In 2011, KO was recognized nationally by the Building Bridges initiative as a model program supporting financial strategies to effectively prevent and return youth from placement. Also in 2011, Kids Herkimer was honored to have its innovative Return Home Early Project recognized by The White House Council for Community Solutions as a collaborative effort with the Herkimer County DSS. Kids Oneida has consistently demonstrated that positive outcomes can be achieved despite significant trauma, mental illness, and psychosocial stressors through its strength and team based approach.

When every child has a chance to realize his or her potential, our work will be complete. Until then, Kids Oneida commits itself to helping children who suffer from childhood trauma to lead safer, healthier, more productive lives. When a child is raised from reticence to confidence, from despair to hope, we are closer to our goal of making every child a success.

Kids Oneida, keeping families together.

Return Home Early Project Goals

310 Main Street Utica, New York 13501

t 315.792.9039 f 315.792.9578kidsoneida.org

Keeping Families Together

“ The level of compassion, support, concrete guidance, and above all, sincere interest displayed toward this case far exceeded every expectation we had.”

– RK Parent of a child returned home early

“ The Return Home Early Proj-ect helped me to get my life back and get on track. I was able to get back into school, get a job, and will be starting college next week.”

– TT Child returned home early

“ Kids Oneida Return Home Early Project is fantastic!”

– ML Child returned home early

RETURNED HOME

WITH FAMILY

APPROPRIATE LEVEL

OF CARE

PLACEMENT CLOSER

TO HOME

« ONEIDA COUNTY «

Return Home Early ProjectThrough strong advocacy, collaboration, and family empowerment,

the Return Home Early Project identifies children who can be better served at home keeping families together.

For over a decade, child welfare and mental health sys-tems have realized that long term residential treatment was both ineffective and costly. Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, published in 1999, supported these con-clusions by stating that there was “weak evidence for their effectiveness”. A child and community’s safety and the ability to receive specialized treatment have been offered as justi-

fication for out-of-home residential care. However, research has shown there has been a lack of generalized improve-ment in either area once the youth has been discharged to their home community. It has been indicated that increased lengths of stay do not increase the chance of a child being more successful and does not decrease the child’s chance of returning to residential care.

What the Research Says…

In response to skyrocketing out-of-home placement num-bers and increased financial strain on Oneida County New York, Kids Oneida was identified as the lead agency tasked with independently assessing all children in institutional care. This local non-profit agency, whose vision is Keeping Families Together, was best suited to identify children in placement that would benefit from intensive community-based services in their home communities as opposed to a more restrictive level of care. These services, which already existed in the county, would serve as a less intensive option for youth to continue their treatment once they have stabilized in out-of-home placement. This collaborative effort with the Oneida County Department of Social Services (OCDSS), Kids Oneida, placement facilities, families, school districts, and community partners was dubbed the Return Home Early Project.

At the time of the agreement in 2008, Oneida County had 140 youth at various Residential Treatment Centers and Group Homes across the state. Many of these children had been court ordered as Persons In Need of Supervision (PINS) or Juvenile Delinquents (JD) because of disruptive behaviors at home, school or community. Lengthy court ordered res-idential placements often resulted in many of these youth continuing to languish in residential care when they could have been better served in a lower level of care or even home, generating unnecessary cost to the county. Through strong advocacy, collaboration, and family empowerment, children who could be served at home, in lower levels of care (i.e., foster care), and closer to home were pursued by the Return Home Early Project.

Oneida County Return Home Early Project

Annual Per Child Cost Comparison(ANNUAL COST PER CHILD TREATED)

Intensive Kids Oneida Program Residential Treatment Center Hard To Place Facility

$141,851Per Year

$186,056Per Year

$33,000Per Year

Reduction of DSS RTC/GH Placements AfterImplementation of the Return Home Early Project

(JANUARY 2008 – 2013)

After its first year as a full time endeavor, the Return Home Early project identified 43 children who would benefit from a discharge early from placement, saving Oneida County 4,755 days of care in 2008. At approximately $320 per day, a cost avoidance of nearly 1.6 million dollars was realized in one year alone. Ten children were moved to a lower level of care and seven moved to a facility closer to home. By the end of 2008, institutional placements had gone from 140 to 109 children from Oneida County.

After five plus years into its endeavor, the Return Home Early project has identified and returned 169 children from Oneida County who benefited from a discharge early from placement, saving Oneida County over 16,000 days of care. The total number of children placed at the RTC and Group Home levels of care has decreased by as low as 50% since the inception of the Return Home Early Project, indicating a philosophical shift in the appropriateness of placement treatment versus community and home based services. The Return Home Early Project has provided an approximate $4.9 million in cost avoidance as a result.

Outcomes

1,971Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2013

$521KNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

26Children Returned Home Early

4,179Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2009

$1.3MNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

35Children Returned Home Early

The program manager of the project was tasked with provid-ing a neutral assessment of every child by utilizing the Child Readiness Assessment created by KO. This assessment is an evaluation tool that is completed on every child to rate their readiness to return to their home environment. Placement and demographic information as well as outcomes and read-iness are tracked through a proprietary software program

called Client Tracker. Additionally, every child is provided a face-to-face interview with their treatment team to bet-ter understand the intricacies of each individual’s situation. It is the culmination of this intensive process that provided OCDSS, Family Court, the family, and placement agency a fresh perspective on treatment alternatives to residential placement.

The Return Home Early Project has been successfully replicated in Herkimer County since 2008 with equally successful results. For further information please contact Steven Bulger, CEO/Executive Director at 315.731.2603.

2,000Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2010

$640KNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

24Children Returned Home Early

1,582Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2011

$393KNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

18Children Returned Home Early

1,964Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2012

$519KNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

23Children Returned Home Early

140

96 95

62

109

66

01/2008 01/2010 01/2011 01/201301/2009 01/2012

$4,932,490TOTAL NET COST AVOIDANCE IN RESIDENTIAL PLACEMENT COSTS FROM 2008 – 2013

Kids Oneida Return Home Early Project Outcomes – Oneida County 2008 through 2013

For over a decade, child welfare and mental health sys-tems have realized that long term residential treatment was both ineffective and costly. Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, published in 1999, supported these con-clusions by stating that there was “weak evidence for their effectiveness”. A child and community’s safety and the ability to receive specialized treatment have been offered as justi-

fication for out-of-home residential care. However, research has shown there has been a lack of generalized improve-ment in either area once the youth has been discharged to their home community. It has been indicated that increased lengths of stay do not increase the chance of a child being more successful and does not decrease the child’s chance of returning to residential care.

What the Research Says…

In response to skyrocketing out-of-home placement num-bers and increased financial strain on Oneida County New York, Kids Oneida was identified as the lead agency tasked with independently assessing all children in institutional care. This local non-profit agency, whose vision is Keeping Families Together, was best suited to identify children in placement that would benefit from intensive community-based services in their home communities as opposed to a more restrictive level of care. These services, which already existed in the county, would serve as a less intensive option for youth to continue their treatment once they have stabilized in out-of-home placement. This collaborative effort with the Oneida County Department of Social Services (OCDSS), Kids Oneida, placement facilities, families, school districts, and community partners was dubbed the Return Home Early Project.

At the time of the agreement in 2008, Oneida County had 140 youth at various Residential Treatment Centers and Group Homes across the state. Many of these children had been court ordered as Persons In Need of Supervision (PINS) or Juvenile Delinquents (JD) because of disruptive behaviors at home, school or community. Lengthy court ordered res-idential placements often resulted in many of these youth continuing to languish in residential care when they could have been better served in a lower level of care or even home, generating unnecessary cost to the county. Through strong advocacy, collaboration, and family empowerment, children who could be served at home, in lower levels of care (i.e., foster care), and closer to home were pursued by the Return Home Early Project.

Oneida County Return Home Early Project

Annual Per Child Cost Comparison(ANNUAL COST PER CHILD TREATED)

Intensive Kids Oneida Program Residential Treatment Center Hard To Place Facility

$141,851Per Year

$186,056Per Year

$33,000Per Year

Reduction of DSS RTC/GH Placements AfterImplementation of the Return Home Early Project

(JANUARY 2008 – 2013)

After its first year as a full time endeavor, the Return Home Early project identified 43 children who would benefit from a discharge early from placement, saving Oneida County 4,755 days of care in 2008. At approximately $320 per day, a cost avoidance of nearly 1.6 million dollars was realized in one year alone. Ten children were moved to a lower level of care and seven moved to a facility closer to home. By the end of 2008, institutional placements had gone from 140 to 109 children from Oneida County.

After five plus years into its endeavor, the Return Home Early project has identified and returned 169 children from Oneida County who benefited from a discharge early from placement, saving Oneida County over 16,000 days of care. The total number of children placed at the RTC and Group Home levels of care has decreased by as low as 50% since the inception of the Return Home Early Project, indicating a philosophical shift in the appropriateness of placement treatment versus community and home based services. The Return Home Early Project has provided an approximate $4.9 million in cost avoidance as a result.

Outcomes

1,971Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2013

$521KNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

26Children Returned Home Early

4,179Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2009

$1.3MNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

35Children Returned Home Early

The program manager of the project was tasked with provid-ing a neutral assessment of every child by utilizing the Child Readiness Assessment created by KO. This assessment is an evaluation tool that is completed on every child to rate their readiness to return to their home environment. Placement and demographic information as well as outcomes and read-iness are tracked through a proprietary software program

called Client Tracker. Additionally, every child is provided a face-to-face interview with their treatment team to bet-ter understand the intricacies of each individual’s situation. It is the culmination of this intensive process that provided OCDSS, Family Court, the family, and placement agency a fresh perspective on treatment alternatives to residential placement.

The Return Home Early Project has been successfully replicated in Herkimer County since 2008 with equally successful results. For further information please contact Steven Bulger, CEO/Executive Director at 315.731.2603.

2,000Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2010

$640KNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

24Children Returned Home Early

1,582Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2011

$393KNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

18Children Returned Home Early

1,964Days of Care Were Avoided with the Return Home Early Program

2012

$519KNet cost avoidance in

Residential Placement Costs

23Children Returned Home Early

140

96 95

62

109

66

01/2008 01/2010 01/2011 01/201301/2009 01/2012

$4,932,490TOTAL NET COST AVOIDANCE IN RESIDENTIAL PLACEMENT COSTS FROM 2008 – 2013

Kids Oneida Return Home Early Project Outcomes – Oneida County 2008 through 2013

In 2011, KO was recognized nationally by the Building Bridges initiative as a model program supporting financial strategies to effectively prevent and return youth from placement. Also in 2011, Kids Herkimer was honored to have its innovative Return Home Early Project recognized by The White House Council for Community Solutions as a collaborative effort with the Herkimer County DSS. Kids Oneida has consistently demonstrated that positive outcomes can be achieved despite significant trauma, mental illness, and psychosocial stressors through its strength and team based approach.

When every child has a chance to realize his or her potential, our work will be complete. Until then, Kids Oneida commits itself to helping children who suffer from childhood trauma to lead safer, healthier, more productive lives. When a child is raised from reticence to confidence, from despair to hope, we are closer to our goal of making every child a success.

Kids Oneida, keeping families together.

Return Home Early Project Goals

310 Main Street Utica, New York 13501

t 315.792.9039 f 315.792.9578kidsoneida.org

Keeping Families Together

“ The level of compassion, support, concrete guidance, and above all, sincere interest displayed toward this case far exceeded every expectation we had.”

– RK Parent of a child returned home early

“ The Return Home Early Proj-ect helped me to get my life back and get on track. I was able to get back into school, get a job, and will be starting college next week.”

– TT Child returned home early

“ Kids Oneida Return Home Early Project is fantastic!”

– ML Child returned home early

RETURNED HOME

WITH FAMILY

APPROPRIATE LEVEL

OF CARE

PLACEMENT CLOSER

TO HOME

« ONEIDA COUNTY «

Return Home Early ProjectThrough strong advocacy, collaboration, and family empowerment,

the Return Home Early Project identifies children who can be better served at home keeping families together.