STATE OF NEVADA - Division of Child and Family Services

Intensive Family Services staff, which provides both clinical assessments and home-based family preservation services, is
also a significant pre-placement service. State Rural Mental Health Clinics are responsible for providing children’s mental
health services in the Rural Region. The Rural Region also has four full-time Family Support Workers that are utilized
similarly to the Human Services Specialist positions in Washoe County to provide additional needed support to families.
The 2005 Legislature allocated 15 positions to enhance the Rural Region’s service delivery capability. Two Social Work
Supervisors, 11 Social Workers and two Support Staff were funded. Recruitment and retention of licensed social work
positions is an ongoing challenge in rural Nevada. Other services utilized by the Rural Region include services available
through community based non-profit agencies to provide substance abuse counseling, domestic violence interventions,
truancy, tutoring, parenting and other prevention programs for children. County welfare programs and/or other community
based resources are frequently accessed for temporary housing, vouchers for clothing, food, gas, utilities, transportation
and other needed services. Community coalitions exist in many rural communities in an attempt to increase availability
and accessibility through coordinated efforts between public and private agencies. The State has operated Family
Preservation Services (FPS) existing in nine sites throughout the state for over 10 years – Las Vegas, Mesquite,
Pahrump, Elko, Fallon, Carson City, Hawthorne, Wells and Reno. Services, like other FPS programs, are brief, intensive,
home-based and family centered.
Family Support Services:
Awards to sub-grantees that provided Family Support services in Clark County include after-school and summer programs
which offered activities and supervision to school-aged children, ages 9 to 12 within a safe environment while their
parents were at work, which enabled parents to achieve and maintain better job performance in knowing that their child
was in a safe environment; case management; budgeting classes in both English and Spanish and computer skills
classes and developmental screenings. Title IV B funded Family Support services in Washoe County include tutoring;
counseling; case management and linkage with supportive services; home visits; needs assessments; budgeting classes
and goal planning. Funding for Family Support services to sub-grantees in the Rural Region enhance their capabilities to
collaborate with other service providers; provide counseling; basic needs; case management; coping with stress,
budgeting and parenting classes; youth / teen prevention programs focusing on drugs, alcohol, anger management, selfesteem,
teen pregnancy prevention and communicable disease awareness; mentoring, tutoring and literacy for families
which advanced their academic abilities; home visits; respite care and transportation.
Time-Limited Reunification Services:
Funded programs that provide Time-Limited Reunification services in Clark County include comprehensive assessments
for both mental health and substance abuse issues for individuals, and groups as well as individual and family treatment.
Under the Time-Limited Reunification category, services in Washoe County include psychological testing for adults and
adolescents; psychiatric evaluations for adults; drug and alcohol evaluations; group counseling for drug and alcohol;
individual counseling for addictions, sessions on depression, substance abuse, parenting, stress, family violence, sexual
and physical abuse, loss and grief and marital and couple issues and mental health and family issues for adults. Time-
Limited Reunification services in the Rural Region include case management; counseling; parenting classes; youth / teen
prevention programs focusing on drugs, alcohol, anger management, self-esteem, teen pregnancy prevention and
communicable disease awareness; mentoring, tutoring and literacy for families that advanced their academic abilities;
home visits and mentoring.
Adoption Promotion and Support Services:
Funding for Adoption Promotion and Support Services allow sub-grantees in Clark County to educate the public,
community leaders, policy makers and child welfare administrators by providing informative feedback on the foster parent
perspective on adoption recruitment issues to better serve the foster parent community’s needs and training for mental
health professionals to help them understand why treatment strategies must be different for adoptive families. Funding
also supports diligent search activities which focus on identifying and locating parents and relatives who might be
placement resources for children utilizing multiple resources such as Accurint, Internet sources, telephone books,
Department of Motor Vehicles information and diligent search programs in other states. Adoption Promotion and Support
Services funding to sub-grantees in Washoe County and the Rural Region enhance their capability to collaborate with
agencies to produce “child / family matching” events where children awaiting adoption were exposed to potential adoptive
families; provision of series of training workshops for foster and adoptive parents; awareness promotion of special needs
adoptive homes for children 12 years and older and sibling groups and increase interest in special needs adoption,
ultimately impacting the number of finalized special needs adoptions. Washoe’s Adoption Program and the Clark’s CAC
continue to utilize trained clinical staff to support families’ adoption of children with emotional/behavioral needs. This
service combined with the development of a “transition” case plan is a promising practice designed to better support and
prepare both foster-adoption and stranger adoptions; and to increase the success of the child’s placement.
Nevada APSR – SFY 2010
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