None noted.
IV. Support for Post-Adoption Services
A. What is the total annual budget for post-adoption services (excluding Adoption Assistance)?
This information is not available.
B. What are the primary sources of funding for post-adoption services? (Please order from 1=top funding source to the source that the lowest amount of funds is used.)
Title IV-B, Part 1, Child Welfare Services 1
Title IV-B, Part 2, Promoting Safe and Stable Families for “Adoption Support & Promotion"
1 Title IV-B, Part 2, Promoting Safe and Stable Families from categories other than adoption
Adoption Incentive Funds
Early Periodic Screening and Diagnostic Testing Title XX, Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) Title IV-A, TANFF
Montana
Federal grants such as Adoption Opportunities
Other federal funds-specify: ________________________________________ State child welfare funds
Other state funds-specify: __________________________________________ C. Which, if any, of these services is legally stipulated in state law?
None.
D. Have there been significant cutbacks in post-adoption services or adoption subsidies in the state in the past 10 years? If so, please describe:
There have been no cutbacks in subsidies. They have increased.
V. In your state, are there noteworthy practice models or research reports related to adoption support and preservation that you could share with us?
A. Please describe practice models:
None noted.
B. Significant findings of program evaluations or other post-adoption studies conducted in the State in the past 10 years:
None noted.
VI. Please share any strategies that you have used to successfully advocate for post-adoption services in your state.
DCFS keeps a lot of data and uses this to go to the legislature and describe the needs.
VII. Does your state track adoption disruptions or post-adoption instability?
NEBRASKA
RESPONDENT: Cortney Schlueter, Program Director Right Turn, Inc.
I. General Information (background on state service system)
County-based vs. statewide system
Nebraska has a statewide system.
Uniformity of services across the state, etc.
Right Turn offers six core services to all eligible families across the state: Permanency Support Services, Respite Care Connections, Parent2Parent Network, Mental Health Connections, Training, and Support Groups and Family Activities.
Eligible families are those who adopted or took guardianship of a child age 18 or younger, who was a ward of the State of Nebraska prior to the adoption or guardianship and there is a valid subsidy agreement.
Children on subsidy as of June 2013
Information not available.
Are public child welfare adoption workers expected to provide post-adoption services?
Right Turn provides all post-adoption services to eligible families. In Douglas and Sarpy Counties, Nebraska Families Collaborative is responsible for providing one year of after-care services for adoptive and guardianship families. Families are eligible for Right Turn following this first year.
II. Post-Adoption Services Funded by the State for Adoptive Families
Post-adoption services in Nebraska are administered by the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Policy Section-Child Welfare Unit through contracted agencies and parent organizations. Services include the following examples:
• Information and referral
• Family-centered support services • Adoption searches
• Educational programs and materials • Support groups
• Talk Adopt (Internet chat room) is available through a service contracted through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Center on Children, Families, and the Law (CCFL): http://ccfl.unl.edu/.
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services contracted with two well-respected and well- established agencies in Nebraska, Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska and Nebraska Children's Home Society, which joined together to create Right Turn. Right Turn provides post-adoption and post- guardianship support services. For more information or to access services visit www.RightTurnNE.org. Right Turn was established in 2009 in response to the post-adoption and guardianship issues that arose from Nebraska´s original safe haven law. Intended to protect abandoned infants from being left in unsafe situations, Nebraska's original safe haven law allowed children up to age 18 to be left at safe sites without prosecution of the parent(s). Of the children dropped off at safe sites across Nebraska, 75 percent were formerly in Nebraska's foster care system and in adoptive or guardianship homes. Safe haven made it clear
Nebraska
that many adoptive and guardianship families were struggling, frustrated and facing difficult challenges with their children. They did not know where to turn for help.
Designed to be a referral service for post-adoptive and guardianship families, Right Turn quickly learned that families needed more. In response, their six core services were developed and have evolved to include: Permanency Support Services (case management support), Respite Care Connections, Parent2Parent Network (peer mentoring), Mental Health Connections, Training, and Support Groups and Family Activities.
Information and Referral
Parents and professionals can contact Right Turn at any time to seek information and referrals.
Educational Programs or Materials
Right Turn offers continuing education opportunities across the state for families and professionals to acquire and expand their knowledge of best practices in adoption, guardianship, and parenting. Right Turn’s extensive training network includes adoption- and guardianship-specific information, as well as the many related topics that often affect adoptive and guardianship families: mental health, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, attachment, trauma and loss, child development and many more.
The Training for Adoption Competency curriculum developed by the Center for Adoption Support and Education is being offered by Right Turn. In addition, Nebraska has a contract with the Nebraska Foster and Adoptive Parent Association, which has an annual adoption conference and three foster parent conferences each year at which adoption information is presented.
Support Programs
Right Turn currently offers support groups in Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney and Grand Island. Throughout the year, Right Turn hosts family activities to promote informal connections between members of Nebraska’s adoption community. The Parent2Parent Network is a service of Right Turn, matching experienced adoptive or guardianship parents with other adoptive and guardianship parents to offer peer support, guidance, resources and friendship. Each family served by Right Turn is offered a mentor when their case is opened. The mentor is another parent who has worked with Nebraska’s behavioral health system.
Therapeutic Interventions
Right Turn offers Permanency Support Services in which a staff member works one on one with family members to develop an individual success plan. Services are not limited to but may include: crisis management, advocacy, mental health connections, education/school support, Wellness Recovery Action Plans (WRAP), assistance with behavior management, adoption specific support and education, referral to other community resources, and a program of intervention – A Step Further: Improving Family Relationships through Support and Intervention after Trauma and Loss. A Step Further is a curriculum that takes what we know about attachment, brain development, trauma and loss, and healing and puts it into practice. Parents become part of the healing process for their children and begin to understand their child's behavior, mental health needs, and challenges differently. For a more detailed description of this program, see: http://www.rightturnne.org/training/further.html.
In addition, adoptive families may access public mental health services for children, administered by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), including: outpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment services, including evaluation, group/ family psychotherapy; individual/ group/family substance abuse counseling, family assessment, mental/home health and personal care services, intensive family preservation services, medication checks, and crisis intervention services.
Mental health and substance abuse day treatment services are also provided. These services are part of a continuum of care designed to prevent hospitalization or to facilitate the return of the client to functioning
Nebraska
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within the community with less frequent contact with mental health or substance abuse professionals. Services also include: treatment foster care services, treatment group home services, residential treatment services for children/adolescents, inpatient mental health services, and inpatient mental health services for clients age twenty or younger in Institutions for Mental Disease (IMDs).
Medicaid is administered by Magellan, Nebraska’s managed care contractor. Length of care is determined by Magellan and is based on a child’s need.
Advocacy
The Permanency Support Specialists at Right Turn provide advocacy, as needed, to link families with community services. Mentors also support adoptive families in an advocacy capacity.
Respite
Many private organizations offer a variety of respite options. Right Turn assists families in locating informal and formal respite care resources. Whenever possible, Right Turn helps families to identify people already part of their lives who are willing and able to provide respite. Sometimes there are additional challenges in identifying informal respite care providers when children have experienced significant trauma and loss. In those situations, Right Turn can connect families to more formal respite services and can provide limited financial assistance in paying for respite services.
Residential Treatment
Does the state pay for residential treatment for children adopted from foster care? What is the process for obtaining this?
Nebraska offers what is known as Payment for Pre-Existing Medical Conditions. Funding is available to adoptive parents for medical or mental health services not available through any other program or benefit. In-patient psychiatric and residential treatment care is covered in some cases.
If yes, what is required to obtain this?
Eligible adoptive parents must exhaust all other resources before this funding is available, including their own private insurance. The need for services must be listed in the adoption assistance agreement and conditions cannot be added after adoption finalization. However, conditions can be changed if the child’s original diagnosis was incorrect. These services require prior authorization before treatment and coverage is for up to 18 months of care. Length of care is determined by Magellan and is based on a child’s need.
Does the child have to re-enter state custody?
No information.
Other Services
In addition to funding medical and mental health services, Nebraska’s program, Payment for Pre-Existing Medical Conditions, is available to adoptive parents for some services not available through any other program or benefit. Examples include basic life skills training, inpatient hospitalization, and medications. Nebraska also offers a Special Service Subsidy. Funds are allocated on a one-time basis for a specific service or item for a specified period of time. Services or items must relate to the child’s special needs as indicated in the original adoption assistance agreement and are only available if no other program or resource exists to meet the child’s need. These services must be connected to the special need indicated on the original subsidy agreement. Examples of services and items include: adoptive parent training, specially designed furniture, house modifications designed to accommodate a child’s particular special need, and transportation expenses necessary for a child to receive medical services for a condition in existence prior to adoption finalization. The specific modification and the estimated cost must be included in the original
Nebraska
adoption assistance agreement and approved by the Central Office adoption specialist prior to the adoption finalization.
III. Qualifications for Post-Adoption Services
A. What are the eligibility criteria for receiving services?
Whether living in or outside of Nebraska, a family is eligible for services if:
The child is 18 or younger
The child was in the custody of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) just prior to the finalization of the adoption or guardianship
There is a valid subsidy agreement with NDHHS.
All adoption assistance services end in Nebraska once a child reaches 19 years of age.
B. Under what circumstances, if any, are these services provided to children who were not