(August 5) The county this week provided $300,000 in funding to pay for so-called parent child interactive therapy services.
According to Randall Schulz, the director of the county’s children and family services department, “Children and family services provides services to help biological and adoptive families stay together in order to avoid having children removed from their homes. To accomplish this goal, it is often necessary for the entire family unit to participate in programs and services that include strength-based and holistic family-based intervention strategies that will improve the emotional and psychosocial well-being of the child and family unit and prevent future individual and family crisis/abuse. One of the services provided is parent child interactive therapy.”
Schulz continued, “Parent child interactive therapy provides intensive, interactive training, involving live coaching, and incorporates both parent and child within the treatment sessions which are conducted by certified providers. It is anticipated under these three contracts children and family services will provide services for approximately 200 children and families. Each year, the county investigates allegations of abuse and neglect to more than 33,000 children. Children and family services operates under the Child Welfare Services system. The major goal of the Child Welfare Services system is to protect and promote the welfare of all children by preventing and/or remedying neglect, abuse, or exploitation of children and young adults unable to protect their own interest and/or preserving, rehabilitating, or reuniting families. Parent child interactive therapy allows parental training while interacting with the child in a controlled environment.”
According to Schulz, “Children Welfare Services has seen an increase in need and court orders for parent child interactive therapy services over the past year.”
Nearly a year ago, on August 20, 2013, County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereux approved and authorized the release of a request for qualifications, which is essentially a solicitation of bids to seek agencies to provide child abuse prevention and treatment services for the period of January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2016.
Parent child interactive therapy services were included in the scope of work for this request for qualifications. A template contract was formed as a result of the request for qualifications for the services requested, but it was determined that only three agencies were qualified to provide parent child interactive therapy services, resulting in greater than anticipated use of those contractors. For that reason, this week contracts specifically for parent child interactive therapy services were presented to the board of supervisors for approval.
Each contract was written in an amount not to exceed an aggregate of $300,000 for the contract
period. The contracts do not include a guaranteed minimum or maximum number of referrals, and contractors are to be paid on a fee-for-service basis. The contracts may be terminated by the county with 30-days written notice to the contractor. County staff will monitor contractor invoices at both the individual and aggregate levels to ensure total payments do not exceed the authorized amounts.
Contractor performance will be measured by review of monthly reports and an annual site visit by county staff to monitor compliance with the administrative, program, and fiscal terms and onditions of the contract.
The three contractors selected to provide the  parent child interactive therapy are the Center for Healing Childhood Trauma,  Christian Counseling of East Valley, Inc. and Family Services Association.