Effectively addressing mental health issues in permanency-focused child welfare practice.
The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to highlight to the professional community the ongoing and shifting mental health needs of children exiting the child welfare system into permanent plans, dismissed from public caseloads yet still much in need of services, and, to present a model of one agency's integrated, outpatient intervention with promising preliminary data. The model offers a specialized; effective approach to the field to address the needs of families built by adoption and relative caregiving. The increasing number of adoptions, and relative and near-kin placements, mandate that competent, lifelong services to children and their permanent families correspondingly increase. This practice model poses one example of translating this responsibility into action, so that these children are discharged not just to one permanent family, but also with a plan for permanent competent support.
Ornelas
Laura A
LA
Mental Health Services, Kinship Center, Salinas, California, USA. lornelas@kinshipcenter.org
Silverstein
Deborah N
DN
Tan
Sherylle
S
D000300:Adoption / Q000523:psychology*; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D019090:Case Management; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D002655:Child Custody; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000523:psychology*; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003155:Community Mental Health Centers; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D063647:Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D005581:Foster Home Care / Q000523:psychology*; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010348:Patient Care Team; D011247:Pregnancy; D019962:Reactive Attachment Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy