FamilyCARE Services
Wraparound Coordination* provides early intervention for families who are at risk of having children removed from their home. UMFS staff establishes a community team with key stakeholders who have knowledge of free or low-cost community services for families and children. The team identifies the family’s needs, strengths and challenges, then works together to develop a Wraparound Plan that connects the family to free or low-cost services already available in the community.
Follow-up with the family is conducted at six and 12 months after termination to determine if any further support is needed.
* Wraparound Coordination is delivered on a special contractual basis between a locality and UMFS.
Family Finding and Engagement starts with a diligent effort to identify, locate, and engage families of children who currently live in out-of-home placements. Family finding is based on the belief that all children need lifelong family connections. Our goal is to find 30 family members in 30 days.
Once family members have been found, we develop a unique and individualized engagement strategy to enlist the support of family members and others important to the child or family to participate in providing important information helpful to the child. The end result may be reunification with family or next of kin or the establishment of a permanency pact.
Our services to support the engagement of newly found family members include completion of home studies, family support services, intensive in-home services, home-based services, and family and parenting classes.
UMFS establishes a family team and, in coordination with a community case manager, conducts a strengths-based assessment with informal and formal participants in preparation for a family team meeting. UMFS staff facilitates and ensures the development of a Wraparound Plan consistent with the needs of the family.
Children’s Mental Health Program Transition Coordination, funded 100 percent through Medicaid for up to 90 days, is available for youth transitioning out of residential treatment to a lesser level of care. Services include case management, meeting facilitation, care coordination, and discharge planning.
*Service is dependent upon continued Medicaid funding.
Guided visitation provides regular or limited visits, in a safe and structured environment, between children and families who have moderate risk behaviors in their past and who seek to maintain family connections and/or reunify. UMFS staff observes the interactions and assures safety of the child.
Supervised visitation is a structured, directed service for families with severe degrees of previous at-risk behaviors, specifically in regard to their children. Families who participate in these visits may be working towards reunification, are under court order to have visitation, or are in situations where it has been determined as therapeutic by the referral source.
Supervised visitation provides UMFS staff guidance and instruction designed to improve the interactions, and also provides for the safety of the recipients, including detailed documentation of the visit. UMFS staff plans for appropriate space, activities, observation, and supervision.
The mentor program provides one-on-one support services to youth with emotional and behavioral problems in the least restrictive environment. Mentors work closely with the referral source, involved professionals, and caregivers to formulate and implement goals and objectives. The mentor program seeks to promote healthier individuals, stronger families, and involved communities.
Home-Based Services are provided to children and/or families who are experiencing mild to moderate conflicts in the home, school, or community. This level of service meets the needs of clients who readily engage and are highly motivated. The duration and frequency of contact will be discussed with the referral source prior to initial contact and within 24 hours of that contact.
UMFS provides intensive in-home clinical services to children and families who are experiencing
moderate to severe conflicts and/or multiple and overlapping diagnostic, environmental, or other issues. This includes children who have been abused and neglected, been removed from the home, or are being reunited with their families. We also work with children with specialized needs, such as emotional, medical, cognitive, and/or behavioral issues.
UMFS supports children and families by providing individualized, flexible in-home stabilization services, customized to meet a family’s specific needs, in order to maintain or reunify families. These non-clinical services may include supervision, behavior support and management, family and parent education, and crisis management.
Respite care is designed to 1) provide temporary relief to caretakers and 2) to protect the health, safety and welfare of a child on a short-term basis (up to 29 days). Respite care will be offered as needed for the provision of temporary respite to primary caregivers with the aim of reducing family stress, preventing abuse and neglect, supporting family stability and minimizing placement disruption.
UMFS will provide Intensive Care Coordination (ICC) to those youth and their families referred for services to either a) safely and effectively maintain a child who is at risk of residential placement, in the community, or b) to transition a child from a residential setting to their family’s home, a relative’s home, or a family-like setting in the community at the earliest appropriate time that addresses the child’s needs. Services include a) assessment of the child and family’s strengths and challenges; b) facilitation of a service planning process; and development of a service plan which addresses both strengths and needs; and c) monitoring of the implementation of the developed plan.
