Therapeutic / Treatment Foster Care

Program Run by: Lourdesmont / Good Shepherd Youth and Family Services

Address: 537 Venard Road, Clarks Summit, PA  18411
Phone: (570)587-4741             Fax: (570)586-0030

Contact Person: Mary Lesho             e-mail: mlesho@lourdesmont.com

Focus of Program: Therapeutic/treatment foster care is operated as a collaboration between the Agency and Lackawanna County Children and Youth Services (LCCYS).  The service is designed to accommodate the needs of emotionally or behaviorally disturbed children and youth who cannot remain in their own homes.   Applicants for this service require more intensive treatment and support than can be delivered through traditional foster family care.  However, institutional care or hospitalization is not indicated.  Therapeutic/treatment foster care enables a young person to receive appropriate mental health services in the context of a family setting.

The collaboration is designed to allow Agency staff, working very closely with LCCYS staff, to deliver clinical services with LCCYS foster family homes.  LCCYS meets all county and state licensing regulations regarding recruitment, training, and supervision of foster families/homes.  LCCYS staff continue to be responsible for maintenance, support, and monitoring of foster families/homes during the time Agency staff are providing clinical services.  The purpose of the collaboration is to facilitate expansion of therapeutic/treatment foster care service in the county through maximizing existing resources and reducing local competition for foster homes.

Through the roles of Agency staff, foster families receive treatment-related training and are supported to respond to the treatment needs of children in their care.   this reduces the risk of psychological damage to children in foster care resulting from failure or repeated failure in traditional foster family care, where specialized training for foster parents is lacking.  The goal of this program is to transition children to foster family care and ultimately to a legal family (previous biological/adoptive family or new adoptive family) in the context of permanency planning.