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WestCoast Children's Clinic Staff's Alameda County's Screening, Stabilization, and Transition (STAT) Program 7x24x365

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 July 2008, 18:00 CDT

WestCoast Children's Clinic (www.westcoastcc.org) today announced that they are now staffing Alameda County's STAT Program 7x24x365. This is a significant change for the STAT Program. STAT provides mental health screenings to all children who are taken into protective custody due to abuse or neglect at the time they are removed, providing children with a safe and nurturing environment, as well as much needed mental health screening and intervention, at a time when they are the most vulnerable. This helps children cope with trauma from being removed from their homes as well as the abuse or neglect that prompted the removal. STAT Clinicians also provide a critical first response mental health service to these children. Therapists screen and assess all children who are removed from their homes at the point of entry into the foster care system. Following the screening and assessment, the therapist decides if a child needs additional help in transitioning to their next home and family. Prior to this program, children received no mental health screening or services after their removal from their homes.

"Prior to creation of the Assessment Center, children were either driven around in police cars or sat in someone's office while social service personnel made calls to find the child a place to go," said Stacey Anne Katz, Psy.D., Executive Director of WestCoast Children's Clinic. "Now there is a place they are brought to that is child friendly, staffed with people who care - both in assessing their needs and soothing them in the first hours they are taken from their home. Providing early assessment and mental health services is integral to ensuring children receive the help they need, and a first step in avoiding being moved from home to home as a result of unmet emotional needs. This expansion in services is consistent with all of WestCoast Children's Clinic's services, helping children throughout their time in foster care and beyond."

Since 2005, WestCoast Children's Clinic has screened over 3000 children and transitioned 75% of those into their new homes via the STAT Program. Given the new hours of operation, this number will significantly grow. And as the hours increase, the need for additional support and items does as well. Providing children with some of the basic necessities is part of the STAT Program and essential in helping children transition into a new living situation. The Program needs, and will accept new donations of items such as toothbrushes/toothpaste, combs/brushes, paper plates/cups, pull-ups/diapers, backpacks/duffle bags, storage bins, clothes, underwear/bras, socks. The Program also needs non-perishable food supplies like juice boxes, fruit snacks, water, granola bars, and cereal.

About WestCoast Children's Clinic

WestCoast Children's Clinic (www.westcoastcc.org) is a private, non-profit children's community psychology clinic serving the greater San Francisco Bay Area with facilities in the East Bay. The Clinic was founded in 1979 by faculty and students of the Wright Institute graduate school. The goal was to provide therapeutic services to children while training graduate students in the practice of child therapy. Today the Clinic serves over 1500 children annually with a professional clinical staff of more than 50. Services are clinic-based, school-based, or home-based and last for as long as they are needed. Clinical services include: psychotherapy, psychological evaluation, foster youth development support, grandparent support, school programs, and specialized mental health screening, stabilization and assessment for all foster children in Alameda County, in addition to professional training/education and research. The Clinic's mission is simple: to provide consistent psychological services for children, adolescents, and their families. Most of the children and families served live in high-risk environments and the Clinic provides care regardless of their ability to pay. Over the years West Coast has trained over 300 therapist interns, provided an estimated 450,000 hours of therapy and assessment services to more than 8,000 ethnically diverse children and families.

WestCoast Children's Clinic

Helping children discover who they are and what they can become.

Source: Business Wire

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