New DHW bureau enhances appropriate care and family support in Idaho’s foster care system

November 20, 2024

DHW Communications

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) has introduced a new Continuum of Care Bureau to enhance support for youth and families in the state's foster care system. Its goal is to ensure that congregate care placements are appropriate while optimizing the use of funding streams for effective interventions.

Led by Bureau Chief Stacy Corbett, the bureau is part of the Division of Youth Safety and Permanency and is divided into several focused units, each serving a unique role in supporting children, families, and foster care providers:

1. Family First Clinicians: This unit is responsible for conducting assessments to determine the appropriateness of congregate care placements. These clinicians collaborate with field staff to identify necessary supports, facilitate referrals to the congregate care, and to ensure that youth receive the care they need.

2. Family Support Unit: The Family Support Unit works closely with biological families and foster families to prevent placement disruptions and avoid removals, support youth transitioning back into their communities, and provide access to community-based services.

3. Congregate Care Unit: This unit oversees the placement process for youth requiring residential care. Key responsibilities include reviewing assessments to ensure youth are matched to the most appropriate settings and prioritizing in-state options before considering out-of-state placements, collaborating with to determine medical necessity for Medicaid-funded services, monitoring active placements to ensure treatment plans align with a youth's needs and readiness for discharge, and supporting discharge planning to facilitate smooth transitions to the next placement or community setting.

4. Warm Line: The Warm Line will provide crisis support to foster parents facing challenges that could disrupt placements or result in youth being moved to alternate settings. Available through a clinical lens, this service will assess community resources and offer access to mobile crisis teams, crisis centers trained in trust-based relational intervention, crisis intervention and suicide prevention.

The Continuum of Care Bureau's comprehensive structure underscores DHW's commitment to improving outcomes for youth in foster care. By providing support for both families and providers, the bureau aims to stabilize placements, reduce disruptions, and promote successful reintegration into communities.

This initiative represents a step forward in Idaho's efforts to build a more responsive and effective foster care system.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is dedicated to strengthening the health, safety, and independence of Idahoans. Learn more at healthandwelfare.idaho.gov.

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