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Nancy Coston said there is a document called "Sheaffer House Alternatives" in <br />their packet that outlines some of the information about Sheaffer House. This program <br />has been available to Social Services far about 20 years from its original donation by Dr. <br />Sheaffer to the County. It had provided emergency shelter for up to 90 days for 5 to 6 <br />children at a time as a juvenile justice and social services program. She said that Mental <br />Health had never used the House for any of their programs and it was never licensed as <br />a mental health program. She said that about 8 months ago DSS started talking about <br />what was the best thing to do with the kids in the community in reference to mental <br />health reform. They had already had some discussion before they received the notice <br />about the issues of Sheaffer House, which involved mold, abatement issues and costs <br />that made it cost prohibitive for the Lutheran Family Services (LFS} to continue to <br />operate it, so LFS decided to close the home. In the interim, they have had to place <br />children in various facilities, many of them out of the county and some of these facilities <br />have been more expensive and not necessarily the program that they would have <br />chosen as their first choice for these children. DSS wants the children to be served <br />closer to their families and closer to Orange County DSS resources. That has not <br />always been possible without having Sheaffer House ar some other service available. <br />Nancy Colton said that they have had intense meetings between juvenile courts, <br />mental health, DSS and some of the Manager's staff that have been extremely <br />productive and has provided an excellent partnership. One suggestion that came out of <br />these meetings was to look at what Durham County was doing with private contractors <br />using therapeutic homes. She said that the therapeutic homes are similar to foster <br />homes except there are additional requirements on what these parent families must be <br />willing to provide. She said that the parent families would require more training and <br />would have to agree to take children with behavior problems They would also get an <br />availability fee which means they get paid whether any children are in the home or not. <br />Nancy Colton said that in talking with other agencies that have worked with therapeutic <br />homes that it was the general consensus that this was a resource that Orange County <br />needed. She said she had a verbal contract from Caring Family Network that is already <br />in Orange County and is also the same organization that is in Durham County. Caring <br />Family Network has some homes that provide therapeutic, emergency care. They do <br />not have any emergency homes for immediate available care. She said that there is <br />information in their packets that cover some recommendations on how to address this <br />issue. DSS is pursuing contracts with organizations and is organizing a meeting of all <br />providers of these mental health and social services who may be available to Orange <br />County. <br />Nancy Coston said when they assessed the children from Sheaffer House they <br />found that the majority were mental health clients. She said that they need to get <br />children into the mental health system sooner so that the case manager can make <br />arrangements for therapeutic services that might prevent Social Services from having to <br />do emergency care. The way that this is done with the Juvenile Court Counselors is <br />there is a liaison physician that is paid for with the Justice Partnership funds. The liaison <br />is on a part-time basis assigned to Juvenile Court and it has been strongly <br />recommended that Social Services consider having apart-time physician that is a <br />mental health employee who would stay with Social Services in staffing their cases to <br />expedite the children's delayed entry into the mental health system particularly in the <br />current state of reform. The quicker they can get the children into the system in the <br />appropriate program, the less likely they will get caught in a situation where they will not <br />have the services they need. The Caring Family Network said that from the time they <br />sign a contract with the County, they could have homes available in nearby counties <br />within two months and resources in Orange County within five months. <br />