New program helps families find stability

A new program through Appalachian Community Services seeks to help children and their families find more resources and bring stability to their lives.MORES – Mobile Outreach Response Engagement and Stabilization – serves children ages 3-21 who are experiencing crisis situations."The whole idea of this program is to keep the kids out of the hospitals. Keep them out of the system," said Sheryl Hartley, a family support partner with the program. "That's what we're trying to do – give the families enough skills and enough knowledge and enough resources and enough support to help them navigate this – not getting caught up in the system."Hartley said they get referrals from the schools and other community agencies, but participation is voluntary. Families can also contact them directly. With funding support from Vaya Health, there are no charges for the MORES services. Following an initial evaluation to help determine what services are needed, the eight-week program can provide family counseling, skills training and peer support."We have to go in and work with the parents to try to stabilize things, try to stabilize their lives so they can stabilize the kids' lives," Hartley said.One of the first things she does is establish rapport and trust, and she wants families to understand they are not the Department of Social Services."We are not here to investigate you," she said. "We're not here to take your children away – that is not our role. Our role is to come in and be a support system for you."Hartley said they see a lot of single moms in the program, but there are dads too. "They're struggling sometimes – financially, food, housing. There's been lots of pressures on these families. I'll come in and see what they need. I will help link them to resources."Hartley's own experience helps her understand what families are going through. "I've had experience with children with behavioral issues," she said. Her son Ryan passed away at age 28 from an overdose of drugs and alcohol, and she says her older son had behavioral issues from a young age."I've been there and been back," she said. "I've navigated the systems – the courts, the juvenile system, the counseling system. And back in the day when I was raising kids, there wasn't anything like this. I wish there was. It would have made a world of difference to me as a mother to have someone come in."She said a lot of times parents just don't know what resources are available to them. In addition to connecting them with other services, Hartley said they also do a lot of coaching with parents. She's currently working with a program called Triple P through MAHEC (Mountain Area Health Education Center)."It's teaching the parents skills," she said.She said sometimes issues arise because the parents were not parented correctly when they were growing up; some were sexually abused, physically abused or emotionally abused."It really is all trauma related," she said. "It all comes back from some sort of trauma that's generational in the family. That's passed down because kids don't do certain things unless they see it. We're hoping to get in there and help break those cycles."Collaborative problem solving is another area they work on with parents. "We're trying to teach the parents how to teach the children to solve their own problems. Guide them, not solve the problems for them," she said. "Collaborative problem solving says when a child knows better, they do better. It's teaching them what's going on, what you could do to change the situation, and letting the child come up with the solution, not the parent."She said children will do better when they have the skills to know better. "It's not a matter of a kid not wanting to do better," she said. "No kid wants to get in trouble. None of them like that feeling."Hartley said collaborative problem solving skills and the right resources benefit the children as well as the parents. "When everybody knows better, they do better," she said. She emphasizes, "We're not doing it for them. We're doing it so that they become their own advocates – that's what we're teaching them to do."She said they receive referrals due to behavioral or psychological issues with the children. "It's the children we're serving, but we walk beside the whole family."MORES started here in February and Hartley says they already have some success stories. "We have seen people walk in so sad at the beginning and so distraught and walk out after eight weeks with so much more confidence, so much more hope."MORES serves Macon and Swain counties. Hartley said with the addition of another social worker they would like to expand into Jackson and Cherokee counties. Because it is a mobile response program, Hartley said the MORES team will meet with children and the families where they are comfortable. Regular office hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. For referral information, call 828-631-7110 or email MORES@acswnc.com. Those in a crisis can call the crisis line at 1-888-315-2880. Appalachian Community Services provides inpatient and outpatient mental health, behavioral health, crisis, substance use, and developmental disability services in the seven WNC counties. The Franklin office is located at 100 Thomas Heights Rd. For information, visit acswnc.com. Mia Overton can be reached at editor@thefranklinpress.com

New program helps families find stability

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