Treatment Foster Care
We understand the special relationships that form between vulnerable youth and the adults who choose to nurture them. And we've seen the successes they can achieve together. That's why we're so excited to introduce an innovative, brief and highly effective new program — Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care — to Maine. MTFC helps teens who've been involved with the corrections system and their families reach a turning point toward positive activities and healthy relationships.
Since 1982, our foster families have created safe, loving homes for children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect. Given their experiences, many of these children need additional supervision, staibility and care — often at a moment's notice. We provide each of our foster families with a case manager, a knowledgeable social worker able to connect them with all the resources and training they need.
YA takes particular care with the placement process, ensuring the best match for for child and family.
Why Choose YA for Your Foster Family?
To ensure the best care for our foster children, we offer our parents expert, personalized support, including:
- Case managers able to provide individualized attention to each child
- Emergency and on-call crisis support
- Foster parent community groups
- A multi-disciplinary treatment team that provides services designed to maximize the potential of each foster child in his/her developmental level.
- Careful matching of foster family and foster child
- Access to licensed respite providers
- Financial reimburesment commensurate with the needs of the child
- Interesting, relevant and convenient trainings on such topics as child evelopment and behavior management
Who Are the Foster Children in Our Care
The children placed in YA Foster Homes have been removed from their homes by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as a result of abuse or neglect. Given their experiences, many foster children are found to have special needs requiring a higher than average level of support, supervision and care. At times, the children designated, as therapeutic-level would otherwise be considered for placement in more restrictive residential settings such as hospitals, residential treatment programs or juvenile justice facilities. As an agency, we are devoted to advancing safe, happy, healthy childhoods for children in the least restrictive settings. We believe that treatment foster families can make all the difference in giving a child a chance for stability, growth, and permanency.
Who Can Become A Foster Parent?
The foster families in our program have made a commitment to provide safe, accepting, flexible and stable family environments to children with special needs. Our foster families are committed to supporting reunification with birth families, if possible. Becoming a foster parent is an enormous life decision that will have a profound impact on your family, your future and your life.
Our foster parents come from a variety of professional backgrounds: nurses, writers, social workers, bookkeepers, chefs, stay-at-home parents, and teachers. While diverse in their job history, all foster parents have had a high level of care-giving experience either educationally, professionally, personally or as volunteers. Foster parents may or may not have previously parented; they may be single, married, in committed relationships or divorced. Aside from the basic licensing and agency criteria, we require that foster parents consider themselves professional and full-time participants in a therapeutic process.
Check out the licensing requirements or contact our foster care placement coordinator at 874-1175 for more details. You can also check out the links about foster parenting or review our responses to the questions we're asked most frequently.
