Youth and Family Services is committed to providing a wide range of accessible, coordinated and integrated services, which meet the needs of our youth and their families in the most friendly, sensitive and respectful manner possible, regardless of gender, race, income or beliefs.

PREVENTION

Healthy Start: Designed to identify and serve pregnant women who are at risk for poor birth outcomes, or infants who are at risk for infant mortality or morbidity. Through care coordination, we assist pregnant and postpartum women in establishing and maintaining behaviors which are conducive to the optimum health and well-being of themselves, their infants and children, and their families.

PUP (Preventing Unnecessary Placements): Utilizes the HOMEBUILDER’S® best practice model to prevent out-of-home placements of children.

Family Preservation: For families who have been referred by law enforcement due to concerns of possible abuse and/or neglect. Individual and family therapy, as well as parent education, is provided in the home environment to preserve the family unit while also decreasing the risk of abuse and/or neglect.

LIFT (Learning Independence From Trauma): Individual and family therapy is provided in the home, specifically with children coping with abuse, neglect or a traumatic event. Solution-focused and Trauma-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy interventions are provided.

MST (Multisystemic Therapy): An intensive family and community-based treatment program that focuses on addressing all environmental systems that impact chronic and violent juvenile offenders and their homes and families, schools and teachers, neighborhoods and friends. MST recognizes that each system plays a critical role in a youth's world and each system requires attention when effective change is needed to improve the quality of life for youth and their families.

Family Engagement Program: Coordinates the provision of services and/or supports to families identified by child protection authorities who present with substance use/mental health disorders that potentially put their children at risk. These families receive the necessary services and resources in an individualized manner within a comprehensive, integrated system of care to facilitate their recovery, to improve family functioning, and reduce possibility of future abuse or neglect.

CLINICAL

Outpatient Therapy: Individual, family and group therapy sessions are provided in the office setting.

In Home Therapy: Therapeutic behavioral services to assist children and their families with complex needs provided in the home and community settings.

Family Intervention Team: Immediate, intensive, crisis-oriented and solution-focused individual and family therapy that takes place in the home environment. The goal of this program is to divert hospitalizations.

BRIDGE (Broward Recovery Initiative for Dual Diagnosis Guidance and Empowerment) Project: A collaborative program providing adolescents who are experiencing co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders with a coordinated, continuous and integrated system of care. It includes a team approach providing intensive in-home services utilizing Motivational Interviewing and the Wraparound approach.

REACH (Responding Effectively to Adolescents and Children at Home) Program: Focuses on youth who are recently discharged from residential treatment or are at risk of removal from home due to their behavioral health issues. This program utilizes a team approach providing intensive in-home services utilizing the Wraparound approach.

Project Connect: Individual and family therapy to correct the conditions that lead to the removal of one or more children from the home. Services begin immediately following removal and continue through reunification.

Psychiatric and Medication Management: Psychiatric evaluation and medication monitoring for children and adolescents for whom psychotropic medication may be beneficial toward achieving stability and optimal functioning. Nursing services monitor vital signs and provide education to each family regarding prescribed medications.

CASE MANAGEMENT

Youth Case Management: Utilizes the Wraparound process as a way to ensure that children with behavioral health issues and their families have access to a comprehensive array of services that address physical, emotional, social and educational needs. This process is based on individualized, strength based, needs-driven planning and service delivery. Case Managers help families access support/services and identify relevant support systems through assessment, planning, linkage, advocacy and monitoring activities.

Wraparound Diversion: Offers both diversion and a civil citation option for Juvenile Offenders with behavioral health conditions.

PPP (Placement Partnership Program): Provides crisis intervention to children and families involved with the child protective system to help stabilize their placement or assist with re-entry into the community from hospital, residential treatment, or detention.

CRISIS

YES (Youth Emergency Services): Provides 24/7 telephone consultation, linkage, referral and mobile outreach services to youth and families of Broward County experiencing a crisis.

RESIDENTIAL

Group Homes: Offers a safe and nurturing home for boys ages 11 to 17 with behavioral health challenges, with the goal to provide each young man with the skills he will need to live independently at adulthood. The group homes provide 24 hour support, life skills training, education, behavior management and development of appropriate socialization skills. The staff works as a team with family members, psychiatrists, therapists and behavior support specialists to develop each child’s individual support plan to optimally meet their needs and honor their goals and preferences.

Wilson Gardens Transitional Independent Living Program: Provides transitional housing, intensive case management, life skills and independent living skills training for young men over 18 years of age that have aged out of the Foster Care System, are at risk of homelessness, have a behavioral health condition and have not yet mastered the skills necessary for self-sufficiency. The program has an on-site resident manager, available 24/7, and a dedicated life coach who teaches “hands on” training and independent living skills.