SERVICES

Foster Parent and Caregiver Conference - Workshop Overviews

More than 500 people attended the 24th annual Foster Parent and Caregiver Conference in Spokane, September 17 – 19th with the theme “Plant A Dream, Grow A Child”. Participants were able to select from nearly 40 workshops in subject areas from managing children’s behavior, advocating for foster children’s special needs, mental health needs of children and psychotropic medication to modeling coping skills and connections for caregiver support.

Handouts from some of the workshops are available below.

The CHERISH Program: Specialized Early Intervention for foster children and Support for Caregivers: The CHERISH program provides support to foster and kinship families as well as access to important early screening and specialized intervention services that can make a difference between a child reaching full potential or loosing an irreplaceable opportunity.

Immunizations, Obesity, Substance Abuse and Depression : This workshop provided information on current prevalence of overweight children and how to prevent obesity in children. Information on depression and substance abuse what to look for at home and in school was reviewed.

Finding Our Roots-A Permanence for Youth Project: This project provides program support for a collaborative project that provides adolescents (age 10-18) in foster care in Seattle (King-West Office) with lifelong connections to caring adults through the use of family group conferences, quarterly follow-up meetings, and coordinated legal advocacy.

Case 1

Case 2

Connections for Caregivers: This workshop focused on the roles and responsibilities of care providers and what supports are available to care providers. Topics covered also included placement stability, sibling issues, permanence and teaming.

Managing Behavior in Foster Care and Kinship Care: This workshop provided parents with real tools to manage, decrease and deter escalated behavior; improve self regulation; and help children achieve appropriate emotional and developmental tasks.

The Paper Trail: This training focuses on documentation for caregivers. It highlighted how documentation is important; what information should be documented; and how to document by using SOAP treatment notes.