MYS Programs:

Children and youth of any age and either gender whose needs require skilled parents trained in specialized interventions. These children demonstrate low potential for successful placement in regular foster care and might otherwise be placed in group or institutional care. They have usually experienced abuse and neglect, and have a history of placement breakdown.

• To offer a quality treatment foster care program with high level supports
• To provide children and youth with community based homes capable of meeting their individual needs
• To provide an alternative to group home and institutional shift-staff care

Addressing a Need in Our Community

There are many children and youth in care who have experienced severe disturbances in their lives. These disturbances and the problems which they create affect the ability of caregivers to meet the children's needs. Foster care has long been an important resource for children, yet the needs of some children are too great for the regular foster care system. This can contribute to multiple placement breakdowns or placement in a more restrictive, higher cost setting.

The Alternative Parent Home (APH) Program combines the normalizing influence of foster family-based care with specialized treatment interventions, thereby creating a therapeutic environment in the context of a nurturing home.

Our Service

The Alternative Parent Home (APH) Program provides short or long term treatment foster care placements for children and youth experiencing wide range of behavioral difficulties. APH Foster Parents are selected on the basis of their experience and skills, their ability to handle the special challenges of children with profound difficulties and their commitment to the children in their care.

A Clinical Case Manager, with a limited caseload size, is assigned to the foster child and foster family to provide clinical support. Together, the APH Foster Parent(s) and Clinical Case Manager work as part of a treatment team to assess the child's needs and implement treatment strategies designed to help resolve problems and teach new skills. The Clinical Case Manager maintains ongoing contact with the treatment team members, coordinating the treatment plan. The Clinical Case Manager is responsible for facilitating the admission, progress reviews and discharge of children in the program.

When possible the treatment team works with the child's family and extended family to facilitate reconnection. The reconnection is not always reunification; rather it is an ongoing assessment of the most beneficial level of contact between the child and his/her family.

By teaming the APH Foster Parents with clinical input and supports from Macdonald Youth Services, we have provided successful placements for many children, interrupting their pattern of multiple placements through the system.

The Treatment Team is Critical to Our Success

We believe in a team approach to treatment for children and youth. Working together with the APH Foster Parents the balance of the treatment team is generally comprised of: the APH Clinical Case Manager, the Child and Family Services Social Worker, a Respite/Youth Care Support Worker, other collateral professionals and, if possible, the child's parent(s) or extended family. The emphasis on team acknowledges the need for those involved with the child to work together on a cohesive plan addressing the child's needs in all areas.

The treatment team works collaboratively on issues such as: pre-placement planning, long range planning, designing treatment strategies and reviewing progress.

Clinical

Treatment is an integral part of the APH Program. The APH Foster Parent(s) and the Clinical Case Manager work together to assess the treatment plan on an ongoing basis. Psychological consultants are engaged to assist the team with ongoing treatment.

Clinical staff at MYS facilitate individual therapy and specialized treatment groups for some of the children and youth involved in our programs. Clinical Case Managers are involved directly with the children and often with their families as well. At times this can take the form of individual or family counselling.

Standards and Commitment that Set Us Apart

The APH Program has been providing services to children with special needs since 1987. From the outset, we have established and maintained high standards for both the foster parents and the staff in the program. We have attracted committed APH Foster Parents and highly skilled staff who together have demonstrated their ability to create solutions and contribute to significant positive changes in the lives of many children and youth.

MYS and the APH Program remain committed to working with children in care who have severe emotional and behavioural difficulties. We feel that the "Treatment Foster Care" model upon which the APH Program is based provides an important resource to children and youth.

The APH Program is an example of our commitment to providing services that fulfills the needs of the children and families we serve.