Working together to provide opportunities for youth to lead safe, healthy and successful lives within their home communities.
What is Safe at Home West Virginia?
Safe At Home West Virginia is a state funded program providing temporary support to:
- Reduce reliance on out-of-home settings and prevent re-entries into them
- Ensure youth remain in (or return to) their community settings whenever safely possible
- Reduce the number of children in placements out-of-state
Safe at Home West Virginia empowers families by utilizing an innovative Wraparound planning process including:
- Trauma-informed assessments and planning focused on needs
- Wraparound services that are individualized and coordinated
- Evidence-based services and supports to improve long-term outcomes
Who is eligible?
Safe at Home Eligibility Definition
System involved youth, ages 5 – 18 years of age either in foster care placement or at imminent risk of foster care entry (see below guideline for determining imminent risk and foster care candidacy); or for a child age 5 and older who is an adopted child or is in a legal guardianship arrangement which is at risk of disruption.
AND
The applicant demonstrates dysfunctional patterns of behavior due to exposure to trauma.
AND
The family/caregiver demonstrates significant need(s) in at least one of the following areas:
a) Knowledge of needs and service options;
b) Discipline; or
c) Family stress.
How does Safe at Home West Virginia work?
Referrals are made by BSS Workers. A variety of community members, which may include BSS staff, members of the judicial system, healthcare providers, educators, probation agencies, Marshall University’s clinical team and law enforcement, may contact BSS Workers about making referrals.
- When a case has been identified as a possible SAH referral, the BSS Worker will:
- Staff potential family’s case with a BSS Supervisor to recommend a referral for SAH.
- Discuss SAH with the family and see if they are in agreement.
- Collect all available information, which may require the family to sign consents to release the needed information to the BSS Worker and/or the LCA.
- Complete and submit the SAH referral screens in the CANS system within 7 days.
- The BSS Supervisor will review and either deny or approve the referral within 3 days of receiving the referral from the BSS Worker. Once a SAH referral has been approved by the BSS Supervisor, Marshall University SAH Assignment Staff will approve or deny the referral.
- Marshall University SAH Assignment Staff will assign approved referrals to an LCA.
- LCAs assign a Wraparound Facilitator (WF) who quickly begins coordination with the family, the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), the Child and Family Team (CFT), and community partners. LCA will make reasonable efforts to complete case staffing within one business day.
- The WF works with the family to create a crisis plan and wraparound plan of care (POC), which are actively followed through regular contact. LCA will complete an initial Crisis Plan at the first family meeting. LCA will develop the full Crisis/Safety Plan within 30 calendar days of referral.
- Formal and informal services and supports are arranged after a thoughtful planning process based on the family’s specific needs.
- The expected case length for SAH involvement is up to 12 months. As the family becomes increasingly successful over the course of approximately 12 months, formal supports and services are replaced with informal supports (community-based and family). The guiding goal in SAH wraparound is to be a temporary support that encourages and enables empowering growth and development of the family’s ability to independently problem solve as well as set and achieve goal
How to make a referral
If you know a youth who might qualify for Safe at Home West Virginia wraparound services, pleas contact your local West Virginia Department of Human Services (DoHS) office.
Understanding Wraparound
Wraparound differs from many service delivery strategies, in that it provides a comprehensive, holistic, youth- and family-driven way of responding when children or youth experience serious mental health or behavioral challenges.
Wraparound puts the child or youth and family at the center. With support from a team of professionals and natural supports, the family's ideas and perspectives about what they need and what will be helpful drive all work in wraparound.
The youth and their family members work with a wraparound facilitator to build their wraparound team, which can include the family's friends and people from the wider community, as well as providers of services and supports. With the help of the team, the family and young person take the lead in deciding team vision and goals, and in developing creative and individualized services and supports that will help them achieve the goals and vision. Team members work together to put the plan into action, monitor how well it's working, and change it as needed.
(Source: National Wraparound Initiative)
For more information visit: