Child Welfare Services

Evaluations

We conduct evaluations of children who enter family foster care in Westchester County and of their birth parents to help determine a service plan. Evaluations are:

• Conducted on every child entering family foster care referred by the DSS pediatrician to determine the child's strengths and service needs.
• Conducted with birth families to determine strengths and service needs related to permanency planning for their children. These assessments include the use of standardized questionnaires as well as an observation of the family interactions and relationship.

Clinical Services

The Family Program provides treatment services to children in foster care and their birth families.  The goals of these services are to improve child adjustment and functioning and to develop appropriate plans for permanency for children. Services include:

• Play therapy
• Individual therapy
• Group therapy
• Social skills training
• Educational help
• Psychiatric services (including medication)
• Parent training services

In Home Assessments

Shortly after a child is placed in foster care, we visit the home to determine what the child's needs are and what, if any, supports the family needs to care for that child.
We look at two areas:

Enhanced Foster Care Program Services

This program is for foster families who have a child that is difficult to manage.  The program was developed to achieve stability in a child's life by helping them to stay in one foster home rather than having to move from one home to another, preventing the need to place a child in more restrictive care (such as group homes) and encouraging the foster parents by helping them to feel good about the work they do. The program includes:

• Training and support to foster parents in their home.
• Recreational activities for the child outside the home that provides some respite for foster families.

Comprehensive Family Assessment Program

A social worker, psychologist and psychiatrist comprise a team that provides comprehensive assessments in the homes of families who are at risk for having their child placed into foster care.  They are referred by the Department of Social Services. The goals of the program are to:

• Ensure that services recommended for families will meet the needs of those families and help them take care of their child safely.
• Prevent foster care placements of a child.
• Include families in making decisions about recommendations.
• Value families' strengths.

Families Together Adoption Project

The Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD)awarded us a small grant to serve as one of four sites to demonstrate how to make it easier to plan for the adoption of a child with developmental disabilities.  In conjunction with the Adoption Unit at the local Department of Social Services, we make sure that the assessments of a child waiting to be adopted are up to date and accurate.  Helpful materials were developed for parents who adopt a child with developmental disabilities.

more information about the materials >>

Training

A training manual was developed through a subcontract with Fordham University to help caseworkers understand the developmental, educational and mental health issues of children in foster care.  Other training is available for parents, foster parents, adoptive parents and caseworkers working with children in foster care.

For more information, contact us at WBreitner@wihd.org.

Program Evaluation Activities and Research

It is crucial to know how effective our services are and how to improve them, therefore we evaluate all our programs.  The evaluation is a built in component to all our programs and the results are shared with the staff at the Department of Social Services in addition to others.  Working together with the DSS Staff, some of the material has also been presented at state and national conferences