|
About Our Services
Foster Care - Dan Fox Foster Care and Adoption Program
Program Description
In 1990, the Youth Homes added the Dan Fox Foster Care & Adoption
Program to its array of services. The Program is a partnership with
the State’s Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) to
provide intensive social work and therapeutic support to foster
and adoptive families who provide temporary or permanent placements
for high needs children with serious behavioral and emotional disturbances.
The Dan Fox Program serves Western Montana, with offices and staff
in Missoula, Hamilton, Polson and Helena. Through this program,
we place children into families that we have recruited, screened,
trained and licensed or support placements made by the State Agency.
Our goal is to create and maintain healthy family environments within
which children, who have been abused and/or neglected can begin
to heal and find permanency or stability.
 |
| The Dan Fox Foster Care and Adoption
Program places children ages 2 to 17 |
Program Structure
We offer three levels of care for children in our program:
Permanency Level Foster Care – is for children who need either
a temporary or long-term supported foster placement, but do not
require a coordinated treatment plan for therapeutic care. Some
additional resources may be needed for these children but they can
be expected to be relatively stable in substitute care; foster parents
provide the majority of intervention in these cases. Children enter
our program at this level or step down to it when therapeutic goals
have been reached and they are stable in a placement.
Therapeutic Foster Care – is a more intensive level of foster
care where foster parents, a Caseworker, the therapist and the referring
agency caseworker work as a coordinated Treatment Team to meet a
child’s emotional and development needs. Foster parents are
encouraged to be clinically involved as is appropriate and desired.
Efforts of this service are more team-oriented and directed with
the foster family viewed as important, in-home members of the Team.
Adoption Services - offer a full array of adoptive services. Often
higher-needs children can be adopted through us, starting in therapeutic
foster care and working toward permanency with adoption as the child
stabilizes. We provide services to help families through all the
steps of the adoption process, often turning the case back over
to the State to assist the family in avoiding unnecessary legal
fees. We also contract to provide home studies for families who
plan to adopt through private agencies.
Services
- Recruited, screened, trained and licensed Foster and Adoptive
Parents who need to be stable, caring, energetic adults and willing
to commit to keeping a child for a minimum of one year. Foster
and adoptive parents fulfill basic parenting duties, including
physical care, daily management, discipline, activities, relationship
building and nurturing. We work with a variety of “families”
as there is no one single model of a “family” that
is capable of providing these critical, caring services.
- Bachelor and Masters level Caseworkers with low caseloads that
enable regular contact and support with the foster family and
child, case coordination, treatment and case planning and reporting,
and counseling.
- Parents receive a non-taxable monthly stipend to cover the
cost of caring for a child. Additional funds are available to
pay for special needs and activities.
- Medical, dental and mental health needs are met through Medicaid
or other insurance and are not the responsibility of the foster
families.
- The children are expected to attend public schools and may
receive special education through the local district.
- Parents receive professional training on how to care for these
children. Additional training that addresses issues that challenge
our families and children is offered continuously.
- Parents receive support and guidance from an assigned Caseworker
(bachelors and masters level) who provides social worker support,
helps plan for needed services, and is available 24-hours a day
in case of emergencies or crisis. Families meet with their Caseworker
regularly. Support groups are held monthly.
- All foster parents are required to accept one day or weekend
off per month.
- Although we do not continue to meet regularly with a family
once an adoption is complete, we do offer families a continuing
relationship with our program and staff. Families have ongoing
access to our staff - whether to ask for suggestions on how to
solve a problem or to share good news - and continued training.
Placement Criteria
Children in our program have come from a variety of situations of
broken homes, and have been neglected or abused such that they present
troubling behaviors and emotional issues. They range in age from
two to 18 years, and often demonstrate low self-esteem, a lack of
social skills, an inability to focus their attention and, sometimes,
angry and disruptive behavior.
Who to contact:
If you’re interested in making a referral for placement or
services or in becoming a foster parent we invite you to learn more
about us by contacting the Dan Fox Foster Care and Adoption Program
in:
Missoula County at 406.721.2754 or 406.883.4370
Ravalli County at 406.363.0619
Lake County at 406.883.4370
Lewis & Clark County at 406.443.4730
Or you can email your questions and requests for information to: Erin Williams ewilliams@youthhomes.com
or Bill Neaves bneaves@youthhomes.com
The Program is named after the late Dan Fox, a lifelong advocate
for children. Dan worked for over 20 years in the State’s
Child Protective Services Program and was a believer in mediation
and conflict resolution for families in crisis. Dan left us all
too soon at the age of 47 but his commitment to and concern for
these children lives on through our work.
|
