Foster Care Case Worker

Essential Job Duties

• Develops and monitors child-specific treatment plans for assigned cases; implements child-specific interventions to support the treatment goals and objectives identified in the treatment plan.
• Facilitates quarterly treatment team meetings for youth; ensures all members of the youth's treatment team are invited to participate, collects signatures of participants at team meeting and receive copies of the treatment plan review in a timely manner.
• In collaboration with DSS, coordinates and facilitates visitation for the youth with biological family, inclusive of siblings, to promote positive change and preserve family connections, heritage, culture, and religion.
• Provides case management services to youth and the resource family by coordinating services to minimize fragmentation of care, reduce barriers, and link youth with appropriate services to ensure comprehensive, continuous access to needed medical, social, educational, and other services appropriate to the needs of the youth.
• Makes assessments of youth in placement to ensure their basic needs, developmental, psychosocial, emotional, nutritional, medical, educational and permanency needs are met.
• Attends and participates in all FPM/TDM meetings, FAPT, IEP meetings, VEMAT, BID, and court proceedings; represents HTFS in a professional manner.
• Makes face-to-face interviews with youth and provider family in the provider home and community in accordance with HopeTree Level System, LCPA, CARF & DMAS standards; meets with the youth privately no less than once per month.
• Edits, counsels, and guides the youth, provider and biological family by developing a supportive relationship that promotes the HopeTree Treatment Plan and the Foster Care Service Plan.
• Plans, prepares and implements independent living activities and interventions in alignment with Casey Life Skills Assessment.
• Plans, prepares and facilitates psychoeducational groups for youth and approved provider families.
• Aids in identifying placement matches for youth and approved provider families; assists with obtaining all required placement paperwork, which includes clinical information and contractual documentation.
• Plans and prepares for appropriate transition of care/discharge planning with youth and youth's treatment team.
• Immediately apprises the appropriate Agency personnel (Supervisor and/or Program Director) of any potential emergency and completes SIR documentation in a timely manner; provides SIR documentation to legal guardian and additional team members as appropriate.
• Provides ongoing training, support, guidance, and assistance to approved provider families in areas such as parenting, attachment, child development, grief and loss, trauma, independent living, conflict resolution, problem solving, communication or any other area specific to a youth's assessed needs during home visits; documents training provided in case notes and narratives.
• Establishes and maintains therapeutic relationships with youth, approved provider and biological families; maintains professional boundaries.
• Conducts monitoring visits of approved provider homes when a youth is placed in a provider home and provides documentation to Foster Home Case Worker in a timely manner.
• Collaborates with Foster Home Case Worker to address issues of non-compliance and development of corrective action plans.
• Collaborates with and provides consultation to approved provider families and biological families on identifying problem areas and developing plans for addressing those areas to minimize the risk of placement disruption.
• Aids approved provider families with securing resources/services for the youth as outlined in the treatment plan; supports provider family in coordinating transportation to ensure youth have access to identified resources/services.
• Maintains youth and approved provider home case records (hard file & ER file) in compliance with LCPA, CARF & HopeTree standards/policies and procedures.
• Maintains and ensures accurate, professional, and timely completion of all required reports, logs, notes, and other documentation in compliance with HopeTree & VDSS Standards.
• Provides timely updates and documentation to all treatment team members (Client, approved provider family, biological family, DSS, CSA, GAL, CASA, etc.) regarding service delivery and evaluation of youth and family's progress.
• Establishes and maintains positive, collaborative, professional relationships with the custodial agency, CASA, GAL, and other team members.
• Consistently and effectively applies professional knowledge and skills in fulfilling the responsibilities of the position; exercises critical thinking.
• Provides emergency, on-call interventions on a rotating basis, and after-hours, weekends and holidays as required.
• Prepares for and engages in supervision, staff meetings and file reviews.
• Demonstrates cultural competency by respecting the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the youth, placement, and biological families with whom the agency serves.
• Exercises appropriate professional boundaries in relationships with co-workers, clients, provider families, and community providers.
• Demonstrates cultural competency by respecting the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the children and families served by the agency.
• Updates professional knowledge by participating in educational opportunities, reading professional publications, maintaining professional networks, and participating in professional organizations; completes training in the LMS in a timely manner.
• Embraces and demonstrates HopeTree Family Services' mission and core values through their words, actions and relationships with co-workers.
• Develops and maintains a positive professional relationship with referral sources, placing agencies, approved provider families, and birth families to facilitate positive change, preserve connections and achieve the child's permanency goal.

Other Duties

• Performs other agency duties as assigned.