I had to show you all this amazing example of "teaming" that occurred in Hamilton County. This young girl is deaf and has had "behavior problems" most likely contributed to the fact that she has been placed in homes where the foster parents haven't been able to communicate with her. She was actually last placed at Valley Hospital (Acute) for crisis stabilization. There weren't any DCS or agency foster homes with parents who knew sign language; this made it very frustrating and difficult for this young girl because the only way she could communicate with the foster parents was by writing things down on paper!! There was talk of sending her off to a residential program in Florida, because reportedly "outstayed her welcome" at the School for the Deaf, here in Tennessee. That's when this case was presented at our Well-Being unit meeting/reviews (a few weeks ago), which was the first I had heard about this case. We actually had the Program Coordinator and the FSW come to our meeting to present the dynamics of this case. Needless to say, we were all very concerned.
From that point on, things started to change. The people in this region, ON THEIR OWN, pulled together like you wouldn't believe. They diligently worked on finding placement options and resources for this young girl. This case was then presented at the Community Advisory Board and our community partners got involved, as well!!
I am SO AMAZED at this wonderful work they have done; they all "teamed" together on their own! I have to say that watching this has been something else; I honestly don't think I would've seen this 2 years ago, when I first started here. Sometimes we may feel like we have so many changes that need to be made that we don't realize how far we've come; this is a perfect example of how much progress this region has made!!
I'm sorry for rambling , but I really passionately believe that this case can serve as a model for our region, in showing folks what effective "teaming" really looks like, with a case that most of them already know about (as opposed to a fake case for training purposes). I asked this team for permission to present this to the RLT so we can brainstorm on ways to utilize this case as a model for the region.
Hope this makes your days like it made mine!!=}
Caroline Mariash





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