Case Management services are available for children and families who need assistance with linking, coordinating or navigating with other community agencies or resources involved in the treatment and welfare of the child. Case management is a service that assists individuals and families in finding, obtaining, or maintaining these needed medical, social, educational or vocational services. Case management services may be offered alone or in combination with therapy or other services when there are multiple needs a family is hoping to address for their child.

Individual or family therapy and treatment is available to help children and families to address symptoms of a severe emotional disturbance, behavior problems, or family problems that are impacting the life and well being of the child or family. Therapy services can help with problem solving, development of coping skills, changing undesirable behaviors or relationship problems, parenting tools, and resolving personal struggles or hurts that are negatively impacting a child or family’s functioning.

Typical symptom areas addressed through therapy can include depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder management, anger management, parenting struggles, substance abuse or addictions, stress reduction, or working through issues related to abuse or traumas that children or families have survived. Therapy services can be available in the office or in the home depending on the needs of the child and family.

Parent Management Training Oregon Model (PMTO) is an evidence based best treatment practice currently offered by Monroe CMHA. This model is targeted primarily toward children with oppositional defiant or conduct disorders but has been shown to be effective with children with a range of behavioral problems. The parent management training model is a strength based program that recognizes that parent s are the most important treatment providers in the child’s life. In addition, PMTO recognizes that raising a child with behavioral struggles is difficult and usually takes additional parenting skills and supports in order for parents to be successful in helping their child. Parent Management Training targets five core skills that research shows parents of behaviorally challenged children need in order to be successful and uses a hands on coaching model to make sure that parents can succeed.

Wraparound services are available for families who have a high risk of concern for a child to be placed outside of the home in a hospital, residential, foster care or institutional setting. Wraparound services may also be available for high risk children and families who are involved in multiple community agencies or systems. The goal of the Wraparound process is to help families stabilize difficult situations and for the child and family to achieve a fulfilling, law abiding and constructive life in the community with minimal agency based supports.

The wraparound process is based on individualized, strength based, needs driven planning and service delivery that seeks to fully involve the child, the family and all key service delivery agencies and natural supports in the development and delivery of a single, seamless and comprehensive plan to help the child. The plan is intensive, flexible and is continually evaluated and modified based on the child and family’s developing strengths and evolving needs. The Wraparound planning process is intended to bring the services of multiple agencies that may be involved in a child’s life into one coordinated and effective plan that more comprehensively and seamlessly meets the need of the child and family.

Referrals to Wraparound can be made through any community agency and are reviewed by the local Wraparound interagency team for assignment to the program. Wraparound is available as a stand alone service through CMH or as a part of a comprehensive array of other mental health services through person and family centered planning.

The Wraparound project is a joint initiative involving representation from multiple community agencies and reports to the Monroe County Human Collaborative Services Network to ensure ongoing community support and collaboration in addressing the needs of high risk children and families.

The Child Care Expulsion Prevention program provides mental health consultation to child care providers and parents who care for children under the age of six who are experiencing behavioral and emotional challenges in their child care settings. Sometimes these challenges may put children at risk of expulsion from the child care setting. The program aims to reduce expulsion and increase the number of families and child care providers who successfully nurture the social and emotional development of children 0-5 in licensed child care programs. The program provides short-term child/family-centered mental health consultation for children with challenging behaviors which may include: Observation and assessment at home and at child care, individualized plan of service development by team, interventions such as coaching and support for parents and providers to learn new ways to interact with the child, providing educational resources for parents and providers, modifying the physical environment, connecting the family to community resources, and providing counseling for families in crisis.

Child Care Expulsion Prevention Services are available to child care providers by request through the Child and Family Services department or through referral through local day care providers.

The Juvenile Justice screening program provided through Monroe Community Mental Health Authority is a program that provides screening and assessment to youth on site at the Monroe County Court house or the Monroe County Youth Center to assess and refer youth with mental health concerns or serious emotional disturbance to appropriate community services and resources. The goal is to assist all youth having contact with the juvenile justice system to access needed mental health services or other resources in order to address the mental health needs of the youth and family and reduce the possibility of recurring offenses.

This program is accomplished through collaboration with the Monroe Family Court and other community stakeholders to ensure youth entering the juvenile justice system are screened by a Monroe Community Mental Health Authority clinician and receive assistance with obtaining needed treatment and/or resources. The clinician will also provide temporary assistance and case management services to respond to crisis needs or to help youth transition into other needed services.

The Monroe CMHA Treatment Foster Care program provides intensive mental health and evidence based treatment for children diagnosed with a severe emotional disturbance and their families who are in need of placement outside of the home in order to address significant child or family issues. The goal of the program is to stabilize families, reduce at risk behaviors and symptoms of the child, increase child and family functioning, reduce cost to the local child system of care, avoid hospitalization or detention or out of county and/or residential placements for children and to ultimately re-unify families. As the purpose of this program is to re-unite children with their families, the average expected length of stay is 9-12 months.

Children and families receiving treatment foster care must be willing to engage in the intensive treatment provided including weekly therapy using evidence based treatment approaches and to participate in a comprehensive treatment planning and case management using the wraparound process. Children in Treatment Foster Care will be placed in a home individually, where the Foster Parents have received specific training in working with at risk children and are part of the mental health treatment team. Individualized plans of care will be used in the home to target the needs of the child in addition to individual and family therapy outside of the home.

Referrals to the program may be made by contacting the Treatment Foster Care Coordinator in the Child and family Services department. All of the programs written policies, procedures, and program statements are available for view by parents, providers and the general public upon request.

The Parent Advisory Council is made up of current or former consumers of child and family services and meets monthly to review programs, plan family events, and provide input and feedback regarding the services provided by the Child and Family Services Department. This council helps us to make sure that the services we are providing are in keeping with what families actually want and need. If you would like more information about the parent advisory council or would like to speak with a member for more information about CMH services from a parent perspective, please contact David King, Child and Family Department Head at (734) 384-8591.