Rockingham County Department of Health & Human Services-Division of Social Services is adept at participating in pilot projects in the health and human services realm, and is always interested in doing innovative, trauma-informed work that is for the benefit of the children & families they serve. In 2019, Rockingham County chose to participate in Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) project and sought to provide foster children with the opportunity to receive a holistic Trauma-intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA), providing them the best holistic recommendations for treatment and skill building. The SAP process includes timely screening for trauma after the child comes into care to quickly identify a foster child’s need for further assessment, so that they are more likely to receive the treatment necessary to reach their full potential. This treatment post-TiCCA can go beyond mental and behavioral health, as it also takes into consideration the child’s social, emotional, health, and environmental needs. Ultimately the project seeks to prevent placements in higher levels of care and hospitalizations for this population, maintaining children in placements closer to their home communities.
Since participating in the SAP implementation process, Rockingham DSS has weathered through the storms of the pandemic, consistent staff turnover, multiple physical building moves and changes, integrating a clinical team into their department, and still managed to effectively move foster children through the SAP pathway. Once evaluation processes are complete, we hope to see that Rockingham County children have improved outcomes, such as reduced mental health symptoms, fewer placement changes, increased local behavioral health service utilization, and lower utilization of restrictive behavioral health facilities.
Though Rockingham County has experienced that same consistent staffing struggles that DSSes have statewide, they continue to move forward, ensuring that new staff are onboarded to SAP processes and refer their children for a TiCCA. They have started the process of two staff becoming certified to facilitate the Resource Parent Curriculum (RPC) so that they may offer that resource to foster and kinship families in the future. Furthermore, Director Felissa Ferrell has been seeking out additional resources to aid foster and kinship placement parents in learning to manage their own stress and trauma, so they can model those skills for the children in their care. Also, they continue to support their staff, doing all that they can to ameliorate any secondary traumatic stress that their workers experience. We are excited to see that Rockingham County DHHS-DSS continues to serve children and families despite the obstacles and that they continue to look for more opportunities to serve their foster care youth!
Comments (0)