HomeMy WebLinkAboutFamily Services Advisory Committee - Minutes - 12/14/2010
BAYFIELD COUNTY FAMILY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
Courthouse Conference Room A
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Committee Members Present:, Jim Crandall, Lona Schmidt, John Blahnik, Mary Skerik, Nancy and Dale
Johnson, Beth Meyers, Susan Davis, and Ann Green.
Staff Present: Anita Haukaas and Nina Bucher
Call to order: Lona called the meeting to order at 4:35pm.
Review of 9/21/2010 minutes: Jim made a motion to adopt the minutes, Beth seconded, motion
passed.
Safe & Stable Families presentation: Anita explained that BCDHS receives approximately $36,000
federal funding each year for the Safe & Stable Families (SSF) grant. This funding is to be used for
contracted services that make a home/family safe and aid in reunification of families by providing services
such as in home therapy and respite services. A portion of the funding is passed on to CASDA and New
Day Shelter to help fund their domestic violence programs. ABC Healthy Families has also received a
portion for fathering classes and other classes that meet SSF criteria. High risk youth of any age could
qualify for services including a referral to the mentoring program for children under 14 which are not
covered by the Youth Offender Grant which only funds 14-17 year olds.
Family Services Staffing update: Jessica Unkelhaeuser has been hired as an ongoing juvenile justice
worker and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in social work. Crystal Clark has been hired as a
limited term employee. Crystal primarily covers access.
2011 Budget: A concern is the cost of youth secured detentions and associated transportation that will
become the responsibility of the Family Services section starting in 2011. Anita said that staff members
are looking for alternatives that will still keep the child and family safe without sending the child to secured
detention. The parents of a child who was placed in secured detention will be asked to reimburse BCDHS
the cost of $175/day plus transportation.
Child Protective Services: Anita explained that recently Red Cliff had a potential conflict of interest in
two referrals. Bayfield County asked for an independent screening for these cases so an outside county
completed the screening decisions to avoid any real or perceived conflict.
Juvenile Justice referrals: Anita compared out of home placement costs from the previous year. The
cost decreased from $69,000 in Oct. 2009 to $34,000 in Oct. 2010 and from $64,000 in Nov. 2009 to
$33,000 in Nov. 2010. Anita feels this is in part due to assessments completed by the Mental Health
worker and her working with staff and families to identify resources in the community. Referrals of
delinquent youth went from nine in Oct. 2009 to four in Oct. 2010 and 11 in Nov. 2009 to 16 in Nov. 2010.
BAYFIELD COUNTY
Department of Human Services
117 East Fifth Street
P.O. Box 100
Washburn, Wisconsin 54891-0100
(715) 373-6144 Voice/TDD
(715) 373-6130 Fax
baycodhs@bayfieldcounty.org
/www.bayfieldcounty.org
nkb/u:\Word\FS Adv Com\FS ADV COM MTG MIN 12-14-2010.doc 2
Youth Offender Grant Program update: The program has three mentors that have completed
training, one child in the program being mentored, and three children waiting for court dates that will refer
the youth to the program. Transportation is a large issue with this program.
Mental Health & AODA: Anita reported that of the seven emergency detentions in November 2010,
three were mental health, four were AODA, and two of them were referred to the Aging & Disabilities
section because they were for adult protective services. She added that the current MH/AODA cases were
very time consuming and involved a lot of corporate counsel work.
Out of Home Placement: One high cost youth placement will be ending in December 2010 and another
aging out in January. Kinship is being paid for five children.
Day care/Kinship case worker update: Anita has taken responsibility for the day care portion while
the kinship program duties have been transferred to the foster care coordinators. Anita has been updating
the certified child care provider list and has closed five provider’s certifications as they are not interested in
providing services any longer. The certification process includes background checks which the state
requires quarterly, and unannounced visits which is part of Bayfield County’s anti-fraud plan.
The State has redefined the foster care system and has implemented “levels of care” in the foster care
program. The first level is kinship care. The providers of children who are court ordered to kinship care
must now become licensed. Children placed in out of home care, including kinship, will need a Child
Abuse & Neglect assessment. We have one worker who is certified to complete these assessments, and
another worker who will be trained to complete them.
Red Cliff Indian Child Welfare update: Anita said she and Suzie Crazy-Thunder will meet next week
to discuss common cases and safety plans and then staff cases with Social Workers and others. Beginning
in 2011, the State has contracted with MAXMUS to make all substitute care payments using information
from eWisacwis. Anita explained that Indian tribes have “read only” access to eWisacwis so they cannot
input information. Gathering the necessary documents/information to input into eWisacwis takes time but
must to be done so that providers get paid.
New committee member update: Jim Crandall said that Katie Hancock was not able to join the
Committee at this time. Anita reported that the extension of appointment of Nancy and Dale Johnson was
approved at the October Human Services Board Meeting.
Informational items: Anita said that Kris Moelter from the WI Office of Justice Assistance will be
conducting a workshop on Evidence Based Community Juvenile Justice practices in Bayfield County at the
annex in the EOC room on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 from 8am-2pm. Evidence Based Practices are
defined as a progressive, organizational use of direct, current scientific evidence to guide and inform
efficient and effective correctional services that targets reoffending youth. All those involved in processing
juvenile delinquency in our area have been invited and are encouraged to attend. Invitations will be sent
to FSAC members via e-mail.
ABC Healthy Families has a Community Response Program that accepts referrals for those child protective
services cases that are screened out by BCDHS. ABC staff contact the family to see if they can work with
them on a voluntary basis to provide them with the services they need.
Future Meeting: Future meeting dates are March 15th, June 21st, and September 20th, 2011 at 4:30pm.
Adjournment: Lona adjourned the meeting at 5:50pm.
Minutes submitted by,
Nina Bucher, Clerk III