Arkansas DHS Prevention PIlot Program for Children & Families

2024

This pilot project includes three initiatives designed to strategically prevent crisis by educating, supporting, and stabilizing Arkansas' children. The three initiatives are: the Prevention, Stabilization, and Support Project for Young Children (PSSP-YC), the Families in Transition Team (FiTT), and the Comprehensive Screening and Assessment for Children (CSAC). PSSP targets children birth through 6th grade who are risk of losing thier placement at home or their educational setting due to behavior. The project will provide support for children and families in thier ome, daycare, and school and provide trained staff to immedicately stabilize children in real time. FiTT targets children experiencing a major transition in life such as entering foster care, being adopted, being discharged from a residential facility,etc. It will support children and families in crfisis without requiring a diagnosis of mental illness and provide in-home, family-to-family peer support. CASC will develop and administer comprehensive screenings and assessments tonproperly identify the correct support for children and thier families. This project is the result of recognition by Arkansas Department of Human Services that most of their Medicaid services enter the picture after a crisis has occurred and therefore are often ineffective and extraordinarily expensive. For example, children who are placed in foster care are often bounced to numerous homes (sometimes 40 or more) over a period of a few years because the foster parents are not trained prior to taking the child on what to do, or supported after the placement to be able to manage difficulty behaviors resulting from trauma and possibly disability. These children are also commonly cycled through multiple Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities (PRTFs) simply because there is not a trained home to accept them. These placements add additional layers of trauma for the child, are ineffectiove in addressing the behaviors, and are incredibly expensive to Arkansas Medicaid. As a reault of the same lack of training and ongoing support, the child welfare system has adoptions (that have been fully completed, ion some cases for years) that are disrupting weekly with parents bring thier children back to the state and giving them up. This project will work in 6 pilot areas of the state to create local intgerdisciplinary teams to address the needs of these children and families Local teams will include public school staff, child care staff, child welfare staff, foster care/therapeutic foster care providers, community-based providers of mental health services, parents and advocates to develop a unique plan for their particular area. Supports will utilize an interdisciplinary approach that is child/family centered, culturally respectful, provided in natural environments, and build around the families priorities. The expected outcome will be recommendations of additional/different services to be included in the State Medicaid Plan for long-term sustainability. Arkansas Medicaid spent $300 million dollars last year on children's mental health services. DHS executives believe, and we agree, that this is a suffucuent amount of funding if it is spent differently.

prevention, family stabilization, child welfare

Training Trainees, Performing Direct and/or Demonstration Services, Performing Research or Evaluation, Developing & Disseminating Information, Continuing Education/Community Training, Other Direct/Model Services, Demonstration Services

Quality Assurance, Education & Early Intervention, Child Care-Related Activities, Health-Related Activities

Professionals and Para-Professionals, Family Members/Caregivers, Children/Adolescents with Disabilities/SHCN, Legislators/Policy Makers

Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Limited English, Geographic Areas, Rural/Remote, Specific Groups

Mulit-County, State

Federal

N/A