As a child, Cametras Mays remembers needing someone to listen to her and wanting to know that her father loved her.
The 35-year-old Cabotresident is in her second year as a therapeutic foster parent, aiming to provide that reassurance and security childrenneed. She is a substitute parent for a 10-year-old girl who struggles to express her feelings without kicking, screaming or cursing.
“Their feelings are real,” Mays said. “It’s OK to feel that way.”
An ongoing need exists across the state not only for traditional foster care parents, but also for adults willing to serve as parents for children in a specialized therapeutic foster care program. The program is designed for children who are more difficult to place because of emotional and behavioral challenges, inappropriate sexual behavior or who are medically fragile or have a developmental delay.
The Division of Children and Family Services of the Arkansas Department of Human Servicesprovides 283 therapeutic foster care beds across the state through contracts with 15 nonprofit organizations, said Megon Bush, the division’s specialized placement unit manager. The capacity is determined by state funding for the program.
Therapeutic foster homes are a step down from a psychiatric hospital, Bush said. Therapeutic foster parents are part of a treatment team for the child. The homes generally have one therapeutic foster child, though some have permission to accept two children or more if the client child has siblings.
“It gives the child the chance to have a normal life, to be in a family while receiving treatment,” Bush said.
Providers across Arkansas said they have a constant need for families, not only for the day-to-day care of children but also to provide respite when those families need a break or when they need to go out of town without the foster children.
Carolyn Lewis constantly recruits and trains therapeutic foster care families for Mid-South Health Systems in Jonesboro through advertising, speaking on radio and TV programs, and posting information on church bulletin boards. But her best recruits, she said, come by word of mouth.
Even though Lewis has enough families for the 33 children in the Jonesboro program, the need for more families persists.
Some homes close when families retire from the program or because of life changes, such as a serious illness.
Lewis hopes to have 40 families by the end of the year, she said.
Recruiting parents is challenging for foster care in general, Lewis said.
“Families are so busy, they don’t really want to foster, regular or therapeutic,” she said.
Some people have fears about becoming involved with foster care, Lewis said. Prospective foster parents have questions about becoming attached to the child and then the child leaving within two years, Lewis said. They wonder how to react if they encounter the child’s biological parent in the community.
Training prepares the families for those situations.
Nonprofit organizations receive $74 a day for each child in therapeutic foster care, Bush said. The agencies determine how much to reimburse families. Thefamilies also receive a board payment, but about a year ago, state officials cut the board rate for therapeutic foster care homes to half of what a traditional foster care home receives.
The board rate for a therapeutic foster care family varies by the child’s age, ranging from $205 per month for children from birth to age 5 to $250 per month for children ages 15-17, Bush said.
HUGS AND WHISPERS
Mays, a mental health worker who is single, was a bit nervous and excited when she decided to become a therapeutic foster care parent two years ago, she said.
She chose therapeutic care because she participates in the treatment of the child.
The child matched with Mays experienced neglect, abandonment and consequences of her mother’s poor decisions, Mays said. The girl struggles to express her emotions and sometimes acts out with kicking, screaming or cursing.
“That’s her way of releasing her anger and releasing her pain,” Mays said. “Sometimes, she’ll allow me to hug her. I reduce my tone until I’m almost whispering.”
Mays has watched the girl’s behavior improve and encourages her through incentives, such as trips to get frozen yogurt or to have a manicure, she said.
“It is a life-changing task,” Mays said.
Mays is a therapeutic foster parent for Centers for Youth and Families in Little Rock.
When Mays was 6, her father terminated his parental rights, and her grandfather stepped in as guardian for her and her 5-year-old brother. Mays saw her father but often wondered why he didn’t love her when hewould leave. She remembers lashing out at her mother and her grandfather.
Her childhood experiences offer insight into the emotional struggles of foster children, she said.
“They are not the only ones that go through things in life,” Mays said. “There will always be a void in your life, but you process through it.”
ADDITIONAL STRUGGLES
Children referred to therapeutic foster care have not only experienced abuse, neglect or trauma, but they have additional struggles related to mental health disorders, said Allie Hennis, program director for the therapeutic foster care program at Ozark Guidance Center, based in Springdale.
That program serves 20 children. Those children have been asked to leave multiple foster homes or group homes because of emotional and behavioral problems.
“They haven’t been able to make a healthy, trusting connection to adults in their lives,” Hennis said. “You see behaviors related to fear and lack of trust.”
Some of the children have been in psychiatric hospitals about every eight months prior to therapeutic foster care, Hennis said.
Others have shifted frequently from foster homes, residential homes, emergency shelters and psychiatric hospitals.
With treatment provided through therapeutic foster care, the children experience stability and are able to stay out of psychiatric hospitals for longer periods of time, Hennis said. Others are able to experience staying in the same home for a year or more.
ACCEPTANCE, LOVE, TRUST
Ozark Guidance providestreatment with a therapist, a mental health paraprofessional and a psychiatrist, Hennis said. Services are provided in the Springdale clinic, in school and in the foster home.
The program doesn’t require adults to have degrees in mental health fields, Hennis said.
Therapeutic foster parents for Ozark Guidance are loving individuals who are willing to learn and are dedicated to the children.
“We want them to be people to bring the kid into their families, interact, accept and love them as their own children who have special needs,” Hennis said. “They also have to be prepared for the hurt that child has experienced.”
Foster care, whether traditional or therapeutic, demands 24-hour care, said Leah Williams, program manager for therapeuticfoster homes at Little Rock’s Centers for Youth and Families.
She conducts training sessions three times a year, with the hope of recruiting five to seven new families each year.
The agency’s program serves 47 children.
Opening a foster home takes about three to six months and includes 30 hours of required training, extensive paperwork and background checks. Williams likes to keep her numbers up so the agency can respond as needs arise.
Centers for Youth and Families has 38 therapeutic foster family homes through a program that has operated for 30 years, Williams said. The center also has nine foster families for 12 children in a separate therapeutic foster care program for juveniles identified as sexually aggressive or charged as sexual offenders.
“The kids that come have multiple layers of problems,” Williams said. “They’re able to stabilize those behaviors.”
Therapeutic foster homes within the Centers for Youth and Families develop specialties, with some homes more suited to helping children resolve difficult behavioral issues and other homes helping the children developindependent living skills that would allow them to transition to regular foster care.
“It’s an extremely needed service,” Williams said. “They need more individual attention.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 15 on 06/24/2012