The Key to Quality Residential Services for Children and Youth

A NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

A collaboration of six private and one state agency in partnership with the Walker Trieschman Division of the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), the National Association of Psychiatric Treatment Centers for Children (NAPTCC), and the National Association of Private Schools for Exceptional Children (NAPSEC) proposes a two-year, $3.5 million national demonstration project to test the effectiveness of workforce development in improving outcomes for children and youth in need of residential treatment.

Background and Need

Psychiatric treatment settings for children and youth have come under scrutiny regarding the level of safety and quality of care they provide. The industry’s inadequacies in these areas are clearly tied to its inability to recruit and retain competent staff. A problem that has been exacerbated by recent economic factors, notably record low levels of unemployment.

Mission

To improve the quality of care to children and youth by increasing the competency of child and youth workers nationally.

Building on existing work that has been done in curricula for child and youth work training, CWLA and the partner agencies will develop a state-of-the-art training program. This curriculum will address child and family systems of care, child and youth worker roles and responsibilities, interface between public and private agencies, child abuse/neglect, characteristics of service populations, relationship building, positive programming and behavioral interventions, professional issues, teamwork, and dealing with conflict.

While training is a necessary component of skill development, skills learned in the classroom do not transfer to the work environment unless managers and supervisors create an environment that supports those skills. Therefore, an integral component of this process will be training for supervisors, not only in the content areas listed above, but in effective supervisory practices as well. Additionally, the collaboration will provide ongoing technical assistance to the participating agencies in order to ensure systematic implementation of newly acquired skills.

CWLA, NAPTCC, and NAPSEC will assume responsibility for the widest possible dissemination of the lessons learned from this project directly to their own organizational members and to the many other professionals in the fields of child welfare, mental health and juvenile justice who are affected by the work of these organizations. CWLA’s National Center for Consultation and Professional Development will coordinate the dissemination plan, which will include widespread promotion through publications and conferences. Additionally, there will be a heavy emphasis on the use of emerging technologies, such as distance learning, video teleconferencing, and computer aided programmed learning to facilitate this dissemination.

Long term progress in direct care workforce development can only occur within a context of system-wide recognition for the critical role of direct care staff. This will require development of a certification process that not only promotes worker competence but also reinforces it through increased responsibility, recognition, and reimbursement.

Participating Organizations

The organizations participating in this National Demonstration Project include Klingberg Family Centers and the Devereux Glenholme School of Connecticut; the State of Connecticut Department of Children and Families; Woods Services of Pennsylvania; and Gerard School, Orchard Place, and Four Oaks of Iowa. All are active members of the partnering national associations, and all serve in leadership roles with their respective statewide associations. CWLA will coordinate this project, and all participating agencies have agreed to cooperate fully in the performance of tasks to meet the project’s goals.

Project Costs

We estimate the collaboration’s cost for two years of intensive local and national work on this project at approximately $3.5 million. As currently conceived, the project will require nine full time staff positions for training and administration, as well as .45 FTE to connect with the Trieschman Center’s ongoing training operations. Subcontracts will provide expertise for evaluation, assessment, consultation, curriculum development, and training support. Travel, reimbursement to agencies for staff release time, equipment, and other direct costs will contribute to the total. Some portion of the cost may be met by in-kind contributions. A detailed budget and background information on the participating organizations will be provided upon request.

CWLA will convene a broad-based interdisciplinary task force to develop National Best Practice Guidelines in Behavior Management for adults who work with children and youths in care. These guidelines will employ expertise from the medical, legal, and advocacy communities along with representatives from the human service and child welfare fields. The process will include expert input, staff development of written materials, field testing of guidelines, as well as their publication and dissemination throughout the field. The finished guidelines will assist professional, licensing and other regulatory bodies in assuring the safest practice at the local level. They will describe effective and safe interventions for the management of children and youth who are exhibiting behaviors that place them and/or others at risk of physical harm. In addition, the task force will establish standards on the quality, quantity and frequency of orientation and training of those staff responsible for the implementation of behavioral interventions.

The work of the task force is expected to take 18 months to complete, at a cost of $120,000.