LHS Family & Youth Services has a full continuum of care within a seamless delivery system, including intense community-based residential settings with staff to youth ratio never less than 1:2; a residential center with affiliated school for Asperger's disorder, intense therapeutic foster homes with wrap-around services; therapeutic foster homes; foster homes; scattered site independent living; cognitive restructuring program for obsessive behaviors; Partners in Treatment Family Weekends; on-grounds classrooms for severe behavioral handicapped children; one-on-one tutoring; group and individual ounseling.
LHS Family & Youth Services works with children and youth ages 6 to 18-plus and is a member of the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies. Facilities are licensed by the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services. The agency is certified in six different activity areas by the Ohio Department of Mental Health. LHS Family & Youth Services has maintained a no-eject no-reject policy for many years, practices family-centered therapy where appropriate, and has a diverse clinical treatment team that includes a board certified pediatric and adolescent psychiatrist.
We have worked in the past and continue to work with young people who have the following: abandonment, ADHD, Asperger's Disorder, AWOL behavior, bipolar, bipolar with mixed psychotic features, borderline intellectual function, borderline personality disorder, bulimia, conduct disorder, cruelty to animals, defies authority, destroys property, developmentally delayed, diabetic, difficulties in school, difficulties forming and maintaining relationships, disrupted adoption, encopresis, enuresis, escapes into fantasy, expressive and reception language disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome, firesetting, hallucinations, history of domestic violence, history of neglect, history of extreme life threatening neglect, history of physical abuse, history of sexual abuse, history of substance abuse, hoarding food, homicidal, hyperactivity, impulsivity, intermittent explosive disorder, klinefelter's syndrome, major depression, mild mental retardation, mental retardation, mood disorder, multiple placements, obsessive compulsive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, personality disorder traits, pervasive developmental disorder, poor hygiene skills, poor social skills, post traumatic stress disorder, psychosis NOS, pre-occupation with death, reactive attachment disorder, self-abusing or self-injurious behavior, sexualized behavior, sex offending, stealing, suicidal, temper tantrums, Tourette's Syndrome, unresolved grief. The aforementioned are taken directly from recent diagnosis or information on actual case plans.
Our outcomes that matter most are behavioral changes in children and youth that enable them to function productively and appropriately within their respective communities. Every level of our work is documented through a computerized case note system that connects all our facilities and field offices.
We have an array of service options available. In addition to our three facilities for multi-need youth, we also continue to maintain a home for long term care as an alternative to adoption that perhaps is unique in our service area. We also have connections to foster care, therapeutic foster care, independent living, mentoring, adoption, and other services that may be required for transition or for initial placement with other services (such as Family Therapy) following our initial assessment. In other words, we have a full continuum of care with a seamless delivery system and accept children and youth directly into any option if we believe it is most appropriate.
The frontline staff-to-youth ratio in our intense settings is 1:2, and can be more when necessary. This enables us to work with high-risk children and youth in an open setting. Most placements come to us with histories of many failed placements; some have been administratively discharged from institutional settings.
Our director, Harry Blackmon, has been in the field over thirty years and was voted by his peers several years ago as Ohio's top advocate for children. We are the only agency in Ohio that has had four employees honored by the Ohio Association of Child & Youth Care Professionals, Inc., with the Kuster Award for Excellence in Child Care, recognizing them as Ohio's most excellent frontline care providers.
We have had placements funded by juvenile courts, public children service agencies, clusters, Family First councils, managed care entities, mental health boards, private insurers, trusts and individuals. Our settings are title IV-E eligible.