This blog post was written by Joan Riebel, LICSW, Executive Director of Family Alternatives in Minnesota. Family Alternatives is a licensed foster care and adoption agency. Andrea Brubaker's blog post on San Pasqual Academy caused me to share our experiences as well. For any child, being removed from her family is a traumatic experience, regardless [...]
This post is written by the Stability, Permanency, and Adoption MSW Intern, Andrea Brubaker. As an alternative design to placing children in foster care in permanent families, the non-profit group home San Pasqual Academy near San Diego, CA offers a place for youth in foster care to live, attend high school, learn job skills, and [...]
Minnesota Statute 257.0725 requires the Department of Human Services to make available annually a report on child maltreatment and children in out-of-home placement. This report for the year 2012 is now available online. Federal Safety Measures In terms of Federal Safety Measures, Minnesota did better than the national standard for: absence of repeat maltreatmenttime to [...]
The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry estimates that ten million children witness incidences of domestic violence between their caregivers (or intimate partner violence [IPV]) each year. In addition, a recent U.S. survey showed that more than half of youth exposed to IPV had also been maltreated. Such exposure can result in manifestation of [...]
In general, young adults ages 19-26 are overrepresented among the uninsured in the U.S. Estimates from the Centers for Disease Control show that 27.5% of youth in this age group were uninsured in the first 3 months of 2012, compared to 15.4% of the general population. According to a 2012 article from Policy, Politics, & [...]
Minnesota's recently enacted omnibus health and human services bill includes changes to mental health services in Minnesota that could have an impact on children, youth, and families involved in the child welfare system. Children's Mental Health Services to Adult Mental Health Services "Mental illness" ("MI") definition modified. Case management and community support services for adults [...]
DHS initiative: Reform 2020 Reform 2020 is a 2011 legislative directive for DHS to reform Minnesota's Medicaid program, Medical Assistance (MA), so as to improve outcomes for people with disabilities, seniors, and other enrollees. Specifically, Reform 2020 focuses on community integration and independence, improved health, reduced reliance on institutional care, attainment of housing and employment, [...]
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, otherwise known as the Baby Veronica case. The U.S. Supreme Court had been asked to decide what constitutes a "parent" under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), specifically if the definition includes an unwed biological father who had not complied [...]
