New program helps families facing crises

Phil Riddle

editor@weatherforddemocrat.com

A new regional program is aimed at helping Parker County parents get help for their preschool children with severe emotional or behavioral problems.

The program, Hand in Hand, uses a professional facilitator, friends, family members and trusted advisors to create what has been termed a “wraparound support system.”

Hand in Hand is a six-year federal cooperative agreement set up to coordinate services for such families.

Two key goals of the plan are getting available services seamlessly and keeping children at home to improve their mental health and school readiness.

Barbara Hartzendorf, a wraparound facilitator with the Lena Pope Home in Fort Worth, is heading up the new program in Parker County.

She said Hand in Hand is looking for children, with or without a clinical diagnosis whose parents are reaching the ends of their ropes.

“They don’t have to have a diagnosis,” Hartzendorf said. “but if they have a child they cannot control or they’re exasperated by the child’s behavior, they just don’t know what to do, we can go to Pecan Valley MHMR and get an assessment, that will be part of the process.”

She said parents are consulted following the initial assessment and a subsequent diagnosis before a successful parent from a similar program comes to visit them.

“Once they have agreed to be in the referral process,” Hartzendorf said, “if they wish to join Hand-in-Hand, they will be visited by a Community Solutions parent. Community Solutions is a program similar to Hand in Hand, but for older children in Fort Worth. A successful parent from that program comes to talk to a parent getting into this program. So it’s parent-to-parent.”

At this point in the process, Hartzendorf steps in to begin formulation of the wraparound support team.

“I will go in and, if there’s a crisis going on, I’ll help with the crisis,” she said. “I’ll check for safety issues in the home. After that, I will talk with the parents to find out what their needs are.”

Hartznedorf said from there, the family is in charge of deciding what services or treatments they’d like to pursue.

“This is a family-driven philosophy,” she said, “so they will be determinining what happens. They make the decisions. I can make input, maybe guide and offer information they don’t have to help them make their deicsions. I will help get their services started, making suggestions and asking them what they want to do.”

A group of trusted advisors is then formed to help the family.

“Once I’m there and know their needs, one of the first things I will ask them to do is to start making a wraparound team of professionals that will be associated with the child,” Hartzendorf said.

“Say the child goes to child care, we would want that child care provider to come and be a member of the wraparound team. They would have suggestions because they know how that child behaves when he or she is away from Mom and Dad. It would help Mom and Dad make decisions regarding the child.”

Other professionals, family members and friends would fill out the team, which would ultimately provide support to the parents.

“If something goes wrong during the day, something they may not know the answer to, they call someone on the wraparound team,” Hartzendorf said. “In this way, it becomes a self-sustaining type of program. Our ultimate goal is reaching the children who have these behavior issues in early childhood before they get to the public school system.”

For more information, contact Hand in Hand at (817) 569-5720.