State to Expand County Children’s Program

A Ventura County program to keep troubled children in their own homes won praise Wednesday from a state official, who announced a $2-million statewide expansion of the “family preservation” project.

“Ventura County is in a leadership role in preventive care,” said Health and Welfare Secretary Russell Gould at a news conference after meeting with some participants.

“We’re putting up seed money to encourage (other counties) down this path.”

Launched as a state pilot program in 1986, the Ventura Project has won national recognition for counseling emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children before their troubles become so great that they must be placed in foster care or end up in juvenile facilities.

More than 1,000 Ventura County children participate in the project, receiving individual counseling in their homes and schools from 60 mental health specialists employed under a $1.5-million annual state grant.

“We’re getting to kids before they have to be taken away from their families by government, put in foster care or more restrictive institutions usually far from their home county,” said Randall Feltman, county mental health director.

“Our first objective is to preserve a family and never have a child be separated” from the family, he said.

The project expanded into Riverside, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties in 1989. It won Gov. Pete Wilson’s endorsement because it reduced the number of children placed in foster care, which costs an average of $32,000 a year.

Feltman estimated that the county, by spending $1.5 million on the Ventura Project, will save $6 million in foster care costs this year.

“We’re trying to look at where we can make our best investments,” Gould said. “And we’re trying to encourage this because we think it’s preventive government.”

Overall, the number of children in foster care statewide rose from 8,000 in 1986 to 14,500 this year. During the same period, the number of Ventura County children in foster care has held firm at 108, Feltman said.

Created by a 1985 bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), the project grew out of a program aimed at preventing children from being housed unnecessarily in Camarillo State Hospital.

The program brings together officials from schools and juvenile probation, mental health and child protective services departments to determine how to best treat each child under their supervision.

“The various agencies are all working together to help these children stay in school and make academic progress, stay with families at home and stay out of trouble with police,” Feltman said.

“Before all this, most of our mental health employees worked in an office providing therapy for people who came to see them,” said Dr. Mario Hernandez, the mental health department’s chief of children and youth services. “Our employees are now out in schools, in homes, in foster homes or corrections. . . . We’re going into people’s lives.”

The $2 million in new state funding will be offered as 50% matching grants to counties interested in launching similar projects. Feltman said 26 counties have applied for such funding that was not available until this year.