Last month, we shared our home’s process of accepting referrals from local and in-state DHR, families impacted by failed adoptions, and other families struggling with maintaining (biological or adoptive) children in their homes.
Today, we offer a closer look into how we serve children we admit as residents and their families by counseling, coordinating healthcare coverage, conducting family visitations, and helping them transition to adult life after graduation at our “Bridge House.” To learn more about what this all means, keep reading!
Counseling to Serve Children and Families
With funding from our generous donors, we are blessed to provide counseling here at the Children’s Home—at no-cost for our residents, and on a sliding scale for families in our community. Our on-campus LPC (licensed professional counselor) offers one-on-one and group therapy sessions for our residents and anyone from the community of fostering/adoptive families we serve in Alabama.
Oftentimes, the families we see for counseling need our support in maintaining permanency with an adoptive or foster child. Depending on the challenges the family is facing,
they may elect to have the parent(s) or child have one-on-one sessions with our counselor, or they can have group sessions.
Our residents who attend counseling here, on the other hand, do so to receive nonjudgmental, informed support for mental health afflictions, developmental challenges, and complicated emotions stemming from traumatic past experiences.
When one of our residents or the families we serve attend counseling sessions here on campus, they can learn to healthily:
- Facilitate empathetic, honest communication
- Develop and maintain boundaries
- Strengthen their relationships
- Rationally process and cope with complex emotions and traumatic memories
[Read More About “The Benefits of Counseling for Foster Children and Families”]
Coordinating Healthcare
Navigating the complexities of healthcare can be challenging. As you can imagine, it can be especially tricky to coordinate health care and insurance coverage for dozens of children in our care who live separately from their legal guardians (i.e., their adoptive or biological parents).
However, over the years, the process has become more streamlined. Here’s how we serve children in our home with managing their healthcare:
- Any child previously in foster care has access to Medicaid, so we apply for it for most of our residents to cover their healthcare.
- Residents who have lost a parent or guardian sometimes have healthcare coverage from their social security survivors’ benefits.
- Residents who stay with us after their private adoption use primary insurance, and Medicaid is secondary.
- If parents or guardians are capable of covering their child’s medical costs, we require them to do so. While every situation is different and we are sensitive to the hardships that families go through, the Home is not a place for children to be dropped off and for adults to be absolved of their responsibility to care for them.
- Regarding our residents’ medical visits, our house parents accompany them.
Conducting Family Visitation
The process of arranging visitation varies from resident to resident, as each of our children has unique family dynamics.
As long as the parent and the child agree to the plan, we allow our out-of-state and local residents to have family visitations that last a day or a weekend. If it’s too far for a family to drive back and forth, we have accommodations for them to stay on campus overnight during visits.
During extended break times like summer, Christmas, or spring break, we allow many of our residents to spend longer periods of time off-campus with their families, usually for a week or so.
How We Serve Children Post-Graduation
Ever wonder where group home residents go after they “age out” (i.e., turn 19 or graduate high school)? We operate vastly differently from other group homes in almost every aspect, including the aging-out process for our residents.
When our kids become young adults and finish their secondary education (i.e., graduate and receive a high school diploma or GED), we don’t stop supporting them. Instead, we remain a reliable support system and help them transition to adult life, often at our Bridge House.
Our Bridge House gets its name for being the “bridge” between childhood and adulthood; it is here that our residents get a taste of independent adult life while we help them develop and pursue a plan for their future.
Finding Support in Alabama for Complex Family Dynamics
Whether you’re the parent of a resident or your (or someone you know) family is facing challenges with maintaining children in the home, we are glad you found us here on our blog.
Please reach out to us today. With love and compassion—and without judgment—our staff at the Alabama Free Will Baptist Children’s Home will gladly offer their support according to your family’s needs.