Treatment foster care expands in Ohio

TIFFIN — Monday, Melanie Allen, director of Sandusky County Jobs and Family Services, shared her personal experience witnessing domestic violence and her and her siblings' journey through foster care. Allen attended the Behavioral Health Summit hosted by the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Seneca, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wyandot Counties to discuss the Northwest Treatment Foster Care program. "Youth have seen, heard and experienced things that would buckle you at your knees and shake you to your core," she said. "Children are resilient, but it would be nice to take some of the trauma off their plates that they are handed. Just living life is hard enough." Allen said that agencies need to be trauma-informed and work towards harm reduction for children going through the system. Throughout her time in the child welfare system, she has noticed a shift away from removing children to working on prevention, keeping families intact and re-evaluating what constitutes a family from a broader perspective. "No matter how much prevention we are doing, we still need to remove children from the home and we still need to place children in care," Allen said. "But what I can tell you is that we don't have enough placements, we don't have enough homes and we don't have the right, skilled people caring for our most vulnerable youth. The levels of care that children can experience are the following. Home – with their families Kinship/relative care – under the care of family, family friends or other trusted individuals Family foster home – foster care provided in a family setting Treatment foster home – foster care provided in a family setting by caregivers who are trained to care for children with behavioral, medical or mental needs Congregate care – care provided in a group or residential home or detention facility She explained that children in the system are often separated from their siblings based on age and children of younger and younger ages have "high acuity needs". "These kids have such significant behavioral challenges that family settings are not equipped to take that child or willing to say yes to that child and be successful. So, we have no choice but to place that child in a congregate setting with youth who are up to the age of 18 in the same settings who have criminal convictions and other behavioral challenges." Another issue children may face is being placed far away from their family, hometown and school district. To address these issues, the Northwest Treatment Foster Care program was formed to provide youth with care in a family setting by people who have been trained to provide care to children experiencing behavioral, mental or health challenges. The program allows children to stay in the same region, closer to their families, school district and health providers. In these specialized homes, siblings can stay together. Recently, the Treatment Foster Home Pilot program was launched in the state. 34 counties are participating in the program and are broken up into 10 different regions. The initiative is saving the state and counties money because treatment foster care is one-third to one-fifth the price of congregate care. "This isn't a business," Allen concluded. "We don't want pople doing this for the money." Editor's note: Check out the weekend edition of the A-T and RT to read the latest on the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.