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Rock N Roll Meeting Notes |
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Rock ‘n Roll Meeting
Notes In Attendance: Vikki Bonfield (Juvenile Services), Sharon Zahler (Evergreen Family Village), Sylvia Moon (Evergreen Family Village), Bob Orth, Jim Martin (Diversified Resource Center), Cherie Reeves & Zack Addleman (Family Planning CC), David Lewis (Volunteer Mentor), Lydia Noordbeck (NW Youth Services) and Jody Jacobsen (Juvenile Services). Presentation
Vikki Bonfield presented information about the Secure Crisis Residential Center (SCRC), housed in the Juvenile Services Detention Facility. Clallam County has one of four centers throughout the state that operate SCRC’s within Juvenile Detention centers, other counties include Snohomish, Kitsap and Chelan. The philosophy of the SCRC is to protect kids and the community before they harm themselves or others (drugs, sex, violence) by getting them the services they need and getting them back home or other safe environment. Youth in crisis are brought in by law enforcement and must be reported as a runaway and/or a danger to themselves – not necessarily suicidal but could be that no one is at home or there is no safe environment for them to go to. The SCRC holds the youth in a safe setting long enough to arrange services for them. The law states that youth can only be held up to 5 days. The Clallam County SCRC average stay is 48 hours. Youth are held in a separate unit, or pod, than offenders. The pod was painted yellow, was carpeted and the door locks were removed. Youth have access to the TV, videos, books, and extra bedding. A staff member is assigned to remain with the youth 24 hours a day, they are never left unsupervised. The SCRC rooms themselves are not locked however the pod itself is secure from outside. SCRC youth don’t go to school with the offenders or have any contact with them. Clallam County SCRC does place other non-offender youth (Truant, Youth At Risk and Dependent youth) in the SCRC when beds are available without charging the state, so the program operates at about 70-75% capacity. Youth must be placed in a less restrictive setting within 5 days (foster care, group care, treatment, home, or relative placement). A social assessment is completed upon admission including a nine page mental health screening tool. If a youth is suicidal or at serious risk of harming themselves, a CDMHP (County Designated Mental Health Professional) is called in and referral is made to DSHS for FRS (Family Reconciliation Services). Up to 15 hours of counseling services can be provided for youth in crisis. Another screening tool called the SASSI (Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Index) rates drug and/or alcohol use and history. If the screening shows chemically dependant, arrangements are made for a full drug and alcohol evaluation. It is up to the parents and youth to decide whether they want to follow the recommendations of the evaluator. Running the centers can be very costly, however, if you save one child’s life, it’s worth it. Liken it to an emergency room: it costs a lot and population varies but it’s a necessity. Clallam County had no place to take runaway youth in our community before the SCRC was established. Senator Hargrove pushed the bill to get this in place in Clallam County. It took our county three years to get licensed. DSHS was resistive as they do not support incarcerating non-offending youth. Other issues included the size of the windows and access to emergency exits, the sprinkler system, and access to personal belongings such as washer/dryer and their own clothing. Eventually it was agreed to that Detention is a safe, secure environment and the protection of all detained youth needs to be considered. Youth who enter the SCRC are subject to a pat down, are issued sweats and are not allowed to have personal possessions while in detention for safety issues. The facility cannot put other youth or staff at risk of SCRC youth entering drugs or weapons into the facility. The Juvenile Detention center feels the program has been fairly successful in getting the needed services for runaway youth as only one youth has returned more than once. One third of youth referred are from out of the area (Tacoma, Marysville, Colorado). One youth entered a treatment facility in Oregon upon release after meeting with CDMHP. The Clallam County facility does not track out of area youth upon release but a written summary is submitted to DSHS on every youth admitted. The Detention manager also contacts parents/guardians to make sure they received all screening results upon release. Original belief was that most referrals were going to find youth being abused and/or neglected but it seems most runaway referrals revolve around family conflict due to parenting and/or defiant youth. The Juvenile Court has noticed a slight increase in Youth At Risk filings. In 2000, 39 youth were admitted to the SCRC, 8 males, 31 females. 28 youth were Caucasian, 7 Native American, 1 African American, 1 Hispanic, 1 Asian and 1 unknown ethnicity. In 2001, statistics through September report 38 youth admitted to SCRC, 12 males, 26 females. 25 Caucasian, 10 Native American, 1 African American and 2 unknown ethnicity. Funding: Clallam County has four beds guaranteed to be available for runaway youth. Recidivism is very low and projected long term savings to the community is unknown. The Governor is proposing to cut all funding to SCRC’s throughout the state. Without the SCRC, law enforcement officers won’t have any place to take runaway youth. Parents are left without any support as officers may return the youth to the home but the youth can turn around and runaway again. Being on the run puts these kids at very high risk mentally and physically. Action: Clallam County Juvenile & Family Services feels strongly that this is a necessary services for the youth and families in crisis in our community. Please contact your legislators, senators and the Governor to support keeping the funding available for operation of the Secure Crisis Residential Centers in our state. If you are interested in a tour, please contact Vikki Bonfield anytime.
Updates Teen Court:
Basic Training was held on Saturday, October 20th.
We had 17 new recruits from Port Angeles High, Stevens, Roosevelt and
Sequim High. An excellent group
of kids, very motivated and highly skilled.
Many of the original teen court participants assisted as trainers.
The program continues to get stronger as the kids get more experienced.
These kids are great! Mentoring:
An in-service was offered by Michael Bucierka of DSHS explaining the
CPS referral reporting process. Currently
working on recruitment plan for the month of November with another mediator
basic training scheduled for late November.
Look for our advertisements and consider joining our mentoring team!
We are looking at Youth Development and ADD/ADHD as our next quarterly
in-service. Mediation:
Still going strong, lots of cases and more mediators being trained.
Have three teen mediators available now for some Parent-Teen
mediations. Jody Moss is looking
into that model and will be working to get that started.
Have had some confusion with the Prosecutor, Defense and Judge
regarding types of cases being referred to mediation.
Setting up a meeting to discuss and review the process to make sure all
parties work together. Restitution Fund:
Gena Royal and Debbie Nistler have been working with the kids doing
community service work, mostly at the North Olympic Youth Center –
“Tempest”. Youth have earned
a total of $876.97 for restitution which has been distributed to their
victims. Youth Resource Guide:
Still in the works. A
final draft should be coming your way soon then we will look at how we are
going to fund printing and distribution. Upcoming Meeting ScheduleDue to the holidays, the November and December meeting dates have been changed. Below please find our upcoming schedule and speakers:
Announcements The mental health training with Lisa Boesky scheduled for November 27-29 is full. We think you will be pleased with the quality and quantity of information to be presented during this training. We will look into offering this training again in the future. If you would like information about this trainer for your agency, please contact Vikki Bonfield, #417-2282 Ext. 224. Parenting Support Group: A drop-in Parenting Support Group is being held at Juvenile & Family Services, 1912 W. 18th Street, Port Angeles, on Thursday evenings from 7:00-8:30 PM. Parents are welcome to attend any time with any problem. Staff and participants are here to support you! Next Meeting
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