The department's children's administration (CA) offers home
support services (HSS), within available funds, to provide supportive,
culturally appropriate, skill-building services in partnership with CA's client
families. Only CA staff may provide the services in the family home or other
appropriate setting and must provide the services as part of a comprehensive
case plan. The department does not contract for this service.
(1) CA typically offers HSS during the normal
work week but may provide HSS on weekends and beyond normal working
hours.
(2) Child and family
resource specialists (CFRS) have primary responsibility to provide HSS, which
may include the following services:
(a) Teach
and demonstrate basic physical and emotional care of children, including child
development and developmentally appropriate child discipline;
(b) Teach homemaking and other life skills,
including housekeeping, nutrition and food preparation, personal hygiene,
financial budgeting, time management and home organization, with consideration
given to the family's cultural environment;
(c) Help families obtain basic needs by
networking families with appropriate supportive community resources; e.g.,
housing, clothing and food banks, health care services, and educational and
employment services;
(d) Provide
emotional support to families and build self-esteem in family members; aid
family members in developing appropriate interpersonal and social
skills;
(e) Provide client
transportation/supervision of visits on a nonroutine, short-term
basis;
(f) Observe family
functioning, assisting the social worker to identify family strengths as well
as areas needing intervention or improvement, providing reports and assessments
to the assigned social worker on the family's progress in skill-building,
family functioning, and other areas defined in the case plan;
(g) Participate in child protection teams,
multidisciplinary teams, interagency case staffings, and family intervention
meetings;
(h) Provide court
testimony when requested by the attorney representing DSHS or when
subpoenaed.
