EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (Previously Question 2 of Program Description). In 1 page, summarize the alternative program and funding model you are proposing. Include a comparison between the specific service and funding model innovations in your RBS program and the services and funding that is currently in place. Please use Attachment A to list the active participation between all parties in the development of the RBS program. The goal of San Bernardino County‟s RBS system is to create a community/family reconnection engine for highly disconnected xxxxxx youth with significant mental health challenges. Currently, at least 25% of these high-need xxxxxx youth in San Bernardino County are being served in RCL-14 programs out-of-state; those that remain in-state are bouncing in and out of psychiatric hospitals and being transferred laterally between RCL 14 placements. The result is that they become disconnected from their families and communities. These youth remain institutionalized for long periods of time; the severe barrier behaviors they display prevent them from being served in the existing options for family-based settings. Our prior outcome data indicates that if we do not change our system of care, most of these youth will either emancipate from group home placement to an adult system of care without any lifelong connections or others will put themselves at risk by running away or by becoming involved in the criminal justice system or at risk of homelessness. Our new RBS resource will have two objectives: 1) to help these youth permanently re-establish safe , nurturing family, educational and community connections; second, to establish a new system of care that will prevent any more youth from reaching this point of disconnection. Our system will have an overall capacity for 30 total enrollments, 12 of which may be in short-term residential placement in the two 6 bed facilities that we will establish. The remainder would be in family (biological or found), kinship or other placements with permanent caregivers. The program will attempt to have arrangements for space for an additional 2 youth at any given time to return for short-term (days) planned respite as needed while they are in their family-setting placements. We are expecting that our average enrollment in the system of care will be for 18 to 24 months. Our RBS system of care will consist of the following elements: Environmental Interventions: We will have two kinds of primary environmental interventions. First, Xxxxxx Treatment Centers will acquire two additional 6 bed ...
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (Previously Question 2 of Program Description). In 1 page, summarize the alternative program and funding model you are proposing. Include a comparison between the specific service and funding model innovations in your RBS program and the services and funding that is currently in place. Please use Attachment A to list the active participation between all parties in the development of the RBS program. The goal of Los Angeles County‟s RBS Demonstration Project, “Open Doors,”1 is to shorten timeframes to durable permanency for children who face a residential stay in out of home care. By infusing residential care with Wraparound principles (active family voice and choice, facilitated planning process, care coordination), we will transform the traditional residential milieu into a therapeutic community without walls. This therapeutic milieu combines and transcends the residential facility and Wraparound to create a coherent, seamless arc of care. The intention is to streamline the treatment and stabilization process when a residential stay is triggered (including referral, enrollment and intensive treatment), to provide parallel community-based services, to provide family engagement, preparation and support, and achieve swift reconnection of high-needs youth back to their families and communities with follow-up support. The Los Angeles Open Doors Project plans to serve approximately 160 children in a two-year period beginning approximately August 1, 2009. At the two-year mark, an evaluation will be done and, depending on the effectiveness of the model, the program will be either extended as is, continued with modifications, or discontinued with a plan to re-integrate the children and families back into a traditional group home model. Only Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) youth will participate in the Open Doors Project. Probation and AB 3632 children managed by the Department of Mental Health (DMH) will not participate at this time. The following section contains a proposed Demonstration Project system graphic and highlights of the Los Angeles RBS model: 1 Working title. The Current Experience with Residential Care and the Wraparound Program. In July 2003, there were 2,339 Los Angeles xxxxxx youth in Rate Classification Level Group Home placements. Around this time, the MacClaren Children‟s Center emergency shelter had finally been closed. DCFS committed to a series of strategies designed to reduce the number of children in out of home care, especially those placed in group homes. By March 20...
