Boys Town Iowa

In our mission to change the way America cares for her children and families, we provide a continuum of care that strengthens them in mind, body and spirit.  Our integrated continuum of family services includes these programs at Boys Town Iowa:

Boys Town offers an integrated continuum of services that provides children and families with the right care in the right service at the right time. This system is linked in philosophy and in the methods used. To support this integrated continuum, certain fundamental principles, values, and services must cut across all levels of these services and programs. Some of the more important include:  Spirituality/Religious Helping children and families build a strong spiritual and religious foundation is an important part of Boys Town’s mission. Positive character traits like respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, fairness, caring, and citizenship provide the framework for a child’s value education. Medical Care Boys Town owns and operates the Boys Town National Research Hospital, which provides clinical and surgical services to patients from Boys Town’s own programs and for children and families across the country. Education Services Education is integral to providing effective treatment for children. In many of the Boys Town residential programs, specialized educational services are embedded within the programs. Care Coordination Boys Town attempts to provide the right services to children and families at the right time and in the right program. Boys Town’s Care Coordination programs provide intensive case management services for children in a variety of settings or levels of care.

Family-Centered Services is an early intervention program designed to treat and address youth and family problems at home.  The main goals of this program are to build family strengths, teach new skills, and reduce out-of-home placement of children.  This program is for families who need supportive services to address high-risk situations and to prevent early issues from becoming a crisis.  Family assistance includes focusing on the child’s behavior and improving parenting and family problem-solving skills, as well as linking families to needed family services.

Family-Centered Services at Boys Town Iowa include these site-specific programs:

• Family Safety Risk and Permanency Services provide crisis prevention and early intervention services focused on promoting safety, permanency and well-being for children.  Consultant interventions aim to preserve families, reunify children who have been removed from their homes, or achieve alternative permanent family connections.  That includes making and maintaining an adoptive or guardianship placement for children who cannot return home.  The Family Consultant focuses on strengths to assess and ensure child and family safety; teach families how to effectively deal with problem behaviors; teach children social skills; promote family stability, coping skills, and knowledge of child/family growth and development; and assist the family in developing and maintaining natural support systems and community resources.  Referrals are made through the Iowa Department of Human Services.  The length of services varies depending on each individual family’s needs; however, services are typically a minimum of three months. 
  
  
• The Children’s Mental Health Waiver provides individualized support services that allow eligible children who would otherwise require support in a medical institution to live in their own home and community.  The Family Consultant works with children, ages 7 to 18, who have severe emotional, behavioral and mental health problems as verified by a psychiatrist, psychologist or mental health professional. Most of the youth helped have not found success in past psychiatric treatment settings. The goal of this long-term, comprehensive, service is to provide the children with individual attention and teach them the skills they need to succeed in a home environment.  All children served receive service coordination and monitoring from Medicaid targeted case management. 

Family Preservation Services is a short-term, intensive, in-home program designed to prevent imminent out-of-home placement and keep families together.  A Family Consultant works in a family’s home and community to help parents provide a safe, healthy environment for their children.  The Family Consultant focuses on family strengths, helping the family to become self-sufficient and improve parenting techniques. The Family Consultant not only provides interventions in the family’s own home and community, but also links the family to community resources needed to maintain stability.  Family Consultants are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Family Preservation Services at Boys Town Iowa include this site-specific program:

• Safety Plan Services are designed to keep children safe from neglect and abuse and maintain or improve a child's safety by providing timely and culturally sensitive safety enhancement interventions.  Safety Plan Services last 15 to 30 days.  Referrals for these services are made by the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Boys Town National Hotline (800.448.3000) was established in 1989 and receives more than 400,000 calls every year.  Trained, professional counselors are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Callers’ problems range from relationship and parental discipline issues to depression and suicide.  In crisis situations, counselors assist callers and provide community resources and emergency intervention.  The Hotline provides referrals to agencies throughout the United States and responds to anyone in need of assistance, with a special focus on children and families.  Anyone in a crisis situation, especially children and families, can call 800.448.3000 for help anytime.