betty jo mcneece receiving home (bjmrh) has been in
TRANSCRIPT
Betty Jo McNeece Receiving Home (BJMRH) has
been in operation since 1992, initially operated
under Imperial County Probation.
July 2006 - Imperial County Behavioral Health
Services took over the daily operations of the
facility.
July 2013 -Imperial County Department of
Social Services assumed responsibility of the
daily operation and oversight of the facility.
Assembly Bill 403 (2015) – Designed to improve
California’s Child Welfare System and outcomes for
youth in foster care.
Assembly Bill 1997 (2016) – Reduced the number of
days children can stay in Shelters from 30 to 10 days.
Together AB403 and AB 1997 comprise Continuum of
Care Reform (CCR), which charts California’s
movement away from congregate care and toward
placing children in a family-like setting with foster
families or relatives.
Under CCR all County operated shelters have
implemented changes pursuant to guidelines from
California Department of Social Services’ Interim
Licensing Standards (ILS).
August 2018 – BJMRH was licensed as a 10-Day
Temporary Shelter Care Facility (TSCF) by California
Department of Social Services through Community
Care Licensing.
24 Hour Facility Shift work – 3 Shifts
• 6am-2pm
• 2pm-10pm
• 10pm-6am
New Staff to Child Ratio Per Interim Licensing
Standards
1 Staff per 4 children during the hours of 7am to
10pm
1 staff to 6 children during the night hours of 10pm
to 7am
Intake Process - Asses the child’s immediate needs, medical clearance if applicable.
Physicals and Dental Needs - To be scheduled with local health care providers.
Mental health and developmental assessments.
Child continues to attend school of origin.
Follow up appointments -Medical, dental, Behavioral Health, visitations with family.
Child and Family Team meetings with all family members and natural support systems.
ILS Guidelines issues by California Department of
Social Services (CDSS) outline specific services to be
provided to children, training requirements for staff,
reporting requirements, and newly implemented staff
to child ratios.
ILS further describes how CDSS will develop a
legislative report no later than January 1, 2021. The
report will include the following data:• Number of children and youth served by the shelters
• Characteristics of children residing at these facilities
• Whether there is a continued need for the licensing and operation of
the shelters
10-Day Overstay Report:
• The number of days the child has been at facility
• Reason for the child’s overstay (barriers)
• Steps taken to identify placement, including any next steps
Quarterly Data Reports
• Children’s demographics
• Date of admission/discharge
• Length of stay at facility
• Reason for shelter usage
• Barriers to placement, and barriers to placement causing stay
to exceed ten (10) calendar days if applicable
• Child’s next placement
9 Counties in California have transitioned into a TSCF: Imperial, Kern, Orange, Placer, San Diego, San Joaquin, Solano, San Mateo and Sonoma.
California Emergency Shelter Director’s Association (CESDA) Meetings.
Provider Meetings hosted by Children’s Residential Regional Office.
CDSS Licensing Program Analyst assigned to BJMRH.
Great Communication with Southern Area shelters – We all experience same barriers to placement, collaborate in problem solving, share Trauma Informed training.
In January 2017 The Resource Family Approval (RFA) program was
implemented in California. RFA is a statewide foster caregiver
approval process for all caregivers (related and non-related). The
RFA program has a single approval standard that replaces the
previous multiple processes for licensing foster family homes,
approving relatives and non-relative extended family members
(“NREFMs”).
RFA creates a framework for all families, including relative and
NREFM caregivers, called "resource families" to receive the same
information, training and opportunities for support. A resource
family completes one approval process, and once approved, may
choose to provide care on a short- or long-term basis.
Barriers To Implementation
• If the caregiver did not have any children placed in the home during the calendar year of 2017, their license or approval was forfeited by operation of law on January 1, 2018. In Imperial County there were 24 homes whose licenses were forfeited.
• Relatives must go through same process, feedback is that it is intrusive, training hours, and long process.
• Written Directives continue to change (currently WD Version 6) which at times makes it difficult to streamline processes, practice, policy.