ListenINDIANA
Residential care best for some
kids
Dead or in prison.
That's the fate Titus Cade, a freshman at Vincennes University, said awaited him if a probation officer hadn't pushed to enroll him at Christian Haven in Wheatfield.
Similar stories come from many who found help in youth homes serving neglected and troubled children.
A boy given direction at the Crisis Center in Gary grew up to serve on a U.S. Secret Service detail.
A girl from the Carmelite Home in East Chicago thrived in a Navy career.
Over and over, the testimonies to the success of residential care facilities for children can be heard.
Unfortunately, such stories may be coming to an end.
James Payne, director of the Indiana Department of Child Services, has directed more and more children be placed in foster homes rather than residential care facilities.
His reasoning: Children belong in a family or family-like environment.
Those operating residential care facilities agree children develop best as part of their caring family, but when that is not possible – for a wide variety of reasons – children are most often best served by placement in a nurturing and professional setting.
Foster care, it is argued, provides children a family-like setting but often without helpful structure and professional counseling.
Steve Grygar, owner of three businesses in San Diego, came to Christian Haven as a 13-year-old self-described "troubled kid who carried a gun." He credits psychologists serving the youth home who were "there to care and listen to me" for turning his life around.
"I don't think (foster care) could have handled my problem," he said.
Northwest Indiana probation officers, therapists, case managers and judges have found the region's nearly dozen youth homes a place to help troubled children rebuild their lives.
Payne, instead, describes it as a "culture of placement." He favors foster housing for children.
He does so even though the system of foster homes has been described by some as warehousing children. As many as 10 or more children have on occasion been assigned to a single foster home.
Residential care administrators cite what they call "failing up" as a trend among children assigned to foster care – children bounced from foster home to foster home. One case The Times learned of was a boy assigned to 21 different foster homes.
What's so special about the likes of the Crisis Center or Christian Haven? The youth or residential homes, which offer counseling multiple times each week, have professional staff available 24 hours a day and tailor programming to the needs of children.
They offer a structured environment built around an atmosphere of understanding and care.
But some wonder if shifting children away from the residential/youth homes to foster care is more about money than what is best for children.
Patrick Oatis, executive director at Christian Haven, notes it is cheaper to place a child in a foster home than a residential facility, even though residential facilities can provide more intensive, more frequent professional services.
Then, too, there is a matter of the state not allocating the youth homes the full amount of allocated dollars. It became necessary for the Indiana Association of Residential Child Care Agencies to file suit against the state – Payne's agency – to gain a full share of the funds. The state settled out of court.
Hopefully, the Department of Child Services' shift from residential youth homes to foster care is not linked to the state's failure to win this lawsuit in federal court while under Payne's direction?
Money should not be the deciding factor in helping children.
Shirley Caylor, the Crisis Center's executive director, puts it best by saying, "Cheaper is not less expensive when children's lives are damaged by multiple placements (in foster homes) and disconnections." We agree.
The network of residential youth homes has worked well in Northwest Indiana, in some cases for nearly a century. The state needs to rethink its decision, recognizing the value of the caring youth homes serving this region.
Editorial
27 October 2011
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_6b59e168-6cd2-5c60-8ee7-b8b6648c85f5.html
