Child Welfare Services

Child Welfare Services at WIHD provides a range of clinical, trauma-informed interventions, assessments, supports, consultation, technical assistance and training to children, families and professionals involved with the child welfare system in Westchester County in order to promote child safety, well-being and permanency and enhance the capacity of Department of Social Services staff to work efficiently and effectively.

Child Welfare Services
Cedarwood Hall, Valhalla, NY
914-493-1022
child_welfare@wihd.org

Child Welfare Resources
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HELPING PARENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

Parents with intellectual disabilities often experience difficulties in carrying out the daily tasks associated with parenting due to their own learning needs. Research has shown that children of parents with intellectual disabilities may be at greater risk for foster care placement due to these parenting difficulties. Intellectual disabilities refer to low performance on intelligence testing and difficulties in daily self-help skills. Parents with intellectual disabilities often experience difficulties in carrying out the daily tasks associated with parenting such as ensuring adequate child care, health and safety, and have difficulty solving problems. Service providers are often the first support personnel to recognize the specific needs of parents with intellectual disabilities but are often unsure about how to best help them. Research has shown that parents with intellectual disabilities are most receptive to services that are individualized to meet their specific learning styles.

PROJECT IMPACT

Preventive Services are designed to prevent child maltreatment and help keep families intact. WIHD currently offers one preventive program in conjunction with the Westchester County Department of Social Services, Project IMPACT (Improving Parenting Achievements Together).
PROJECT IMPACT provides intensive, in-home services for parents with cognitive and learning disabilities. The program curriculum was created in 2006 at WIHD by Trupti Rao, Psy.D. and Michelle Heller, Ph.D. to offer specialized supports in the areas of basic childcare, child management, home management, parent/child interaction, parent advocacy, and problem solving. Skills are taught by master’s level social workers using a combination of verbal instruction, visual aids, hands-on practice, modeling, and repetition, offered at an intensive level: three days a week for 4-6 months.

In order to be eligible for the program, parents must be involved with Westchester County’s Department of Social Services (DSS), have children in their care, and have written documentation of either an IQ of 80 or less and/or a history of significant learning difficulties.

SUPPORTING PARENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

We hope that these suggested strategies and resources can be incorporated into your daily practice with parents with cognitive disabilities.
SUPPORTING PARENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR PROVIDERS

RESOURCES FOR PARENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AND THEIR PROVIDERS

PROJECT IMPACT

PROVIDER STRATEGIES FOR WORKING WITH PARENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
Some parents may not share that they are nervous about making phone calls, but they may be. Several parents in our program, for example, would call their caseworker’s phone number and then hang up without leaving a voice mail message. A discussion with the parents indicated that they were nervous about what to say on a voice mail message. Their service provider worked with them on creating a script of what information to leave on the message (name, phone number, and reason for the call) and what questions they wanted to ask, and then helped them role-play leaving a message. The example goes to show that a little practice can go a long way!

MAKE IT VISUAL
Certain routines, such as eating, getting dressed, and getting out the door in the morning, can be challenging for even the most organized of parents. Creating a simple visual schedule or checklist of activities that need to be completed, using real pictures or even ClipArt, can help parents accomplish routines more effectively.

TALKING IT OUT…EVEN THE SIMPLE STUFF
A mother would not allow her 16-year-old daughter to take the bus to the local mall. When her parenting clinician gave her the opportunity to discuss her feelings about this, the mother was able to share that she herself was fearful of public transportation and was afraid that her daughter would also not be able to handle taking a bus independently. Her clinician was able to help her understand that her daughter successfully takes the bus to and from school every day, and would also be able to successfully navigate a trip to the mall. The mother ultimately agreed to give permission for her daughter to ride the bus herself. Giving the mother an opportunity to discuss her own fears helped her to separate her own strengths and areas of need, from her daughter’s strengths and areas of need.

A FOLDER AND CALENDAR CAN GO A LONG WAY
Parents can accumulate a large number of papers in regards to their children: school calendars, education plans, evaluation reports, permission slips, medical records, immunization histories, prescriptions, and more! Many of the parents in our program are provided with accordion file folders and taught ways that they keep important documents in one place. Similarly, providing parents with a calendar can help them keep track of all the appointments they have for themselves and their children. Encouraging parents to hang the calendars up in a highly visible location, such as on the fridge or by the front door, can also assist in ensuring that all appointments are written down.

Children involved with the child welfare system are at risk for a range of physical, developmental and emotional health problems. Children must be provided with individualized, comprehensive and well coordinated health care, developmental and mental health assessments and follow up care in order to reach their fullest potential. Westchester Institute for Human Development offers a range of personalized support services.

EVALUATIONS

CHILD EVALUATIONS
Using a variety of standardized assessment tools and methods we evaluate children in family foster care in Westchester County. Results of the evaluations are shared with casework staff at the Department of Social Services and are used to identify areas of concern and target service referrals appropriately. Following our evaluation, children are frequently referred for Early Intervention, Head Start, Special Education evaluations, Speech/Language or Audiology services, psychiatric evaluations and mental health treatment, tutoring, after-school programs and/or specialized medical care.

PEDIATRIC MEDICAL SERVICES
WIHD provides medical management and comprehensive medical services to the Department of Social Services (DSS) Pediatric Unit. The Pediatric Unit functions as the “Medical Home” for approximately 300 children in Westchester County DSS family foster care, including those on trial discharge. Health supervision and medical services follow the guidelines established by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Bright Futures, and Working Together, the New York State – Office of Children and Family Services manual for health care services for children in foster care.

As a Medical Home, the Pediatric Unit provides comprehensive, quality, culturally-sensitive medical care, coordinating all specialty medical services, and ensuring that children have access to their complete medical health history upon discharge from foster care.

The Pediatric Unit is located at 112 East Post Road, 4th Floor, in White Plains. The office is staffed daily by a board-certified pediatrician and one or more registered nurses. Children are seen during regular business hours for scheduled check-ups and sick visits, and early morning or evening appointments are available. A pediatrician is available at all times by phone for concerns that arise after hours, on weekends and on holidays.

DSS PEDIATRIC UNIT CONTACT INFORMATION
Phone Number: (914) 995-5379
Fax number: (914) 995-3045

LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION

EDUCATION COORDINATION

The Educational Care Coordination program provides educational coordination for all children in family foster care in Westchester County. We strive to minimize disruptions in a child’s education when they enter or return home from foster care and advocate for appropriate services in order to meet children’s educational and developmental needs by:

  • Obtaining all previous school and medical records for each child entering foster care.
  • Creating a Pupil Summary Form for each child entering foster care that summarizes all relevant academic and developmental information in an easy to access format.
  • Providing recommendations to caseworkers, foster parents and schools so that a child receives the most appropriate academic placement and services.
  • Attending IFSP, CPSE, CSE and other school meetings to advocate for appropriate educational services.
  • Referring at-risk students for academic remediation services.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

EVERY FAMILY COUNTS AFTERCARE PROGRAM

The “Every Family Counts” program provides in-home and community supports and parenting services for families whose children are exiting foster care in Westchester County. The program works in collaboration with community providers to ensure that families receive wraparound community services. The family’s functioning is monitored up to two years post-discharge.

The Program Offers A Variety Of Home-Based Services Including:

  • Parenting Support
  • Individual And Family Counseling
  • Respite And Recreation
  • Educational Advocacy
  • Case Management
  • Service Coordination

The Every Family Counts Aftercare Program maintains an interdisciplinary team including a psychologist, social workers, case managers, and a socio-therapist.

Program Evaluation

Since the program started in 2006, measuring the outcomes and efficacy have been an important part of the program. Ongoing program evaluation has been conducted by Fellows from the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) Program

The following projects have been completed to date:
AfterCare Services: Families Reuniting After Foster Care Placement
This 2006 project looked at the early outcomes of the program and the success of the program was demonstrated with a re-entry rate of 4.6%. VIEW PROJECT

Evaluating Parent Satisfaction with Service Provided During and After Foster Care Placement
This 2009 project looked at parent satisfaction with services that were provided during and after foster care placement. Parent satisfaction was measured to assess perceived improvement of family functioning and improvement in parenting and other skills, and to inform program development. Participants were asked to complete a satisfaction survey following parent training services while their children were in foster care. Families who completed the post discharge program were asked to participate in a focus group. Themes from both the Parent-Child Program questionnaires and the EFC Program focus group and interviews include overall positive experiences with both programs, feelings of initial apprehension upon program referral, skills acquired in the areas of communication and interpersonal development, positive experiences with staff throughout the program as well as negative experiences with other systems. VIEW PROJECT

The Every Family Counts AfterCare Program: Examining Outcomes of a Post-Discharge Foster Care Program and Factors Contributing to Successful Reunification
Currently (2012), it is being demonstrated that the Every Family Counts Aftercare Program has a successful re-entry rate of 7.3% which is lower than the National Standard of 8.6% and lower than Westchester County’s expectation for the program, which is 8%. VIEW PROJECT

Child Welfare Policy & Practice Manual

WIHD helped the Westchester County Department of Social Services create a revolutionary online policy manual for professionals in child welfare.

MORE INFORMATION

Watch This Three Minute Video (to the right) about the Westchester DSS Manual.

Meet Our Child Welfare Team

Trupti Rao, Psy.D.
Director of Child Welfare Services and Psychology Training

Dr. Rao is the Director of Child Welfare Services and Psychology Training at WIHD.  Dr.  Rao received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Hartford and her undergraduate degree at Boston University. Dr. Rao first came to WIHD in 2003 to complete her post-doctoral fellowship.  Since then, she has served as a Clinical Psychologist in the Child Welfare Program and as a LEND Faculty Member.

Dr. Rao has over 20 years of experience working with the child welfare population.  She has experience with providing both clinical and psychological assessment services to children involved in the child welfare system, as well as children with developmental disabilities and co-occurring trauma backgrounds.  In 2006, she co-developed a specialized curriculum for use by Project IMPACT, an intensive in-home parenting program for parents with intellectual disabilities. Dr. Rao has presented findings about the efficacy of the model at both local presentations and national conferences, as well as in peer-reviewed journals.  Dr. Rao also frequently provides workshops and presentations on topics including trauma, understanding psychological evaluations, and child development.

As Training Director, Dr. Rao is responsible for coordinating and supervising training activities at the externship, internship, and fellowship levels.  For the LEND program, Dr. Rao is the Vulnerable Populations Course Module Director and a Team Leader for a Seminar in Evidence Based Methods team, with a particular research interest in the intersection between developmental disability and trauma.  Dr. Rao also serves as a Faculty Member at the School of Public Health at NY Medical College and an Adjunct Professor in the Psychology Department at Iona College.

Juana Francis – Case Manager, Every Family Counts Aftercare Program
Marla Green – Sociotherapist, Every Family Counts Aftercare Program
Dori Helenese, MSW – Social Worker, Project IMPACT
Allison Isola – Educational Coordinator
Joan Malara – Administrative Assistant
Karen Redondo, LMSW – Social Worker, Every Family Counts Aftercare Program
Juana Rosello, MSW – Social Worker, Project IMPACT
Dawn Sklar, LMSW – Social Worker, Every Family Counts Aftercare Program
Teresa Speranza, M.A. – Educational Coordination