Expansion of the dunklin county family treatment court to include an early intervention in-home component. - in dunklin county all individuals with a dependency petition filed against them whose…

Expansion of the dunklin county family treatment court to include an early intervention in-home component. - in dunklin county all individuals with a dependency petition filed against them whose children are removed are referred to the existing FTC. Once accepted, these individuals have access to intense substance use treatment including residential, individual and group counseling, group education and programs for CO-occurring disorders as well as extensive wrap around and recovery support services. The FTC uses a holistic approach that also includes trauma counseling, mat, family counseling, parent aides, recovery support services and services/referrals for the children. Families whose children could safely remain at home with increased services and supervision do not have access to the same range of services, which creates a service GAP and unmet needs in this population. Funds are being requested to expand the existing services to those families whose children can remain safely at home. The FTC has met with the juvenile court practitioners to identify those families and has generally agreed upon criteria such as families who have a non-offending parent at home, families with older children capable of voicing safety concerns, and multi-generational households with another adult present. At this time there is not a comprehensive program that offers all of the above services to families who have a SUD or CO-occurring disorder. Missouri children's division offers intensive in-home services, but IT is limited to a 4-6 week time period and generally has a lengthy wait time for enrollment. The extra structure and daily contact that could be provided through the FTC staff, peers and service providers will allow more children to stay at home, thus reducing the trauma caused by removal. Enrollment would be within days of a hotline, and the program will be long enough to address the needs of the families. This project will allow the FTC to provide a single point of contact service coordinator, and contract with a family advocate specialist who is a lcsw and can evaluate the behavioral health needs of each family. IT will also allow for more peer support services, increasing daily contact with the families. Increased contact will allow the juvenile court more assurances of safety, increasing the number of families who remain intact. Data from the fostering court improvement website confirms the need for this track in order to reduce the number of children removed from parental care in dunklin county. From october 2020 to september 2020, dunklin placed 73 children in foster care. That is a rate of 95.4 per 10K, which is slightly more than double the state rate. Dunklin ranks 31ST out of 118 counties in average monthly removals to foster care. Expanding the FTC services to this population of focus will assist in reducing the number of children in foster care.