Creating a continuum of care for chronically underserved children.

Area of Science:

• Child Welfare
• Residential Treatment
• Social Work Practice

Background:

• Grandfather Home for Children is a nonprofit residential treatment center serving abused children with behavioral challenges.
• The center launched an initiative in 2000 to expand services for underserved children, including foster care and adoption.
• This initiative aimed to provide comprehensive community-based services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of an initiative to create a continuum of care for children with complex needs.
• To assess improvements in service delivery, including capacity, length of stay, and placement stability.
• To determine the effectiveness of the agency's performance improvement activities.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective study of 638 children served by Grandfather Home for Children from October 1999 to September 2005.
• Data collected via the agency's general performance indicators on a quarterly and yearly basis.
• Performance improvement activities focused on administrative, staffing, training, and information systems.

Main Results:

• A 342% increase in the number of children served.
• A 33% decrease in the average length of stay for children in care.
• A 721% increase in children served within their home community, with 100% of foster children having two or fewer placements.

Conclusions:

• The initiative successfully created a continuum of care, enabling step-down opportunities.
• The agency now serves more children in less restrictive environments for shorter durations.
• Outcomes demonstrate fewer placement changes compared to federal or state statistics.