The purpose of the Placement Services
program is to provide temporary care and nurturing of a child while
seeking permanence either through a return to their parent or other family
member or by providing them with a caring and committed adoptive family.
Simultaneous casework toward both permanency options is referred to as
“concurrent planning,” a skill that all Placement Services Caseworkers
must become adept at balancing. While the child is placed in foster care,
Placement Services will provide referrals and services needed to ensure
safety and enhanced development for the entire family to strive toward the
goal of overcoming the issues that lead to placement.
Foster Care
The continuum of foster care starts at the
least restrictive setting of placement in a family foster home. It
then increases in structure and therapeutic capacity to therapeutic foster
homes, group homes, Residential Treatment Centers and finally to
Residential Treatment Facilities (licensed by OMH) respectively.
Washington County Department of Social Services licenses several family
foster homes, for both foster care and adoption. This agency is
fortunate to be able to provide placements at the group home level within
our own continuum of care, due to having our own agency operated group
home, known as The Scot House. We are able to access the remainder of
the levels of care by contracting with local voluntary agencies such as
Northeast Parent & Child Society, Parsons Child & Family Center, St.
Anne’s Institute, Berkshire Farm, and Astor Home.
Children enter foster care in a number of ways to include voluntary
placement, consent to placement, emergency removals or by court order.
All placements extending longer than 30 days must appear in front of a
Family Court Judge. Family Court Judges may order the placement of a child
(to include sibling groups) due to suspected child abuse or neglect, as
well as ordering placement based on the JD/PINS behaviors of a youth.
Regardless of the basis for placement, a child can enter any level on the
continuum of foster care based on the perceived need for supervision,
structure and services. The Department is charged with the objective to
maintain children in the least restrictive level of placement, and
in doing so, may move the child from level to level based on their need
for more or less structure.
The
Scot House
Washington County Department of Social
Services operates it’s own group home
for adolescents 12-18 years of age. The Scot House is an eight bed
co-ed facility located in Argyle. The Scot House is staffed 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week facility.
On
site counseling services are provided to the youth at the group home by a
Clinical Social Worker through a contract with Catholic Charities.
The Social Worker will involve the family members in counseling with the
resident either at their family home or on site at The Scot House. The
youth and their family members are referred to outside counseling
providers for any specified area of need such as substance abuse. The
Social Worker will then serve as a liaison between the group home and the
outside clinician. The Catholic Charities Social Worker also serves as a
consultant to the staff and management of the program. A large focus
is placed on individual programming needs for each resident.
The
youth at the group home attend school through the public school district
and are encouraged to become involved in extracurricular activities as
well. The group home program offers support in the school via one of
the full time Child Care Worker who acts as the Education Coordinator.
This staff person serves as a liaison between the school and the group
home and ensures that the educational needs of the students do not fall
through the cracks of the system.
Additionally, the Education Coordinator teams with another member of the
group home staff to provide transitional life skills groups to the
youth at The Scot House as well as the other teenaged youth placed in
family foster homes throughout the county. Other points of focus for
The Scot House program include organized recreation activities and
supporting part-ime/summer employment opportunities for the youth.
