Foster Care Services

Treatment Foster Care
Available to children and youth with special needs, from birth through age 18, who can benefit from therapeutic help in a family setting. Each child’s specific needs are carefully assessed in order to match the youth to a foster home qualified to meet the child’s specific needs and establish individual treatment plans. Foster care is also available to children and youth with complex medical conditions that might otherwise require hospitalization or institutional care.

Short-Term Foster Care
Short-term care is designed to provide relief to families caring for children with special needs. PATH foster families provide the respite care in their homes.

Emergency Foster Care
Emergency foster care services are available 24-hours per day, 7 days per week to youth needing immediate placement in a safe and nurturing environment. Identified PATH foster parents are on-call to take youth into their home for a short-term placement when removal from their biological family is necessary, usually in situations of abuse, neglect or unsafe living conditions.

Whole Family Foster Care
Intensive support and collaborative services provided by skilled foster parents working with biological parents in foster placement with their own children. The goal is to teach parenting skills through modeling, example and education by the foster parents.

Native American Treatment Foster Care
Native American child / youth are placed in foster homes that reflect the unique values of Native American culture. Placement provides the opportunity to connect with Native American role models
and traditions.

Specialized Foster Care Program
Designed for children and adolescents who require the high level of structure typically found in a residential setting. Youth typically present with sexual offending histories, PDD/ Autism Spectrum, significant mental health challenges, RAD, CD, hearing impaired or deaf and youth at risk of self harm. Foster Parents are trained in the identified therapeutic modality. They work closely with community institutions and programs to ensure continuity of services and implementation of aftercare plans.

Alternative to Residential Treatment
For children and youth who need extraordinarily high levels of treatment in out-of-home placement. These programs are individually designed to make maximum use of community resources to maintain children in a family environment.

Adoption Services
For qualified clients, services are paid for by the State of Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Human Services has contracted with PATH to assist in the adoption of children committed to the guardianship of the State through the Minnesota Public/Private Adoption Initiative. Services provided are: Adoption Studies and Study Updates, Adoption Placements, Training and Education, Child-Specific Recruitment, Life Book Planning, Parent-Child Disengagement Services, Foster Parent Adoptions, and Post Adoption Support.

Foster/Adoptive Services
For qualified clients, services are paid for by the State of Minnesota. Service provided for youth who will be, or are already, legally available for adoption. Children are matched with a family prepared to move towards adoption. The family is provided support to successfully maintain a special needs adoption.

Family Centered Services

Children’s Therapeutic Services and Support
Children’s Therapeutic Services and Support are mental health services that are provided on an individual, family or group basis. They include skills, therapy, training and development services that focus on measurable target goals developed in the client’s Individual Treatment Plan.

Waiver Services
Waiver programming includes the 245B regulations for children and youth with developmental disabilities. Services include risk management plans, medication management and quarterly reports.

Independent Living Skills
Supportive services to transition youth age 16 and older who are in a court referred out-of-home placement into adulthood and to prevent homelessness.

Bridge Builders
Bridge Builders is a youth centered, future oriented program for youth 16 and over who are transitioning out of foster care. The Bridge Builders Program supports youth in their transition to adulthood by addressing the psychological, emotional and concrete coping skills needed for self sufficiency.

Family Group Decision Making
Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) is a family-centered, child focused, culturally responsive and strength-based decision making process. The FGDM facilitator is responsible for bringing together parents, children, extended family members, foster care and other service providers for a Family Conference for the purpose of developing a care and protection plan.

Supervised Visitation
Supervision is available to children and families when visitation needs to be monitored for safety and documentation reasons. Visits can occur either in a structured visitation room at PATH or in the community as deemed appropriate. PATH interaction services include: Minimum Supervision, Direct Supervision, Extended Therapeutic Supervision (Home Setting).

Crisis Nursery
The PATH Crisis Nursery serving Wright County provides short term care and coordinates services for families and children experiencing a crisis situation. Caregivers voluntarily place their children in a safe and nurturing environment for emergency over-night or daycare while they work to resolve their crisis situation. Trained staff help families identify solutions to solve their crisis situation, offer information, parent education, counseling and referrals.