Placement Services
Recognizing National Foster Care Month
Each May, National Foster Care Month provides an opportunity to shine a light on the experiences of the more than 400,000 children and youth in the foster care system. The campaign also raises awareness about the urgent needs of these young people, and encourages citizens from every walk of life to get involved - - as foster and adoptive parents, volunteers, mentors, employers or in other ways.
In our nearly 33 years of serving the needs of foster children, Pinebrook Family Services has cared for and treated more than 10,000 foster children and worked with hundreds of foster families. Over the years, we have had the good fortune to meet and work with an amazing group of foster parents who have offered not only a safe, nurturing environment for children in need of temporary care, but who also share a willingness to do whatever is needed to meet the individual needs of children who are often traumatized from physical and/or sexual abuse or neglect. One of Pinebrook’s current foster families has agreed to share some their experiences.
Jan and Russell Granzen have been an approved foster family with Pinebrook since October, 2008, and became foster parents because they wanted to help children who were in need of a stable, loving, nurturing family. As the parents of two grown daughters and the grandparents of five, the Granzens had many years’ experience caring for and raising children. Over their three plus years as foster parents, the Granzens have cared for 18 children between the ages of 2 and 15. The children’s temporary placement with the Granzens ranged from just a few days to as long as 10 months. Supportive and sensitive to the individual needs of the children placed with their family, the Granzens also work well with the children’s birth families. They have shown time and time again their unwavering commitment to making a difference in a child’s life by providing a temporary place for them to call home.
Mrs. Granzen shared that she and her husband Russ always wanted to become foster parents, but thought they may have been too old to do so. After chatting with the friend of a couple who adopted a child from Pinebrook, they learned that one is never too old to foster children. Mrs. Granzen contacted Pinebrook, and attended an informational meeting to learn more about becoming a foster parent. After a thorough home study process and pre-service training, the Granzens were approved as foster parents in October, 2008. Jan and Russ are now strong advocates for foster care, and are often asked about how to become a foster parent. In fact, Russ recently referred a coworker to Pinebrook.
Currently, Jan and Russ are fostering two children, ages seven and 12. With a wide smile, Jan shared some of the skills and attributes that she believes are needed for successful foster parenting: patience is at the top of her list, along with the ability to embrace new opportunities for learning, and offering structure and guidance to the children placed in their home. But, as with all other foster parents, the Granzens give so much more than that. Jan confided that she loves that the children call her “Gramm,” and two former foster children still call them almost every weekend.
The Granzens acknowledge that fostering children will most likely continue to present new challenges, and admit that the journey has tested them on occasion. However, they also believe that there is no greater joy and personal fulfillment than helping to transform a child from feeling sad and lonely to one who feels safe and special. Jan spoke movingly of a time when she and Russ agreed to foster brother and sister siblings who arrived at their home clearly frightened, and with shaved heads due to lice infestation. The little girl was quite sad, especially after having her hair cut off. However, her sadness steadily faded as Jan and Russ found every hat imaginable for her until her hair grew back.
The Granzens understand that fostering a child is usually temporary, and that most children entering foster care are reunited with their biological families in some way, whether it is with parents, grandparents or other relatives. Consequently, those who foster children must accept from day one that their primary role is to provide a loving yet structured setting in which children can grow and thrive in order for them to one day be reunited with their biological family.
Foster children need nurturing adults on their side because their own families are in crisis and unable to care for them. To learn more about becoming a foster parent, please contact Pinebrook Family Services at (610) 432-3919.
Pinebrook has been providing placement (foster care) services for nearly 30 years. Recognized as one of the area's leading foster care agencies, a variety of programs are available; each are designed to meet the individual needs of the children requiring out-of-home placement.
A Five-Tier Foster Care Model (see brochure) is designed to simplify and more clearly delineate the continuum of services offered. All tiers, with the exception of Tier Four (short-term services), offer core case-management/casework services including regular safety assessment of the resource home, individualized goal setting, regular contact with referring agency, permanency planning, family engagement and visitation planning, assurance that health and dental needs are being optimally met, available 24/7 crisis coverage, age-appropriate enrichment activities, enrollment in appropriate school setting, discharge planning including step-down to less-restrictive placement setting or referral to aftercare and other community-based services.
Pinebrook offers both short-term placement options such as shelter or respite foster care, and more long-term services such as specialized or intensive foster care (see below for details). Several programs such as Medical Foster Care and CRR Host Homes (both under Tier Five) are fully or partially Medicaid- (or managed care) funded. Referrals are accepted from the Offices of Children and Youth, Juvenile Probation or Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities.
All children are placed in a safe, structured family setting, where they will receive guidance and nurturance from at least one surrogate parent trained in the Child Welfare League of America PRIDE curriculum to work effectively with foster children. Each foster family has gone through an extensive home study process, including numerous background checks; they are required to attend 26 hours of pre-service training prior to accepting a child into their home. Annual, ongoing training is required for all foster parents.
Children in foster care receive a wide array of services through our agency. Each child is assigned a caseworker, who visits the foster home regularly (frequency is determined by the level of foster care needed). The caseworker makes certain that the client's needs are being optimally met. Each casework session includes private time with the child and his/her foster parent(s). A safety assessment is conducted at each casework session.
Pinebrook is firmly committed to engaging parents as partners in their children's ongoing care and development. Through active participation on the treatment team, frequent visitation and communication, as well as addressing and planning various components of the Service Plan, we can help to facilitate goal attainment, including successful family reunification or an alternate permanency plan, in a timely manner.
The key to successful reunification is the development of an immediate family visitation plan by the treatment team. Pinebrook offers up to weekly facilitative supervision of family visits. Facilitative supervision provides targeted intervention and education/coaching/modeling of appropriate parental behavior. The goal is to work in conjunction with the Family Service Plan to enable less restrictive visits over time as progress is made by the family, and to eventually allow for unsupervised and overnight visits.
Similar to other programs and services, Pinebrook's placement services undergo ongoing evaluation as part of the agency's quality assurance/outcomes measurement practices (see Success section for details).
- TIER ONE: Regular/Traditional Foster Care
Designed to provide dependent children ages from birth to 18 (who must be separated from their families due to their parents’ problems) with an environment and support services that lead to optimal growth and development. Children exhibit minimal to no emotional/behavioral issues. Tier One Foster Care seeks to achieve family reunification or other permanency goals as quickly and successfully as possible.
- TIER TWO: Specialized Foster Care; Independent Living/Life Skills
Helps the child (ages from birth to 18) and the family work through problems that made placement necessary, to allow for successful reunification and to help the child in placement attain the maximum level of growth and development of which he or she is capable. The child may exhibit emotional, social, developmental, intellectual or physical problems and, often, may be traumatized as a result of sexual and/or physical abuse or serious neglect. If a return home to the parents is not feasible for the child, Pinebrook will help determine and work out the best permanency plan possible for all involved. Where indicated, referrals are also made to Pinebrook’s Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic for psychiatric, psychological and counseling services.
- TIER THREE: Intensive Foster Care; Intensive Independent Living; Mother/Baby; Intensive Respite
Designed to help traumatized children (ages 3 to 18) within a family setting, while working with the children's legal family so that reunification or another appropriate permanency goal is achieved. The program helps seriously emotionally and/or behaviorally disturbed children and youth learn new behaviors, and attain sufficient self-control to enable them to live successfully in a less-restrictive setting. Children come directly from residential settings (psychiatric or otherwise), and may be currently involved with the Juvenile Court system, requiring implementation of the BARJ principles. Clients also include at-risk young mothers in need of self-sufficiency/life skills and family life education. Intensive, goal-driven treatment is provided through highly skilled foster parents and staff.
- TIER FOUR: Short-term Respite; Shelter/Emergency
This short-term program (from one to 30 days) is designed to stabilize family crises. Transitional services are offered while waiting for placement elsewhere. After-hours and emergency referrals are accepted.
- TIER FIVE, or Medicaid-funded Services: Medical Foster Care; CRR Host Home
Medical Foster Care
For medically fragile children whose medical needs were neglected by caregivers. Helps the seriously ill child in placement (ages from birth to 18) attain the maximum level of growth and development of which he or she is capable, and to provide permanency for those with complex medical conditions in a nurturing family environment. If the return home is not feasible, Pinebrook will help determine and work out the best permanency plan possible for all involved. Tier Five is partially funded through the Medical Assistance Program. ICD-9 code required.
CRR Host Home Treatment (see brochure)
The Community Residential Rehabilitation (CRR) Host Home program, a Blueprint for Violence Prevention Model program, is designed for seriously emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children and youth who require and can benefit from placement in the community with a family. The child (ages 3 to 18) may be exhibiting acute emotional and behavioral challenges, and may have DSM-IV, Axis mental health diagnosis. Prescribed by a psychiatrist or licensed psychologist, the program is intended to help the child for whom it is medically necessary to understand and resolve emotional problems, learn new adaptive behaviors, and attain sufficient self-control to enable him or her to live successfully in a less restrictive setting through the use of Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care. Family relationships are supported and enhanced as well, as parents become active participants in the treatment, learning and applying the same behavior-shaping techniques used in the CRR host home. The service is delivered by an identified treatment team that is made of a CRR Worker, Family Worker, and the Program Supervisor.
- LIFESHARING THROUGH FAMILY LIVING
Distinct from the five-tiered foster care model, Lifesharing Through Family Living program is designed for children and youth diagnosed with developmental disabilities who can benefit from placement with a caregiving family in the community. The goal is for individuals, ages three through 21 at time of referral, the opportunity to grow and develop to their fullest potential by "sharing" in the day-to-day life of an approved caregiving family. Through the nurturance, support, and coaching offered by surrogate caregivers, the individual is encouraged to participate in healthy and productive relationships. Emphasis is placed upon the learning of new adaptive behaviors and skills, and the attainment of a functional level which maximizes the individual's capacity to become as self-determining and self-sufficient as possible. Family relationships are supported and enhanced as well, as the individual’s parent/legal guardian becomes an active participant in the individual’s services, goal planning, and ongoing habilitation. This program is licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Office of Developmental Programs.
