Samaritan Counseling Samaritan Counseling

Samaritan Counseling Center Treatment Foster Care Program

Open your heart. Share your home. Make a difference.

Our agency mission is to be an expression of God's love, facilitating emotional healing and growth for women, men, and youth, regardless of financial status or faith background, so that they may develop more fully their relationships with self, others, and God.

Our mission as a Treatment Foster Care program is to provide successful placements focused on the best interest of children and their families with the most efficient use of community resources. We work in each Treatment Foster Home to provide consultation and support to the foster families, schools, and other community providers; ensuring that the children placed can quickly achieve a level of stability within the foster home and community.

Samaritan Counseling Center is a state-licensed child-placing agency for Treatment Foster Care. Our program accepts referrals for children ages 5-17 years from Outagamie, Calumet, Winnebago, Brown, Fond du Lac, Kewaunee, and Waushara counties in Wisconsin. We provide Intensive Out-of-Home Placement for children that have been the victims of abuse or neglect or for children with delinquency issues that may otherwise be placed in institutional settings. In Treatment Foster Care, the positive aspects of a nurturing and therapeutic environment are combined with a structured environment in a clinically effective and cost-effective way. Treatment is individualized to fit the child’s needs and include all areas of the child’s life. The Treatment Coordinator will meet with the families to determine the best placement for a child and maintain weekly contact to ensure stability in the home. The Treatment Coordinator will also maintain contact with the child’s social worker in an effort to provide the best possible services.

DEFINITION OF TREATMENT FOSTER CARE

According to Wisconsin Administrative Code HFS 38.03, the definition of Treatment Foster Care is:
“Treatment foster care” means a foster family-based and community-based approach to treatment for a child with physical, mental, medical, alcohol or other drug abuse, cognitive, intellectual, behavioral, developmental or similar problems, which is designed to change the behavior or ameliorate the condition which, in whole or in part, resulted in the child’s separation from his or her family. The approach utilizes specially selected and specifically trained treatment foster parents who, as members of a treatment team, have shared responsibility for implementing the child’s treatment plan as the primary change agents in the treatment process.”

QUALIFICATIONS

According the HFS 38.03, 2 of these qualifications must be met in order to be considered for licensure as a Treatment Foster Care home:

(a) A minimum of one year of experience as a licensed foster parent, understood as having been a licensed foster parent who had a child placed in his or her home for at least one year.
(b) A minimum of 5 years of experience working with or parenting children.
(c) A minimum of 500 hours of experience as a respite care provider for children under the supervision of a human services agency.
(d) A high school diploma or the equivalent.
(e) A substantial relationship with the child to be placed through previous experience as a staff person or volunteer involved in the child’s case or as a family member or friend of the family of the treatment foster child.

To become a respite care provider, the requirements are as follows:

(a) Be at least 18 years of age and at least 5 years older than any child being cared for by the foster parent.
(b) Have direct care experience or training in working with children with conditions similar to the child for whom he or she will be caring.
(c) Be physically able to provide the care needed and in the setting required.
(d) Have a willingness to be flexible and work varied, atypical hours.
(e) Be able to independently and reliably get to and from respite care assignments.
(f) Possess the ability to accept responsibility, work independently, exercise good judgment, maintain confidentiality and manage the varied medical, behavioral and care needs of children in treatment foster care.
(g) Reside in a home which meets the physical and environmental needs of the treatment foster child for whom care is to be provided, if the respite care is to be provided in the respite care provider’s residence.

LICENSING PROCESS

The process for becoming licensed as a Treatment Foster Home begins with filling out an application for becoming a foster parent. After your application is reviewed by the Treatment Coordinator, you will be contacted to set up a meeting in your home to discuss some basic information about your family and to ensure you meet the state requirements. Prospective foster families also need to complete a federal criminal background check including fingerprinting. Once this is completed, an in-depth home study will be performed over the course of a few visits and weeks. The home study provides our agency with important information about your family and allows us to determine what children would be a good fit for your home. Some of the questions in the home study may seem intrusive and difficult to answer, but they are a necessary part of discovering your strengths along with possible weaknesses as a family and caregiver. If situations arise that may present as a challenge to becoming a foster parent, you may be provided a referral for resources in the community.

Provided the background check and home study are successful and the prospective foster family feels they are still interested in becoming licensed, initial training will begin. This initial, pre-placement training will be provided by the Treatment Coordinator and will consist of 18 hours of orientation and training. After licensure, ongoing training will be provided, which consists of 24 hours within the second 12 month period of licensure and 18 hours each subsequent year.

Treatment Foster Care parents and families will be provided with much support including 24/7 emergency access to a member of the Treatment Foster Care team, assistance in advocating for the child in the community and in their school, monthly meetings with other foster parents, and ongoing training. As a Treatment Foster Parent, you will be the main change agent in the child or adolescent’s life and will be encouraged to play a major role in all decision making and treatment planning. Contacts with biological parents and other individuals already established in the foster youth’s life are strongly encouraged.

SERVICES FOR FOSTER PARENTS


SERVICES FOR FOSTER YOUTH


PERSONAL STORIES OF TREATMENT FOSTER CARE


CONTACT

If you are interested in finding out more information about becoming a Treatment Foster Parent or a Respite Provider, please contact the Treatment Coordinator, Amy Plettner at

APPLICATION FORMS


Cover Letter for Application Packet
Foster Care Provider Application
Verification of Licensee Qualifications for TFC Providers
Verification of Licensee Qualifications for Respite Providers
Health Check Form
Background Check Form
Authorization for Release of Information Form

Mail your application to:
Samaritan Counseling Center
Treatment Foster Care
1478 Kenwood Dr. Suite 1
Menasha, WI 54952