Annual Report - FY04                                                                                             Home

Board of Directors

    David Simonds, Esq
    President

    Sister Mary John Fryc
    Vice President

    Walter Harris, PhD
    Treasurer

     Joe Collins

    Joan Markley
 

Management Team

    Kathleen Davis
    Executive Director

    Bernard Quigley, M.D
    Treatment Director

    Nellie Kennedy
    Finance Director

    Scott Welch
    Human Resources Director

    David McCluskey
    Director of Quality Improvement

    Jody Stevenson
    Program Director
    Residential, Community Based, and Case Management Services

    Paul Pusey
    Director of Treatment Foster Care

    Margaret Callaway
    Manager of Treatment Foster Care

Message from Board President David H. Simonds

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank each of you for your profound dedication during these challenging times.  It has been a year marked by fundamental changes that, we are convinced, will offer great promise.  Despite the frustration and disruptions, you have remained committed to the mission and the clients.  We, on the Board acknowledge your professionalism, and how you have kept your sights focused on the needs of those children and families in our care despite the winds of change.  It is because of your dedicated efforts during these extraordinary times that our organization enjoys a reputation for excellence that is second to none.  You are to be congratulated.

With our thanks,

David H. Simonds
President, Board of Directors
Care Development of Maine

Message from Executive Director Kathleen Davis

This has been a year filled with changes, challenges, and quality improvement.   Toward the end of FY04, Care Development of Maine separated from the parent corporation Care Development, Inc., and became it’s own independent agency.  The Board of Directors of Care Development of Maine signed a Management Agreement with Providence Service Corporation.  The Care Development of Maine Management Team remains in tact. 

Care Development of Maine’s Treatment Foster Care Program also experienced numerous changes as a result of the shifts in the treatment foster care program at the State level.   The State implemented a new level of care reimbursement system for foster a parent that includes consistent compensation across all agencies in the state.  Modified standards of Treatment Foster Care at the State level also increased foster parent and staff responsibilities.   Lastly, the child welfare system at the state level significantly shifted its focus toward family preservation and reunification efforts and kinship placements.  All of these initiatives impacted Care Development of Maine and staff and foster families demonstrated great flexibility in changing expectations and work practices. 

Despite all of the changes at the corporate and State level, Care Development of Maine was able to focus its attention on continuously improving the high quality of services and supports that we provide to children and families.   A Quality Improvement Plan was developed and systems to support QI processes were built.   Care Development of Maine initiated Long and Short Term Strategic Planning Processes.    We also concentrated on providing a number of clinical trainings in addition to our standard trainings for staff and foster parents. 

Care Development of Maine moved toward realizing a long-term strategic goal of increasing program diversity and meeting community needs by developing a home-based therapeutic support program for children with mental health needs and their families.  Community Family Support Services is a unique program that partners with families to identify needs and strategize how best to meet them so families can stay together and support their children and improve their family situation. 

The future is indeed bright for Care Development of Maine.   We have a committed group of staff and foster families who strive to meet our important work supporting children and families everyday.  We have demonstrated that even through difficulty and challenges, we can remain focused on our mission and provide extremely high quality services and supports.    

It has and continues to be a privilege and pleasure working with the talented and committed staff and foster families who are Care Development of Maine.   I look forward to our work in FY05 that will bring us new and exciting challenges and opportunities in our work on behalf of Maine children and families.

With much respect and enthusiasm,

Kathleen Davis
Executive Director
Care Development of Maine
 

Clinical Services

 During the 2004 fiscal year Care Development of Maine continued to provide quality clinical services to more than 420 children and adolescents in our treatment foster care, residential programs and Community Support Services Programs. We have focused our work on assisting our clients to achieve permanency.   In both treatment foster care and residential care, 50 % of the discharged clients found permanency predominantly through reunification and kinship placements.   

The clinical staff at Care Development of Maine are committed to providing quality care to our clients as guided by our treatment philosophy.   The treatment philosophy at Care Development of Maine ensures that a partnership is established between the child or adolescent and all the adults involved in their lives.  We recognize and support the child or adolescent’s strengths and develop goals and strategies to meet their therapeutic needs and develop life skills.   Unfortunately, many of our clients and their families have faced challenging life circumstances including abuse, neglect, loss and separation, illness and financial hardship.  Healthy relationships are a vital part of the healing process and a primary focus of treatment.   Respect, understanding and acceptance of our clients and their families serve to strengthen these relationships.  During FY04, a clinical focus included helping our staff and foster families be more inclusive of birth families and to foster a more strength-based approach while working with birth families.  Care Development of Maine provided a rich array of clinical trainings to support these initiatives as we intensified our clinical work with birth families.

Administrative Services

 FY04 was a year of numerous changes for the Administrative Team.    At the end of this year, the Administrative Team was preparing to move some of the administrative support functions to Providence Service Corporation in Virginia under the auspices of the new management agreement that the Board of Directors had signed when Care Development of Maine separated from the former parent corporation.  The solid and high quality administrative infrastructure that has been built by the administrative team supervisors will now be modified to include a relationship with Providence administrative support personnel.

Other significant milestones for Administration include contracting with Berry, Dunn, and McNeil to complete a comprehensive high quality audit; development of an Accounting and Purchase Manual to document financial process protocols; implementation of a new accounts receivable system; restructuring and downsizing of the IT department; hiring of an Administrative Services Manager to oversee IT and facility management among other administrative functions; movement of Human Resources (HR) from a regulatory/coordination role to more of a developmental supportive role to the agency; and the negotiation of unprecedented second consecutive reduction in health insurance premiums. 
 

Program Reports

 Treatment Foster Care

Treatment Foster Care hit a record census of 234 in September and served a total of 388 youth.  Of the 134 clients discharged from the program, half moved on to permanent living arrangements.  The majority of those placed in permanent family settings were returned to some semblance of their birth families through reunification or kinship care. The remainder was placed for adoption.  Nine youth were discharged to independent living situations. 

As the Bureau of Child and Family Services implemented its Levels of Care assessment system statewide, Care Development of Maine’s Treatment Foster Care program undertook numerous associated projects to ensure thorough and efficient referral, screening, and recordkeeping processes.  The program developed a comprehensive internal system for collecting and submitting requested LOC documentation and tracking clients’ assigned levels of care across seven area teams.  Care’s TFC program sponsored a formal training in CAFAS (Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale), a central component of the LOC assessment process, which was attended by staff from both BCFS and Care.  As part of the CAFAS training, participants obtained certification to administer the instrument.  Several of those certified began piloting the use of CAFAS as a preliminary screening tool.     

The Aroostook team relocated from its satellite space on Main Street in Fort Kent to a larger, staffed office farther down the street.  The Washington County team ended its stay in the former Surry Bridge Home and reestablished an office in Machias.   Treatment Foster Care initiated a new supervisory structure on the Kennebec and Skowhegan teams, hiring a Team Area Manager in each area to oversee the teams’ administrative functions.  The role of the existing Team Clinical Supervisor in Skowhegan was revised and expanded to allow him to provide full clinical oversight for both teams.    

ADAM House 

The ADAM House (Adolescents Developing and Maturing) will be celebrating their 7^th anniversary on April 13^th of this year. This program continues to provide high quality treatment services to adolescent girls.  The success of the ADAM House is attributed to the philosophy that is employed by the staff who are very skilled  in implementing the treatment approach utilizing a client empowerment, adventure based counseling (ABC) and natural and logical consequence model.  The ABC peak experience during the summer of 2004 involved staff and the residents kayaking 26 miles of the Penobscot River – an activity that required much preparation and relied heavily on team work and support. The girls were so proud of their accomplishment!   

The ADAM House Program has been in existence long enough now for youth to be able to come back and let us know how they are doing The feedback they are offering us on the ADAM House Program is that the philosophy of natural and logical consequences, and our philosophy of allowing them  to make mistakes and  have chances as they learn – has helped them significantly. They experienced a healthy culture in living within the group home that they currently try to use in their life as adults. It is great to see those youth who have come back, and to hear them talk and the positive manner in which they remember their experiences within the program.

Oakland Bridge Home

The Oakland Bridge Home, a short-term assessment program, continues to focus its placement services towards the adolescent population. We have received feedback from guardians who work within DHHS that Oakland Bridge Home is highly valued because of the challenging population that we serve.   

The upcoming year will be focused on continued staff development, establishing consistent and effective clinical consultation and administrative oversight, and partnering with DHHS to learn how the bridge home can be modified to better meet the needs of DHHS and the youth being referred to us. Possibilities include modifying services to provide more comprehensive and intensive services to assist families/youth and DHHS in meeting reunification goals.   

Maine Caring Families Case Management Program 

The Maine Caring Families Case Management Program was supporting approximately 35 children through the case management contract we hold with the State.  This unique public/private partnership is based on the model programs can best support children solid through support of the foster parents.  

The state has re-defined the MCF program to be a treatment level program over the past year. Our support workers are experiencing new challenges in their support to families due to the increase in severity of the needs of the children placed in MCF homes.  This has resulted in families requiring additional support by their support worker to assist them in responding to the needs of the children in their home. We are responding to this challenge by providing support workers with more training, and providing clinical consultation to staff individually as needed as well as within a group setting. Therefore, our emphasis over the past year has been on training of support workers and expanding  clinical consultation for the program staff. 

New Program Development 

Community Family Support Services (CFSS) 

During the winter months of 2004, employees and management of Care Development of Maine became aware of the community need for quality in-home supports to assist in keeping families together, and to provide support to children who were being placed with kinship/adoptive families. We developed a program that would be based on our philosophy of respect of the entire family, viewing them as the experts of their own family situation and joining with them to resolve challenging family issues rather than dictating problem solving approaches.   We received a contract from Behavioral and Developmental Services (BDS) and began service delivery on March 26, 2004.    Our program has rapidly over the last three months.  At the end of this fiscal year, we were serving 19 families and many families waiting for our service, which we will be expanding. The feedback we have received from DHHS, families and case managers thus far is that CFSS is instrumental in promoting reunification and fostering families’ ability to continue to care for their children to prevent out of home placement.

Annual Satisfaction Survey Results 

Care Development of Maine views agency stakeholders as the best collective voice to answer the question, “How are we doing?”    Care Development of Maine identifies the following individuals as stakeholders:  Individuals to which services are provided; those who refer people to us for services; other professional we collaborate with to provide services; licensed foster parents contracted with Care Development of Maine and those who are supported through a Maine Caring Families contract relationship and finally Care Development of Maine staff.  Each August stakeholders are asked to reflect about their experiences regarding level and accuracy of communication, level and quality of support, involvement in determining services provided and decisions, staff qualifications, reimbursement or pay level, training resources and overall satisfaction.  The following charts illustrate the results of the annual satisfaction surveys.  These surveys are utilized for planning of agency development, future planning and quality improvement action plans.

FY04 Financial Information

Information of Interest 

Total number of Clients Served:  651 

% of clients in TFC discharged to permanency:   50% 

% of clients in Residential discharged to permanency: 51% 

Total number of Staff:  143 

Total number of Staff hired:  27 

Staff Turnover Rate:  25% 

Total number of Foster Families:  205
 

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