KVC in Olathe hopes to change the face of foster care
KVC Health Systems hopes to improve foster care services with a $7 million expansion at its Olathe headquarters.
KVC Institute for Practice Improvement and Innovations in Child and Family Services, at 21350 W. 153rd St., puts direct care services, training and research all under same roof.
“We are so excited about it,” said Kelly McCauley, director of evidence-informed initiatives at KVC Health Systems. “For us, it’s one more way to extend the reach of good practice. The research arm at the new institute is really going to be amazing.”
The $7 million facility adjoins to KVC’s corporate headquarters to create the new hub. Funded by private donations, KVC Institute houses approximately 150 of KVC Health System’s 1,300 child welfare and behavioral healthcare staff nationwide. The nonprofit specializes in in-home family care therapy, foster care, adoption, youth substance abuse treatment and has children’s psychiatric hospitals in Kansas and four other states. The new facility means putting research into practice in a timelier manner and having training tools that KVC had yet to use.
“It’s marvelous,” said Wayne Sims, president and CEO of KVC. “We will be able to train so many more professionals in this field across the country. We are trying to change the way foster care services are delivered in America today.”
The new space and technology is designed for collaboration with families, children and professionals in the field. Some of the featured elements include wellness and simulation rooms, an interactive family and adoption center, learning communities and an expanded Ball Conference Center.
Wellness and simulation rooms are used to coach parents with therapists who whisper in their ears via an earphone. Therapists in an observation room speak into the parent’s ear as they interact with their children. Parents can observe the recorded sessions to make self-discoveries to improve relations with their children.
“It’s the latest proven effective treatment,” said Jenny Kutz, spokeswoman for KVC. “Therapists help them make these discoveries themselves and lead them through that way.”
The interactive family and adoption center will streamline adoptions. The first and only center of its kind, say administrators, its goal is to increase adoptions of children in foster care through the use of technology. It has a recording studio for children to share their stories and a conference room for prospective parents to watch. Streaming can take place in either direction.
“This will allow us to take it to the next level,” Kutz said.
The interactive family and adoption center doubles as a meeting space for information-sharing with staff and other professionals involved with foster children such as attorneys, case workers and court appointed special advocates. A whiteboard and smartboard facilitates the critical thinking exercise on everything known about the foster child, Kutz said. The layout of the furniture was especially designed for collaboration.
“It helps staff thinking critically,” Kutz said. “The first goal is to strengthen the family and keep them together. That’s the framework we use to run our casework meeting.”
The expanded Ball Conference Center allows the institute to increase the frequency and size of conferences the agency hosts each year. The expanded space and extra conference rooms make room for more learning communities — networks of professionals across KVC and external researchers, all with the goal of creating and adapting the most effective treatments, Kutz said.
“We offer free training to professionals on childhood trauma,” Kutz said. “Built-in technology allows us to disperse information locally and around the world through conference and distance learning.”
KVC has longstanding partners with New York University and Children’s Research Center and is endorsed by the Annie C. Casey Foundation, McCauley said. The agency’s driving force is knowing that children can’t wait the 17 years it often takes for research to get converted to direct practice, she said. KVC hopes to reduce that number significantly, she said.
“This is launching us into a whole new set of abilities and opportunities,” McCauley said. “KVC says that kids can’t wait that long. We have to refine and improve much more quickly.”
This story was originally published June 1, 2015 at 10:47 AM with the headline "KVC in Olathe hopes to change the face of foster care."