduled. Following each home visit, the family therapist debriefs the biological parents and the youth regarding problems and progress. |
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wrussell@dca.net with
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