Denver Children's Home

Our overarching goal is for clients to realize increased mental health functioning. To accomplish this, Denver Children's Home will:
• Provide the most effective, but least restrictive treatment based on individual needs of each child;
• Prepare every student to find success in our complex society by providing an effective and differentiated educational experience;
• Progress children, even those with the most serious mental health disorders, through various levels of care and eventually return them home or to an alternative community-based setting;
• Offer a positive alternative to psychiatric hospitalization, combining intensive therapy, individualized academic support, and advanced drug treatments for biologically based mental illnesses;
• Help children take ownership of their treatment; understand their reactions and responses to life events, accept responsibility for their actions, control their behavior and develop coping mechanisms for difficulties beyond their control; and,
• Help families and caregivers gain access to support.

We offer a 24/7 on site Residential Program; a fully accredited and integrated school, The Bansbach Academy (accredited by Advanced Ed and the Colorado Department of Education); a Daytime Treatment Program; a transitional, semi-independent group home for adolescents ages 14 to 18 called Discovery Home and will add a second semi-independent residence, Inspire Home in early 2023; Community Based Services including an Intensive In-Home Program, and Outpatient Services that provides advocacy, and support-like referrals and Family Needs Assessments to clients being served in our other programs as well as community members at large; and an Assessment Program that offers resources for both children and adults who are interested in learning more about themselves and their current issues.

Denver Children's Home considers itself a learning organization. We view evaluation as a critical component of program management. The overall desired outcome for all programs is increased mental health functioning for our clients, and we measure this using an assessment tool called the Child And Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS). This tool is considered the gold standard for assessing a youth's day-to-day functioning across critical life subscales and for determining whether a youth's functioning improves over time. This is a newer tool for Denver Children's Home, and we continue to implementing it. First year results have been incredibly positive. We take baseline data for every new client and then re-assess at certain predetermined periods in a client's treatment. The CAFAS increases our confidence, as an agency and as providers, that we capture the complexity of our impact on children's safety, health and wellness. In addition, our electronic health records system, Bluestep, tracks clients' progress and overall response to interventions and programming. Bluestep captures demographics, treatment plans and progress toward goals, education plans and other interventions. We utilize daily behavioral tracking to monitor Residential and Day Treatment clients' progress on individualized treatment plans and targeted behaviors. We also monitor the use of low level interventions as well as suspensions and physical managements. Finally, we conduct discharge surveys to monitor our impact on the client and family over time, offer clients the opportunity to self-report their progress, and track the level of intervention needed post-treatment. We also measure successful discharges from treatment or decreases in the intensity of treatment that result in the child's ability to achieve goals in a less restrictive manner.

Major accomplishments include the following:

Residential clients each received one hour of individual therapy and one hour of family therapy (as possible and appropriate depending on custody circumstances) each week. They also participated in about three therapeutic groups each week including music or art therapy, yoga, ropes course, process and skill building group or animal-assisted therapeutic group (canine and equine).

Daytime Treatment clients received one hour of individual therapy and one hour of family therapy each week. If there was no viable family, the client received two hours of individual therapy.

All clients receive intensive case management and crisis management that involves the full systems around clients. The system may include the child, family members or guardians, case workers, CASA representatives (court appointed special advocate), GAL (Guardian ad Litem: a volunteer appointed by the court to protect the rights and advocate the best interests of a child involved in a court proceeding), private therapists and more.

Bansbach Academy provided each client with 32 hours of educational programming a week including six hours of Affective Education. Affective Education is a course for at-risk students that addresses their ability to identify, discuss and practice fourteen character traits: caring, cooperation, courage, goal setting, honesty, humanity, patience, perseverance, respect, responsibility, self-control, self-esteem, service, and integrity.

In addition to the facility-based services, we also provide community-based services including Intensive In-Home Therapy and programs based out of our Family Resource Center. In fiscal year 2023, we've achieved the following:
• 27 Family Needs Assessments were completed or are in progress for families in treatment at DCH

In the past year, we've grown as an organization. We added a new facilities consultant who has strengthened operations and we restructured key leadership and management roles to better support the programs. Denver Children's Home has also continued work on its strategic review of programs and corresponding space needs with an eye toward potential changes in our buildings and grounds.