Program areas at MHA
Preparing resilient children: child care provider training - trained 1,216 participants through 198 workshops, some available online, conducted or co-sponsored by ccc. We constantly examine the results of needs assessments and enrollment to determine the number of workshops offered based on demand. We also expand course topics when providers or regulatory agencies express a need. Ccc currently offers courses in all six core of knowledge areas recognized by maryland-child development, curriculum, Health, safety and nutrition; professionalism; special needs; and community. In addition, ccc offers coursework in first aid, cpr, emergency preparedness, and sids. Provided 565 hours of training. Technical assistance for child care providers - ccc assists regulated child care providers with technical assistance and support so they can enter or remain in the early care and education field. Ccc staff respond to questions on a variety of different subject areas-including child behavior, providing quality care for infants and toddlers, improving quality, curriculum and communication with parents. Ccc also supplies programs with statistical information pertinent to a child care business, such as the average cost of care in a particular school district or the average child care salaries in the County or the state. Ccc responded to 1,830 inquiries. Early childhood Mental Health - perks program works with early child care programs as well as individual children and families to promote the social/emotional development of young children while decreasing or preventing challenging behaviors. Served over 62 children, conducted 193 site visits at 54 child care programs. Healthy families Frederick (hff) - hff is a program designed to support first-time parents through the provision of quality, strength-based, family-centered services and support, and access to community resources and agencies to help build stronger families, healthier children and a better community. Served 51 families and 45 children and completed 635 home visits (services begin prenatally). None of the families served required child protective services involvement
Facing crises together: counseling services - provided professional outpatient Mental Health treatment on a sliding fee basis for individuals who have medicaid, medicare or no insurance. Supervised graduate-level psychology and counseling interns, helping them complete their requirements for graduation and attain their state licensure. Provided 8,132 sessions of therapy to 419 individuals, couples, children and adolescents. Call center - provided information and referral for human service and Mental Health needs, crisis intervention, suicide prevention, and listening support. Hotline/2-1-1 serves as the initial intake line for Frederick County mobile crisis services for both adults and child/adolescents. Hotline/2-1-1 provides suicide awareness and suicide intervention trainings. Our survivors of suicide support group served 21 participants (97 sessions) who have lost a loved one to suicide. Hotline received 2,025 calls about suicide and performed 3,174 suicide assessments. Our telephone reassurance program provided 2,452 scheduled outbound calls to 12 elderly and homebound residents enrolled in the program. The hotline operates 24/7/365 and answered 54,861 calls. Walk-in services - a free service where a crisis specialist will meet with a walk-in client to help resolve a current crisis or concern and assist with connections to ongoing support, including urgent medication appointments. Clients may be experiencing an emotional, Mental, family or relationship crisis, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, grief or depression. Walk-in services are available m-f 10 a.m.-10:00 p.m. and sat-sun 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. for a total of 76 hours/week. 1,323 clients were seen for a total of 1,800 visits. 23% reported they would have gone to a hospital emergency room if this service was not available.
Securing vulnerable families: court appointed special advocates for children (casa) - 24 new volunteers were given 30 hours of training to prepare them to be sworn in by the court system as a court appointed special advocate to act as best interest advocates for children who have been abused or neglected. A total of 75 volunteers served on cases for 95 children, 60 in Frederick County and 35 in carroll County. Casa works with the circuit court of Frederick County, department of social services, treatment facilities, group homes, schools, parents and other community resources. The goal of a casa volunteer is to help the court to secure a safe and permanent home for every child. Supervised visitation and monitored transfer - the visitation center offered a neutral setting for non-custodial parents to safely maintain a relationship with their child(ren). The center served 60 families for supervised visitation, 4 families for monitored transfer, 20 families for therapeutic supervised visitation, and 18 families for parent coaching. The program provided 574 hours of visitation, 260 hours of parent coaching, and completed 17 exchanges of children. Systems navigation - 52 families with children with intensive needs received information and referral, advocacy and support through the systems navigation program. Trained professionals known as systems navigators, assisted families with identification of and access to supportive resources such as counseling, housing, financial and job assistance, and specialized services that best met their family's needs. Families impacted by incarceration program (fiip) - fiip is a program that worked to support the bond between parents, care-givers, or other family members impacted by incarceration, and helped to strengthen the parent/child relationship. Fiip works in partnership with children of incarcerated parents partnership to provide support in a variety of ways. The program provided 6 parenting 201 workshops held in the community, which served 46 participants. One-on-one, individualized family coaching was provided to 18 participants, which totaled 500 hours. Parenting from afar classes were provided to 118 participants.
Supporting the whole community: Mental Health first aid (mhfa) - mhfa is an 8-hour training course designed to educate non-mental Health professionals and the general public on skills they can use to help someone who is experiencing a Mental Health problem or experiencing a Mental Health crisis before appropriate professional or family support arrives.