More options needed for treating children

Talk about it

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final installment in a series of stories this week regarding out-of-home placement of children and the community’s hope to reverse the trends.

WORTHINGTON — Nobles County Family Services Administrator Mary Fischer truly believes it takes a village to raise a child. Nowhere is that more evident than in an agency tasked with ensuring the safety and stability of all children.

In the last five years, the number of children who have been removed from their home and placed in foster care, corrections or mental health facilities has more than doubled in Nobles County. Those out-of-home placements come at a cost, and the county is the one footing the bills not covered by insurance or the families involved.

Between Jan. 1 and October, 79 children ages 17 and younger had been entered into the family services system in Nobles County — on pace to exceed the 82 children it worked with in 2008, and more than double the 36 children it worked with in 2004.

Fischer said one of the biggest factors in the rising number of cases is the change in demographics.

“Nobles County had a major demographic shift in 2005,” she said. “The percentage of kids in poverty was approximately 23 percent in 2008. Back in 2005, Nobles County was sort of like its neighbors, with 10 to 12 percent poverty.”

Now, said Fischer, Nobles County is much more comparable to metropolitan Minnesota than it is to its neighbors.

Still, like its neighbors, Nobles County wants to do everything it can to provide children with the treatment they need while keeping them at home, with their family, whenever possible. Doing so saves the county a lot of money.

On average, Fischer said an out-of-home placement for mental health issues costs approximately $6,800 per month. For corrections, the average cost is $5,000 per month. If a child is placed in foster care, the costs can range from $650 to $1,400 per month, depending on the child’s needs.

With at least 50 percent of the families working through an out-of-home placement due to mental health or chemical dependency issues, or both, getting kids the help they need isn’t always easy to do locally.

“We just don’t have the money to be investing in infrastructure,” Fischer said. At the same time, she said Nobles County has “taken a leap of faith” in planning for the future. Money has been set aside, she said, for programs to be implemented locally that will allow for a child to stay at home with their family and still get the treatment they need.

One such example would be the development of a chemical dependency treatment program for juveniles. There isn’t a program available locally, which forces the county to place kids in a facility that can meet their needs.

Working models

Between the Nobles County Family Service Agency, Rock-Nobles Community Corrections and the Southwestern Mental Health Center, the needs of some children are able to be met locally. The goal now, however, is to increase programming and, in turn, hopefully decrease out-of-home placements.

Deb Clem, family and children’s social service supervisor in Nobles County, said the Family Service Agency recently added a statewide Signs of Safety program modeled by child protection services. The program takes into greater account the child’s opinion and what seems to be working best for the parents.

“Family rapport helps us get more stability for the kids,” said Fischer.

A family group decision making program is also offered by the agency, with discussion focusing on case planning, permanency and support for the family from relatives.

Correcting behavior

For children who enter family services due to corrections issues, Rock-Nobles Community Corrections (RNCC) offers a trio of programs. All work to address behavior in hopes of avoiding an out-of-home placement to a correctional facility.

RNCC director Jon Ramlo said his agency is reimbursed by family services for the programming provided, whether it’s placing the child in the juvenile sentencing circle program, truancy court program or the juvenile community service work program. All three allow the child to remain with his family, unless removal from the home was necessary for the child’s safety or stability.

Ramlo said the corrections agency works with juveniles to find the program right for them “with the hope that we don’t have to place kids out of the home.”

Nearly three years ago, RNCC began offering a truancy court program with the goal of encouraging kids to go to school and earn their high school diplomas. The kids work with a probation agent on the struggles and challenges that are keeping them from attending school, Ramlo said.

“Every spring, at the schools in Rock and Nobles counties, we do have a truancy graduation for the kids that were successful, stayed in the program and are getting appropriate grades,” he said. “Last year, for example, I believe we had 19 kids out of Nobles County that were given certificates for completion of the truancy program. That’s pretty successful, I think.”

The latest endeavor at RNCC is the juvenile sentencing circle program, which will mark its first anniversary in February. The program involves a corrections agent leading a mentoring circle that meets regularly and consists of the offender, their parent or guardian, the victim of the crime and community volunteers.

“Instead of the juvenile being sentenced by the court, the circle delivers the sentence,” Ramlo said.

That sentence depends on the crime, but always encourages the juvenile to restore any damage done to the victim. For instance, if the crime was painting graffiti on someone’s property, the juvenile may be asked to repair the damages by repainting the building. To encourage the mentoring aspect, the circle members are asked to join in the effort.

If circle sentencing doesn’t work, and there have been two cases that didn’t since it began, the juvenile is referred back to the court system. In both of those cases, Ramlo said the kids ended up in an out-of-home placement.

One of the long-term goals of RNCC is to expand the circle mentoring program. Other counties in the state have already done so, offering peacemaking circles and family resolution circles as alternatives.

“We’re looking at incorporating some of those programs down here, with the ultimate goal of keeping kids at home and not in the out-of-home (placement),” Ramlo said. “We can pay a staff person to coordinate these circles for about $40,000, but if we place kids out of the home for nine months, you’re talking $100,000.”

The third option provided by RNCC, and in place the longest, is the juvenile community service work program. This has the juveniles working for non-profit agencies, government or schools to “pay” for their court fines and fees. The juvenile gets $6 credit for each hour worked, Ramlo said.

RNCC provides crew leaders to ensure the work gets done, and the juveniles have done everything from help janitors clean at the middle school and the YMCA to helping the Department of Natural Resources plant rain gardens. Some youths even get to help with story hour at the Nobles County Library.

Ramlo said the library experience, in particular, has been a win-win for all involved. In some cases, the juvenile enjoyed the experience so much that he asked to continue volunteering after their fines were paid.

“I think a lot of these projects go unknown in the community (regarding) who actually did the work,” Ramlo said.

At the same time, he said the community doesn’t realize all of the collaboration taking place to ensure success with the children wrapped up in family services issues.

“Having those volunteers in the community be a part of this, it makes such a difference,” said Ramlo. “These kids feel unwanted or not cared about … made connections with community members, and they now feel they are a part of the community and are valued. That makes a big difference in these kids’ lives.”

Addressing mental health

Fischer said Nobles County Family Services is seeing younger kids than ever before coming into the agency with mental health issues — children as young as 8 and 10 years old. The mental illness examples she gave included children experiencing hallucinations, delusions, abnormal paranoia, attachment issues and post-trauma related to sexual abuse.

Those issues often require specialized care that isn’t available locally. However, a task force of family service, community corrections, mental health providers and county leaders are discussing a proposal to re-establish programming at the former KidsPeace Prairie Academy in Worthington. Among the considerations are detention, crisis capacity, youth prevention programs and chemical dependency and support services.

Tagged the Lake Okabena Youth Center, it is estimated the facility and its programs could serve approximately 200 juveniles, ages 11-18, per year.

Tags: nobles county, news, youths, children, treatment