Main Office
ENTERPHASE
209 Bond St. E.
Oshawa, ON
L1G 1B4
T: 905-434-8909
F: 905-434-1775
contact us today!

Foster Parent After Hours Support Service

A Service just for Foster Parents

We are just a phone call away.
Just call 905-213-0205 after hours

Foster Parent After Hour Support Service

This is a new service that was implemented in 2002 as a means of providing additional support and guidance to the Durham Children's Aid Societies Foster Care network. The After Hours Response Service is a collaborative program between Enterphase Child & Family Services and Durham Children's Aid Society. This service works in conjunction with current CAS Emergency Duty Services. The Service is available after regular office hours, on weekends and holidays. Enterphase provides two fully trained and experienced childcare workers who provide this service on an ongoing basis. The service is managed by the Enterphase Management Team, under the direct supervision of the Enterphase Program Manager.

Mandate, Terms of Reference

MANDATE:

To provide an after-hours crisis response service to Durham Children's Aid Society foster parents to support them in caring for the agencies children and youth.

The goals of the program have been:

To support foster homes in managing difficult situations that occur after office hours.
To stabilize foster home placements.
To explore critical issues.
To provide direct/indirect strategies of intervention to allow time for planned intervention and strategic case management.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

CRITERIA FOR ELIGIBILITY

Durham CAS Foster Homes including:

Provisional
Regular
Specialized and Treatment Levels

The Criteria for eligibility was expanded to include the occasional referral of Adoptive Parents that are currently on adoption probation. The process for referral is that the adoption worker is to present the case to the Resource Supervisor. Should it be agreed that it is an appropriate referral, the adoption worker may contact the After Hours Support Worker. The After Hours Support Worker will make contact with the adoptive parents and describe the services and offer support. This support may include a home visit, or may be provided through telephone contact.

What can this service do for you

This program provides an after-hours support service to Durham Children's Aid Society Foster Parents. Foster Parents can look forward to:

support to foster homes in managing difficult situations that occur after office hours
help in stabilizing new and established foster home placements
help in creating plans for managing difficult behaviours and in understanding what might be driving the behaviours
a listening ear from a fellow foster parent who has "been there"
if required and requested, the Support Worker will attend the home to provide direct support to foster parents and children in a time of crisis

How do I access this service?

It's simple. Call us directly. Phone at 905-213-0205. If there is no answer, please leave a message and we will return your call shortly. This service is available:

Monday to Thursday from 4:30 - midnight.
Friday from 4:30pm until Monday at 8:30am.
All holidays where the regular D.C.A.S. office is closed.

Once you have called us - then what?

Sometimes just a phone call is enough. It can be helpful just to have a listening ear. At other times it is nice to know that someone is available to come to your home as a support to you during a crisis. The Support Workers are also seasoned foster parents and Child and Youth Workers and are therefore sensitive to the challenges of fostering. It is important that the foster parent feel supported and empowered through use of this service. Any plan for helping in a crisis situation would be agreed to by those involved and would focus on the best interest of the child and family involved.

We want this service to be as "user-friendly" as possible. Therefore, reporting and documentation of the Support Worker involvement is not the responsibility of the foster parent. Only case notes will be completed by the Support Worker.

Jennifer Jackson and Dianna McKibbon are both seasoned foster parents who have specialized in dealing with treatment level children. Both workers are dedicated to helping other foster parents in an understanding and empathetic way.