Childhood and holiday wishes fulfilled

I am releasing my weekly blog on Tuesday rather than on Wednesday to coincide with #GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. This is a national movement that celebrates being charitable to others and encourages people to give back to others as we embark on the holiday season. On this day of giving, I am hoping you will consider Hillsides as you look for ways to improve the lives of others. During this time of year, Hillsides receives so many holiday wishes to fulfill, not just for the children who reside here, but for the families and youth in need throughout the community. 

Below is the story of Sarah, whose childhood and holiday wishes Hillsides was able to fulfill.   As you read her story, please keep in mind that without your generosity, children like Sarah would often not receive anything for the holidays. While presents can’t fix a lifetime of hardship, they bring joy and comfort, and give children the sense that they are cared for and important.  Most importantly for children like Sarah, these gifts will last well beyond the holidays and create lifetime memories.

Growing up, Sarah never had a real childhood. The oldest of four, she was thrust into the “mom” role at age 10 when her father abandoned the family and her mother went back to work full-time on the evening shift at a local warehouse.  As a result, Sarah was the one making dinner, giving her siblings baths, and changing diapers.
Eventually Sarah’s mom was unable to keep the family together. At age 13, Sarah entered the foster care system. Two years later, when Sarah arrived  to live at a group home at Hillsides, her therapists realized that in some ways, she was mature for her age, but in others, she was at the developmental stage of a young child.  She was desperate for love and for someone to take care of her.     The staff nurtured Sarah by listening to her, validating her feelings, and looking for opportunities to show they cared about her. When she asked for a doll and a miniature tea set for Christmas, they understood her need to connect with a childhood she’d never had. They made sure she received her desired presents.  They also arranged for her to get her first-ever brand- new coat and a stocking – something else she’d never had before.  Amazed by her gifts, Sarah cried because she never thought she would receive so much and feel so loved.

This holiday season  please fulfill the wishes of children and teens, like Sarah, who without your generosity would not receive anything for Christmas.  

True foster care

Hillsides benefits from an extraordinarily generous community that supports our many initiatives to better serve those for whom we care. Recently, I was touring a group of representatives from a foundation that we had solicited. In the course of the visit, we ran into one of our residents. As I greeted him, he asks who these visitors were and took the initiative to introduce himself to them. I am always careful to conduct these tours in a way that protects the privacy and anonymity of our residents; however, this kind of unsolicited encounter is always great. Inevitably it is an opportunity to explain to guests the kinds of children we serve, their needs, and the services we offer. More importantly, the freedom of a child to approach any guest and introduce themselves is an indicator of how comfortable they are and how they perceive the organization as their own.

Contrast this to the recent article in the Los Angeles Times. The exposé of a small group home facility portrayed foster care services negatively.  Clearly, some organizations fail to meet the standards required to become a quality provider of foster care services. The existence of such an organization is inexcusable. Given the scrutiny from numerous regulatory agencies we experience routinely, I am amazed that such an organization is able to operate. Certainly this is unacceptable and warrants further investigation.

However, the problem with the article is that it does not distinguish the various kinds of providers in the foster care system. As a result, the foster care provider community is portrayed as “the child mill” rather than as the true resource it is for families and communities that are desperate to address the needs of vulnerable children and youth, who have experience trauma. This is an injustice to many agencies within the foster care system, both large and small, that provide good, quality care and more often than not at considerable financial risk.

These kinds of exposés are one way that the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets serve as a watchdog to safeguard the public interest. A provocative headline on the front page of the newspaper may increase sales. My hope is one day the focus would be not on the abuse of the public trust, but on countless organizations and individuals who make the sacrifices to serve foster care youth with no gain other than the satisfaction that they have made a difference in the life of a fragile and vulnerable child. That kind of selflessness is worthy of the front page of any newspaper.

 
May is Foster Care Awareness Month. In spite of the negative image reinforced by sensational articles in the media, fostering children, who are for whatever reason separated from their families, is an extraordinary public service that deserves our respect, admiration, and gratitude.

Field hockey

I try to get to Hillsides between 7:30 AM and 8:00 AM each day, not because I am an early riser but mostly because the traffic is usually more manageable then and I  can find a parking space on campus at that hour! On this particular day I was arriving on campus after a morning meeting so the parking spaces were non-existent. However, I did manage to find one spot at the far end of the upper campus. The great thing about parking on that end of campus is that it provides a great walk to my office and an opportunity to meet and interact with staff and residents.

As I approached the playing field from where I had parked, I ran into a group of residents accompanied by a couple of staff members. One resident, who I had noticed over the last few days had been especially agitated, was on the swing set trying his best to soar as high as he could. As I examined this gravity defying exercise, the door of the gym opened and a young resident emerged excitingly carrying  a couple of hockey sticks and a ball. He immediately called out to the boy on the swing asking him to join him to play hockey. You could tell from the excitement in his voice that as happy as he was for a pick up game of hockey he was especially happy to see his buddy on the swing.

I can assure you that staff had attempted to engage the boy on the swing, but it was the enthusiastic invitation from his friend that freed him from compulsively trying  to reach new heights. When he heard the call to join him on the field, he leaped off the swing ran on to the field, greeted his friend and immediately started strategizing with him on how to organize the game. As I walked by, I was moved by the smiles on their faces and the wonderful rapport they clearly enjoyed.

Things are always very busy at Hillsides. For me and the staff, days more often than not are long and sometimes challenging. However when you see children freed from their worries and hurts enough to enjoy a moment of friendship and play, you can not help but be convinced that it is worth the great effort we make.

Great things are accomplished in simple and sometimes surprising ways. Our residents benefit as much from the relationships and friendships they have with another as they do from the great care they receive from staff.

I will admit that it can be daunting to address the funding and organizational challenges that are part and parcel of an institution like Hillsides. However, the smiles on the faces of these two boys gave me all the motivation I needed to make the necessary effort to see to it that they and all those we serve get the best possible care we can offer. GOAL!

Why I'm Excited

Often when I meet with those I supervise I ask the question, “What are you excited about?” I do this for a number of reasons: I really want to know what they are passionate about and I also use it as a way for me to get a sense of what is going on in the agency that is, indeed, exciting. As always, I need to be prepared to answer the question myself and so when I think back on the last week I must admit that I am excited about CQI, that is, continuous quality improvement.

One of the things that we consider to be a hallmark of Hillsides is our service and solution-oriented culture of doing whatever is necessary to provide all we serve with the best quality care. This can quickly be reduced to an empty platitude without some structured way to indeed promote and assure that we act on what we say. CQI is a formal process that has been introduced at Hillsides for some time now as we prepare for national accreditation. Every other month the various departments, represented by direct care workers and administrators, come together to share goals, action plans and, more importantly, findings that indicate their level of achievement.

This is not just another exercise to meet yet one more requirement, but rather it is becoming ingrained in our operations to keep us focused on the services we provide and on those we serve.

At the most recent meeting of the CQI team the following items were addressed: resident food surveys, medication awareness training, independent living skill building at the group homes and reducing physical interventions.

• Instead of usually quizzing residents in the dining room about how they like their lunch, a survey was conducted. Favorite foods were identified and plans to improve the menu are now being developed. 
• The vast majority of our residents benefit from some sort of medication therapy. Medication education assures residents are familiar with their treatment and its effects. This effort helps them best utilize any prescriptions that have been recommended.
• Daily living skills are essential for independence. In our group homes we have developed a curriculum of life skills that engage residents in becoming more confident in managing the routine tasks of daily living.
• And perhaps the greatest challenge is to continue to develop a treatment environment that eliminates effectively the need to provide physical interventions when residents are at risk of harming themselves or others.

It is exciting to participate in a process that not only helps us to learn and improve, but more than anything, helps us to achieve all that we hope for those we serve.

The Great Santa Ana Wind Storm of 2011

At one point during the Santa Ana wind storm, on the front lawn of the group home we maintain adjacent to the main campus, the towering tree came roaring down. Fortunately, the tree fell away from the structure, but never-the-less rekindled the trauma for one of our residents, who had survived the Joplin Missouri tornado earlier this year. He like many of the residents at Hillsides were frightened by the ferocious winds and awed by the display of force that brought three trees down,  buried three cars in debris and left the campus without power for nearly 24 hours.

As I walked the campus the day of the storm, I was impressed by the resourcefulness of our staff who adjusted their routines, stayed focused on the residents and pitched in to keep us all safe and operating well. In spite of the inconveniences, our residents were in good spirits, relieved that the storm was over and grateful for not attending school that day. But in subsequent days as things return to normal, an increasing number of residents have acted on their anxieties triggered by the trauma of living through such a powerful storm.

Last week’s storm confirmed for all of us how vulnerable we are in the face of the overwhelming forces of nature. For our residents already suffering form childhood traumas such an experience can be overwhelming. So, in addition to clearing debris and accommodating the inconveniences brought on by a power outage, the staff remained focused on reassuring our residents that they were safe and could count on us to help them deal with their fears and anxieties.

In a sense the storm was not only a test of our disaster plan, but more importantly, our resourcefulness to effectively address a very challenging situation while never losing sight of  the needs of the children we serve. To all the staff who braved the state of emergency to make their way to work, thank you. To the maintenance staff who marshaled the efforts to clear debris and restore power and good order, thank you. To the food service personnel who kept residents and staff alike fed in the midst of discomfort, thank you. To our community of supporters who have reached out to us in concern with offers of assistance, thank you. Together we got through the storm relatively unscathed and will recall to another generation how we survived the great Santa Ana wind storm of 2011.