Specialized Foster Care
Program summary:Specialized Foster Care is a DMH co-located Program at all 18 DCFS offices. It was created to improve service delivery to all children and young adults under the custody of DCFS, and/or those at risk of entering the child welfare system.
Program Enrollment Eligibility:Children ages 0-18 whom are under DCFS supervision (voluntary or court).
Program Services:- Provide mental health services to children/youth under DCFS supervision (voluntary or court)
- Services include: mental health assessments, crisis interventions, consultation, linkage to community mental health providers, and case management services
- Participate in multidisciplinary team meetings and other DCFS meetings to assist with mental health linkage
Family Preservation
Program summary:The Family Preservation Program is a strengths-based, comprehensive, in-home program that promotes the safety and well-being of children and their families. It also assists parents and/or caregivers in maintaining the children (ages birth to 17) in their home. This is implemented when the problems in the family dynamic are so severe that children may be at-risk for being removed from the home, often dealing with issues related to child abuse and neglect, domestic violence in the home, mental health issues, or substance abuse issues. The goal is to keep the family intact by providing interventions to assist, support, and educate the family. This is a collaboration between the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Department of Mental Health (DMH), Department of Probation, and Kedren Health.
Program Enrollment Eligibility:Families are referred to the program by the Department of Children and Family Services, or the Juvenile Probation Department, and/or Juvenile Court.
Program Services:The families are referred by Department of Children and Family Services or the Dept. of Probation and the following services are provided for a period of 6-12 months:
- In Home Outreach Counseling
- Parenting classes
- Teaching and demonstrating Homemaking skills
- Substitute Adult Role Modeling
- Emergency housing
- Child focused activities
- Linkages to mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and domestic violence classes.
Multidisciplinary Assessment Team
Program summary:The Multidisciplinary Assessment Team (MAT) is a collaboration between The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Department of Mental Health (DMH) designed to ensure the immediate and comprehensive assessment of children entering out-of-home placement. MAT’s goals are more timely, comprehensive and strength-based assessments of detained children and their families, early diagnostic awareness of critical medical conditions leading to early intervention and consistent management of such conditions, increased cooperation between families, caregivers, providers of services, and DCFS, and more appropriate team placement decisions for children.
Program Enrollment Eligibility:When a child is newly detained, he or she is eligible to receive a Multidisciplinary Assessment. The MAT assessment was designed to make sure that all child/family needs are assessed when a child/youth enters foster care. The information gathered by this assessment will be used to determine what services are most needed by the child with the intention of using this information for the most appropriate placement of the child to ensuring that his or her needs will be met. MAT Assessments address the following areas: Medical, Dental, Developmental, Hearing/Language, Vocational, Child and family strengths and needs, Caregiver strengths and needs, Education and Mental Health. In order to be eligible for MAT, all of the following criteria must be met:
- The child was detained by an office that has implemented MAT
- The child is straight Medi-Cal eligible
- It is a detention on a new referral (It cannot be a detention on an already open case – this includes failed VFMs and Court FM cases)
- The child is placed in out-of-home care (relative or foster care) (Children placed with a non-offending parent do not qualify)
The Multidisciplinary team from DCFS, DMH, and Kedren Health will work collaboratively to:
- Develop a treatment plan, including mental health treatment options for the child, parent(s), and caregiver;
- Identify and link client/family to necessary and viable community resources;
- Consider reunification, permanency, and visitation goals
- Evaluate the appropriateness of placement with the current caregiver and potential caregivers.