Intensive Home-Based Services
Strengthening Stability at Home
Few events are more traumatic for children than being removed from their families and entered into the foster care system. This transition affects their physical and emotional health, development, and academic success. Lincoln's Intensive Home-Based Services (IHBS) teams provide targeted supports in the home and school for foster children and youth at risk of foster care placement, including:
- Comprehensive Assessment: Identifying the family's strengths, cultural factors, and family-identified change areas.
- Family-Focused Plan Development: Working together to develop an individualized plan based on the specific needs of the family with achievable and measurable goals.
- Coaching: Utilizing evidence-based practices, teaching, and modeling with children and families to learn new behaviors and coping skills.
- Coordination of Care: Collaborating with service providers, school personnel, and others to strengthen stability and permanence.
Lincoln gives families the support they need to stay together and be stronger, and kids a chance to live healthier, more productive lives.
A Proven Model
Teams of skilled and diverse IHBS staff work together with children and families to utilize their strengths and cultural experiences to drive their own individualized plan for success over a nine to 12 month period. The Lincoln team goes where children and families are to introduce, monitor, and reinforce interventions with them in the home, at school, and in the community. We ensure that families have a say in their services and that all services are focused on keeping children at home.
Services begin with a comprehensive assessment to identify a family's strengths, cultural factors, and family identified change areas. This is followed by the development of a family-focused plan, with achievable steps and measurable goals. Utilizing evidence-based practices, Lincoln’s team teaches and models caregiver strategies, and collaborates with service providers, school personnel and other individuals identified by the family.
Who Can Receive IHBS?
Children and adolescents up to age 21 who meet all of the following criteria:
- Are beneficiaries of full-scope Medi-Cal
- Are currently in foster care or at imminent risk of a foster care placement
- Have a documented illness or condition that necessitates individualized mental health services.
The Unique Team
IHBS teams include each of the following:
- Community liaisons focused on helping children learn new skills and stay in the home, including developing effective communications of feelings and needs, and coping tools
- Family partners with personal experience and expertise in navigating the foster care system and strengthening families.
Referrals
IHBS referrals are coordinated through Intensive Care Coordinators through Contra Costa County Behavioral Health Services, representing East, West and Central Contra Costa County.