Reuben Lindh Family Services

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Reuben Lindh Family Services

• Improving Childrens Outcomes
• Dianne Haulcy, Executive Director, Reuben Lindh
  Family Services
• National Conference on Ending Family Homelessness
  
• February 8th, 2008
• Seattle, Washington

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Reuben Lindh is dedicated to

• Increasing the parenting, social and independent
  living skills of at-risk families
• Providing culturally-sensitive childcare and
  family support services
• Developing the full potential of children through
  occupational, speech/language, physical, and
  music therapies
• Strengthening family relationships through
  individual, family and play therapies
• Offering community resource support

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Combining early childhood education with therapy
in-home family work

• RAP (Rebuilding Appropriate Parenting)
• Intensive support services to women who have
  completed chemical dependency treatment or
  aftercare programs, and are making the transition
  to sober parenting
• HOPE (Healthy Outcomes/Parenting Education)
• In-home parenting program for families involved
  with Hennepin County Child Protective Services
• Family Focus
• Helps families facing multiple challenges such as
  poverty, housing, isolation, lack of parenting
  skills, mental health issues, substance abuse,
  and other conditions contributing to family
  instability. Services are offered to families
  involved in the Multicultural Therapeutic
  Preschool
• STRONG (Strengthening Our Next Generation)
• Collaborative between three agencies. Designed
  to integrate housing, child development, chemical
  dependency, and mental health services into one
  seamless system

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RAP

• From December 2006 to December 2007.
• Mothers/parents who achieved parenting
  goals    71
• Mothers/parents who demonstrated 2 or more new
  parenting skills   70
• Mothers/parents with open CPS cases at intake
  whose cases closed at closure     62.5
• Children reunified at closure of RAP
  services   73
• Mothers who were sober at service
  termination     68
• Clients who independently utilized 2 or more
  community resources  78

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HOPE

• Contracts with Hennepin County
• Direct client contact 50 hours or 6 months
• Genogram and Eco-maps
• HOPE workers work with clients to mutually define
  strategies toward highlighted goals
• Tools
• Parenting Assessments
• Family Worker observation
• School attendance records
• Outcomes
• 78 of participating clients demonstrated
  improvement in parenting skills
• 93 of school age school children were in school
  on time/daily

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Family Focus

• Support of RLFS Unified Therapy Department and
  Family Therapy Department
• Family workers
• Family workers and preschool teachers work
  together to support the children and their
  families.
• Tools
• Reuben Lindh Parenting Skills Evaluation
• Family support service workers staffing goals
  teachers written behavioral goals
• The social emotional checklist

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A Comparison of Reuben Lindh and Minnesota State
Children entering kindergarten on 2005
(Children entering Kindergarten tested with
the P4 Work Sampling)
Domain RLFS Not Yet MN Not Yet RLFS In Process MN In Process RLFS Proficient MN Proficient
Physical Development Health 1 4 12 30 87 67
Personal Social Development ---- 9 24 39 76 51
The Arts 5 7 41 40 54 53
Language Literacy 3 13 32 40 65 47
Mathematical Thinking 9 12 44 42 47 46
List comments your child/ren make about school or
teacher Talks about playing. Likes to go to
school everyday. Talks about homework. Counts
number, sing, dance, play Likes teachers,
drivers, friends, therapists, and her pictures.
They want to go to school, they like their
school. She talks about how she played with her
friends at school, how good she was and about
what she ate. He loves his teacher and coming
to school. She says she likes her school and
her teacher.
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• My child/children like coming to preschool.
• Always 84
• Sometimes 16
• I have noticed changes in my child/childrens
  behavior since participating in this program.
• Yes 91
• Sometimes 2
• No 7

Family Focus, continued
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STRONG

• For mothers under 25 with at least one child
  under age 5
• Families are homeless or at risk of being
  homeless
• Five-year national pilot program funded by Hilton

• Tools
• Infant and Toddler Development or the Miller 1st
  Step
• ASQ
• Client satisfaction survey
• Housing assistance, parenting skills and chemical
  dependency counseling as provided as needed
• Outcomes
• 13 of the STRONG women are employed (one with two
  jobs)
• 8 of the women are in school working towards
  their GED,
• 2 of the women have completed chemical dependency
  treatment.
• 39 children have been screened

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Important Components to Success
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Parental Involvement

• Getting into homes
• Relationship is key to clients motivation to
  change
• Setting up regular schedule of home visits
  increases success rate / family worker
  accountable and adding structure
• Family Worker dependability
• Looking for parents learning style (i.e.
  reading, modeling, provide experience)

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Family Therapy Counseling Services

• Culturally sensitive individual, couple, family,
  group and play therapy
• Integrated client staffings in the Family Focus
  and Four Directions Family Center screen and
  identify mental health issues and the need for
  therapy
• Highest service provision each year is to
  children ages three to five receiving play
  therapy.
• Outcomes
• Client report of changes and improvements
• 73 Feel better about self
• 68 Can better handle problems
• that arise
• 70 Can name and express feelings
• 70 Communication with others
• has improved
• Nine families (children and parents) in
• the STRONG program have been referred
• to Reuben Lindh Therapy Services

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Unified Therapy

• Combined specialized services offered by
  occupational therapy, physical therapy, music
  therapy and speech/language therapy
• In-center or the home visiting programs for all
  children and their families who demonstrate need
• Tools
• Therapy staff will screen all children in each
  Preschool using standardized tools and follow-up
  assessments.
• Pre and post therapeutic intervention assessment
• Ongoing contact with family workers, phone
  contacts and home visits.

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Quality Preschool Program preparing children for
Kindergarten

• Culturally appropriate curriculum
• Family involvement/ home visits
• Regular testing

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Screening and Testing and Intervention for
children and families

• Screen children for developmental delay
  (speech/language, hearing and vision), emotional
  stability
• Parents are screened for parenting skills (AAPI)
  and evaluated for community and family resources
  (Eco-gram)
• Testing in preschool (ASQ-SE) and ASQ, COR, Work
  Sampling (Preschool and 4D)

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Track Outcomes and Indicators Annually

• Annual program reports

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