Trumbull Children Services working on reducing runaways from residential treatment

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

It might come as a surprise to some people to know that Trumbull County Children Services doesn’t have the right to restrain some of the children in its residential treatment center.

Many of the approximately 25 children in the program housed on the CSB campus on Reeves Road Northeast, for example, attend school away from the center and could choose not to return after school.

The facility is not locked from the inside, so if a child who was not identified as being a danger to himself or herself or others said, “I’m leaving,” and walked out, staff would not have the legal right to stop that child, said Tim Schaffner, CSB executive director.

Ironically, the staff would call police, and the police would have the authority to pick up the child and return him or her to CSB.

Trumbull CSB is one of only a handful of government child-service agencies in the state with its own residential treatment center. Most counties send children to outside facilities if they cannot live with a foster family.

But Trumbull CSB feels that providing on-site residential treatment for children with serious emotional needs produces a better outcome than sending them out of county, Schaffner said.

Statistics show that children receiving in-house residential treatment are able to leave agency care 30 percent faster than those receiving treatment elsewhere. But having their own residential treatment creates challenges — such as runaways.

One of the accomplishments and challenges Schaffner addressed in the state-of-the-agency report he delivered last month was developing new approaches to reduce the number of runaways.

Schaffner said CSB researched runaways, including information from the National Runaway Safeline, to gain a better understanding.

Many run to their families, but the reason they are in residential treatment is because of abuse and neglect by their family, so it’s not safe for them there, Schaffner said. Others run to boyfriends or girlfriends, or to use alcohol or drugs.

Others run because they fear a change that’s coming in their life — such as returning to their biological family or entering a foster home. Or they run away from the CSB rules, said Marilyn Pape, department manager of home services.

Over the past year, the agency has hired people with a greater level of clinical training — a master’s degree in social work or counseling — to replace vacancies.

With that experience, personnel are better able to address these behavioral issues in a clinical way rather than seeing runaway issues as a behavioral issue, Schaffner said.

For example, the agencies make use of group therapies and “adventure-based therapies” to involve the kids in their treatment at a higher level, Pape said.

There were 22 runaways in 2014, but “everyone has come back during my time here,” either by coming back on their own or through police, Schaffner said. He’s been executive director since April 2012.