CHATHAM COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND CHILDREN S SERVICES

Transcription

1 Georgia s Statewide Family Drug Treatment Court Training CHATHAM COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND CHILDREN S SERVICES 761 Wheaton Street Savannah, Georgia (912) February 8-9, 2012 This project is supported by Award No DC-BX-K069 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and

2 February 8 9, 2012, Savannah, GA Agenda At-A-Glance Wednesday, February 8, :30 8:45 am Welcome and Introductions Opening Remarks by John Zoller 8:45 9:45 am Overview of Georgia Family Drug Treatment Courts - Judges Panel 9:45 10:00 am Break 10:00 11:00 am National Look at Family Drug Treatment Courts 11:00 12:00 pm Georgia FDTCs: Summary of Challenges, Barriers and Opportunities 12:00 1:00 pm Networking Lunch Lunch will be provided 1:00 2:00 pm Engaging Resistant Clients 2:00 3:00 pm Responding to Participants Behavior 3:00 3:15 pm Break 3:15 4:15 pm Collaborative Case Planning for Children, Parents and Families 4:15 4:30 pm Closing Remarks 4:30 pm Meeting Adjourned Thursday, February 9, :30 9:00 am Welcome: Recap of Day 1 9:00 10:00 am Revisiting Your Mission and Goals 10:00 10:15 am Break 10:15 11:15 am Understanding Your Target Population and Scale 11:15 12:15 pm Creating Structure to Sustain Change 12:15 1:00 pm Networking Lunch Lunch is provided 1:00 2:00 pm Hot Topics: Discipline Specific Breakout Groups -Treatment and other services -Legal Professionals -Child welfare and case management services -Coordinators 2:00 2:15 pm Break 2:15 3:15 pm Action Planning and Report Out 3:15 4:00 pm Essential Elements for Georgia FDTCs Facilitated Discussion 4:00 4:30 pm Closing Discussion 4:30 pm Conference Adjourned This project is supported by Award No DC-BX-K069 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and

3 February 8 9, 2012, Savannah, GA Wednesday, February 8, :30 8:45 am Welcome and Introductions Opening Remarks by John Zoller 8:45 9:45 am Overview of Georgia Family Drug Treatment Courts - Judges Panel 9:45 10:00 am Break 10:00 11:00 am National Look at Family Drug Treatment Courts Consultant, Retired Judge of the Family Court Children and Family Futures The accountable, time-limited mandate for achieving permanency for children set forth in the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) is driving the demand for better system responses to meet the needs of families affected by substance use disorders. Over the last 15 years, Family Drug Treatment Courts (FDTCs) have enhanced the ability of the family dependency court, child welfare and drug treatment systems to provide a coordinated response. This session will explore the history of the FDTC movement and its emergence as a model of meaningful collaboration. The presentation will draw from direct experience working with over 70 FDTC sites nationwide, outcome data from studies showing the impact that FDTCs and collaborative models have had in improving treatment and family reunification outcomes. Discussion will also include variations in practice models and the challenges of expansion that lie ahead, including the need for training and technical assistance to assist local jurisdictions to develop and improve FDTC models and approaches. 11:00 12:00 pm Georgia FDTCs: Summary of Challenges, Barriers and Opportunities Insight gained from other FDTCs throughout the country will guide the discussion on strategies to sustain a Family Drug Treatment Court. Utilizing an open format and facilitated discussion to encourage cross-model dialogue, participants will be invited to share their experience in sustaining a Family Drug Treatment Court. Participants will be given the opportunity to share strategies and troubleshoot with peers on a variety of other topics as well, including challenges in providing children s services, engaging defense attorneys, serving voluntary clients, and drug testing, with an understanding of the likelihood that other FDTC s are experiencing challenges in similar areas. Results from the Collaborative Values Inventory and FDTC Survey will be integrated into the presentation. 12:00 1:00 pm Networking Lunch Lunch will be provided 1:00 2:00 pm Engaging Resistant Clients

4 February 8 9, 2012, Savannah, GA Practice and research repeatedly show parental substance use disorders as a factor in a large portion of child welfare cases yet there is scant evidence about what works. This workshop will highlight Family Drug Treatment Courts (FDTC; Dependency Drug Courts; herein referenced as FDTC) as an innovative strategy in meeting the needs of families affected by parental substance use. FDTCs have evolved into a process by which the court, child welfare and treatment systems collaborate to effectively address child abuse and neglect cases involving parental or primary caregiver substance use. Early intervention is one of the key components of the FDTC model and thus, programs are often faced with the challenge of engaging child welfare families who participate in services on a voluntary basis. This presentation will provide an overview of several methods to providing effective interventions with families who voluntarily participate in services. The presenters will highlight special considerations necessary in their approach to ensure engagement and retention to achieve improvements in child safety and well being and recovery from substance use disorders. 2:00 3:00 pm Responding to Participants Behavior Consultant, Retired Judge of the Family Court, Children and Family Futures The FDTC s goal is safe and stable permanent reunification with a parent in recovery within the time frames established by ASFA. Therefore, judicial responses should aim to enhance the likelihood that the family can be reunited before the ASFA clock expires. Timing and delivery of responses that focus on changing client behavior are critical to successful FDTC outcomes. This presentation will first explore the historical perspectives and theoretical underpinnings of the use of sanctions and incentives and the need for a response model to achieve the goals of the FDTCs. In addition to a theoretical overview, the presentation will offer practical skills, strategies, and ideas to helping clients change their behavior. Since the FDTC must consider the impact of a response on the children and family as a unit, knowing how to prioritize and address specific problem behaviors of FDTC participants makes a difference. 3:00 3:15 pm Break 3:15 4:15 pm Collaborative Case Planning for Children, Parents and Families The success of Family Drug Treatment Courts depends on effective cross-systems collaboration, yet full systems integration is often difficult to achieve. Barriers to full integration range from macro or environmental issues, such as funding, to micro or line level issues, such as cross-systems communication. This presentation will provide practice recommendations for collaborative case planning and implementation. Presenters will review a continuum of collaborative practice and highlight key practice points, such as critical junctures at which joint case planning is necessary and practice considerations at each juncture. 4:15 4:30 pm Closing Remarks 4:30 pm Meeting Adjourned

5 Thursday, February 9, 2012 February 8 9, 2012, Savannah, GA 8:30 9:00 am Welcome: Review of Day One 9:00 10:00 am Revisiting Your Mission and Goals Each partner enters the collaboration with its own perspective and particular assumptions about the mission and mandates of the other partners. Unless these differences are identified and addressed, the collaborative will find it difficult to reach agreement on the issues. Often the values and definitional issues, such as who is viewed as the primary client, affect the ways in which staff work across agencies boundaries. This presentation helps sites develop common principles of how the agencies and staff will work together to best serve Family Drug Treatment Court clients. The presentation will conclude with a facilitated discussion and then each FDTC team will review and revise their own FDTC Mission and Goals. 10:00 10:15 am Break 10:15 11:15 am Understanding Your Target Population and Scale Although FDTCs have rapidly increased in number and visibility across the country, few operate at a scale that addresses more than a small percentage of the total child welfare caseload in their jurisdictions. This session will review lessons gleaned from over 60 FDTCs to highlight commonly occurring barriers to moving to scale. Discussion will center on challenges to replication and issues of fidelity to the original model. The pros and cons of operating FDTCs at a smaller scale will be discussed, including the intensity of the model, cost and sustainability issues, the level of judicial interest in expansion, the challenges of screening effectively for substance abuse in the child welfare population, engagement and retention of voluntary clients, and the number of treatments slots required for parents in the child welfare system. The presentation will conclude with a facilitated discussion and then each FDTC team will review and revise their priority population. 11:15 12:15 pm Creating Structure to Sustain Change Consultant, Retired Judge of the Family Court, Children and Family Futures As Family Drug Treatment Courts rapidly increase in number and visibility, few take sustainability into consideration when developing a program and even fewer engage in sustainability planning. Sustainability has been affected by the budget crisis in states as well as the overall economic climate. This session will provide a general overview of barriers and challenges to long-term sustainability often encountered by Family Drug Treatment Courts (FDTCs). Participants will gain knowledge of the importance of strong collaborative relationships; engagement of key stakeholders, particularly State Leadership; promoting awareness and communicating results and outcomes; making sustainability an explicit program objective; and having a designated body or structure (e.g., task force, subcommittee) to focus on sustainability.

6 12:15 1:00 pm Networking Lunch Lunch is provided February 8 9, 2012, Savannah, GA 1:00 2:00 pm Hot Topics: Discipline Specific Breakout Groups Treatment and other Services Child Welfare and Case Management Services Legal Professionals Coordinators John Zoller Statewide Accountability Courts Coordinator Administrative Office of the Courts of GA This session will provide attendees an open forum to discuss critical FDTC issues and trouble-shoot with peers. Utilizing an open format and facilitated discussion to encourage cross-model dialogue, participants will be invited to share their experience in sustaining a Family Drug Treatment Court. Participants will be given the opportunity to share strategies and troubleshoot with peers on other topics as well, including challenges in providing children s services, engaging defense attorneys, serving voluntary clients, and drug testing, with an understanding of the likelihood that other FDTC s are experiencing challenges in similar areas. 2:00 2:15 pm Break 2:15 3:15 pm Action Planning and Report Out Team Exercise Participants will be given time as a team to finalize their Action Plans and then report out on priorities. 3:15 4:00 pm Essential Elements for Georgia FDTCs Facilitated Discussion The purpose of this presentation is to build on knowledge and create guidelines for best practices and principles for developing and sustaining a FDTC, with the hope of enhancing and expanding FDTCs around the country. Participants will identify potential elements to address in its respective state s guidelines. Participants will have the opportunity to modify the suggested guidelines to accomplish its goals and meet its own unique needs. Participants will be encouraged to consider its own existing standards if they exist, other pertinent state or federal legislation, resources and the strengths and abilities of the providers in the state when selecting or crafting FDTC Guidelines. Participants should consider what impact the new guidelines or standards will have on existing FDTCs and, based on this information, should work with these programs to generate creative solutions to provide the best process of adopting the new guidelines or standards given the resources available. 4:00 4:30 pm Closing Discussion 4:30 pm Conference Adjourned

7 Speaker Biographies February 8 9, 2012, Savannah, GA Mr. Breitenbucher currently serves as the Director of the National Family Drug Court Technical Assistance and Training Program at Children and Family Futures. In this role, he is responsible for overall management of the program and coordinating the Family Drug Court efforts with the, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Additionally, Mr. Breitenbucher provides consultation and technical assistance to States and counties working to implement strategies related to substance abuse and child welfare. Mr. Breitenbucher joined the staff of Children and Family Futures in February 2010 after 13 years of child welfare experience. His child welfare experience includes the implementation and management of three Family Drug Court sites, four Family Resource Centers as well as various prevention, diversion and early intervention programs. Mr. Breitenbucher has served as faculty to national organizations such as the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges and Family Court Judges, Child Welfare League of America, National Association of Drug Court Professionals and the American Humane Association. Mr. Breitenbucher holds a Master s Degree in Social Work from California State University, San Bernardino with an emphasis in Public Administration and has served as Field Instructor for California State University, San Bernardino, Loma Linda University and the University of Southern California. Honorable Nicolette M. Pach (ret.) Hon. Nicolette M. Pach (ret.) is currently a Judicial Hearing Officer sitting in Queens County Family Court with a docket primarily consisting of guardianship proceedings where motions for Special Findings for minors seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status are made. She was a Judge of the Suffolk County New York Family Court from where she presided over New York State s first Family Treatment Court which opened in She is a consultant to the Center for Children and Families Futures, the National Center for Substance Abuse and Child Welfare and an independent consultant to other national organizations. Her expertise lies in facilitating the development of Family Dependency Treatment Courts, and assisting states and localities to develop protocols to better coordination the work of family courts, child welfare systems and substance abuse providers. She was the lead consultant for the Center for Court Innovation in drafting guiding principles and recommended practices for Family Treatment Courts in New York State which was published in the spring of Judge Pach is a frequent speaker at national conferences. She is a member of the New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, the New York Unified Court System s Family Court Advisory and Rules Committee. Judge Pach received her B.A. from Colby College in Waterville, Maine and her J.D. from Boston College Law School. Meghan M. Wheeler, M.S. Meghan Wheeler, an independent Training and Technical Assistance Consultant in the justice, treatment and social services fields, delivers professional training, grant writing, curriculum development and technical assistance services on the national, state, and local level. Presently, Ms. Wheeler serves as the Senior Consultant for the National Drug Court Institute, Adult Drug Court Planning Initiative and Adult Drug Court Training Initiative Projects. Ms. Wheeler previously worked for the National Drug Court Institute ( ); as the Project Director where she managed adult and family drug court training and technical assistance activities. Prior to her work nationally, Ms. Wheeler managed the statewide drug court implementation project for the Supreme Court of Ohio. Ms. Wheeler s work with drug courts began in 1996 with her position as Treatment Coordinator for Richland County, Ohio. Ms. Wheeler was employed by the Abraxas Foundation, a residential treatment facility for adolescent males involved in the juvenile justice system. Ms. Wheeler has experience in both juvenile and adult treatment and court systems related to clinical intervention, supervision, case management, program management and policy development. Ms. Wheeler received her Master of Science degree in Administration of justice and Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and criminal justice from Mercyhurst College, Erie, Pennsylvania. Ms Wheeler is a Court Appointed Special Advocate Volunteer in Richland County, Ohio and previously held the position as an adjunct professor at Ashland University in the area of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse.