Therapeutic Foster Home Overview – Therapeutic foster homes are licensed or

Therapeutic Foster Home Overview – Therapeutic foster homes are licensed or approved by the state as a foster family home that meets the standards established to provide care for children or youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance. These homes provide a family setting and utilize specially trained foster parents. Partner Providers may only use adults with current documentation of approval from MDCPS Congregate Care Unit. Therapeutic Foster Care services are intensive and supportive services provided to children in the custody of MDCPS. These children have significant medical, developmental, emotional, or behavioral needs, who with additional resources, can remain in a family setting and achieve positive growth and development. Services include specialized training, clinical support, and in-home intervention to therapeutic foster parents and the child, allowing the child to remain in a family home setting. 1. Partner Provider must be licensed by MDCPS to receive a referral of any child/ren in MDCPS custody. Therapeutic Partner Providers must also be certified by the Mississippi Department of Mental Health as a therapeutic provider for therapeutic group homes, intellectual and developmental disabilities and supervised independent living. 2. Each foster home must have no more than one (1) child/youth with serious emotional disturbance placed in the home at a given time. Partner Providers seeking to place more than one (1) child/youth with serious emotional disturbance in a resource home must obtain prior approval from MDCPS. Siblings with serious emotional disturbance may be placed together in the same home if all of the following conditions apply: a. The siblings have never been separated; b. The siblings are not a danger to others or to each other; and, c. Therapeutic resource parents asked to place siblings in their home must have consented, in writing, and in advance of the placement. This documentation must be maintained in the record of each sibling. (MDMH Standards Rule). 3. Therapeutic Foster Care involves the following features: a. Provision of special training to foster parents to assist them in working with a child/youth who has experienced interpersonal trauma to include, but not be limited to Trauma-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), shared parenting, mandated reporting and a non-violent, crisis de-escalation. b. Partner Providers shall work with the youth, foster family and biological family to create a plan for engaged and shared parenting. c. Creation of a support system among foster parents.