Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children   

 PRESENT SITUATION: Historically, emergency shelters in the state of Georgia have provided initial services for children entering state care. Shelters also serve as an interim placement for children who have disrupted their permanent placement.

Immediate, safe placement for children is an important function of emergency shelters. Most child welfare experts, however, admit that placement is not enough and furthermore warn that all children entering care should receive immediate assessment. Extensive appraisals for severely disturbed children may include family, medical, psychological, psychiatric and educational evaluations and diagnoses. Many professionals participate in these types of assessments, which often take from fourteen to thirty days to complete. Such a thorough assessment is expensive, and while it is definitely a necessity for more severely disturbed children, it can also be a superfluous cost for many of the children in care.

Some type of assessment is needed for all children. Assessments that evaluate family and social histories, behaviors, and educational and developmental status are required if the first placement is to be the best placement. This initial screening can determine whether further evaluation and diagnosis are needed. Without this type of basic initial assessment, appropriate placement and services are at best presumptuous and at worst irresponsible.

PRESENT RESOURCES: Emergency shelters currently possess many of the qualities sought by placement agencies from service providers. The strengths of emergency shelters include:

1. Community established and locally based agencies that uphold healthy relationships with the network of service providers and businesses in that community.
2. The ability to place a child near his family and support system, thus keeping the child in his home environment, facilitating contact with the people in the child’s life, and increasing the opportunity to reunify the child with his family.
3. Strong community involvement and support of locally based agencies. Communities develop a sense of ownership for "their" shelter.
4. The ability to accept children on a 24 hour basis with little or no advance preparation by the caseworker and limited background information.
5. Most emergency shelters are independent agencies without ties to a larger organization. They can refer children to other services and facilities with no question of favoritism or conflict of interest.

• Evaluative and assessment services
• Case Management
• Prevention activities
• Family counseling
• Individual and group counseling
• Educational services
• Peer education
• Life skills training
• Recreational activities
• Community outings and
• Follow-up services

PROPOSAL: Because Georgia possesses a tremendous resource in emergency shelters, we can look at ways to improve service provision for all of Georgia’s children. They are the communities’ first line of care for at-risk children needing placement and assessment. Emergency shelters, therefore, can easily evolve into the pre-assessment centers that are desperately needed as part of an integrated service delivery system.

Emergency shelters provide immediate, 24 hour entry into the system, are located throughout the state, and can begin immediate intervention for the majority of children and their families. These families could receive all required services through the pre-assessment centers, with children returning to a family/relative placement directly from the this access point. For children with more severe needs, the pre-assessment centers can link to and serve as a screening system for diagnostic and assessment centers, which provide intermediate level care. Children entering pre-assessment centers that need a higher level of care can be referred immediately to diagnostic and assessment centers.

Serving the majority of children at the pre-assessment, basic care level would save the state money. Maintaining an avenue for referring children immediately to the proper level of care would eliminate fragmentation of services, ensure that children receive the level of care they need, and ultimately reduce the length of time children spend in care.

Emergency shelters possess many of the qualities state placing agencies request. The state’s challenge is to provide the atmosphere, support and open-mindedness that will allow shelters to further develop these strengths and build linkages with other agencies, thus ultimately improving our state’s responsiveness to children and families in need.