Sometimes, families face tremendous challenges that are difficult to overcome unless they have support from caring professionals. Too often, families don’t know where to turn or who to ask for help. KVC West Virginia provides a path toward hope and healing through family preservation services, crisis management, in-home therapy and skill-building, and connecting family needs with community resources.

Family preservation services are designed to help families going through crisis and prevent children from having to enter foster care. Separating children from their family due to safety concerns is a traumatic experience that can have physical and mental health repercussions for years. Oftentimes, children don’t need to be removed from the home when parents are provided with empowering services and support from healthcare professionals.

Click here to learn how you can join the KVC team and offer empowering support that keeps families together!

Types of Preservation Services

Services may include drug treatment, parent training, counseling, or behavior management.

• Education and enabling services – This area focuses on improving and empowering parents, often through one-on-one assistance with a therapist or through informal support groups. Focus areas can include financial planning, communication skills, problem-solving skills or conflict management skills.
• Therapeutic services – This can focus on short-term, family-centered services, such as crisis intervention. Long-term services are also available, which can include family counseling, marriage counseling, substance use counseling or mediation.
• Concrete services – Sometimes families struggle maintaining basic needs. To help, family preservation workers can help with housekeeping, transport family members, provide food and financial assistance or connect families with local resources.

Click here for more information on the types of preservation services.

What preservation services does KVC West Virginia provide?

Our family preservation services help strengthen families and keep children safely at home rather than exiting into foster care. We offer two different types of preservation services including in-home family services and child, family and adult mental health outpatient therapy. These services are designed to:

• Help families remain safely together.
• Divert children from being placed in foster care or a residential treatment center.
• Assist in the reunification of children from out-of-home placement.
• Improve family relationships.

All families experience tough times. Whether they are related to substance abuse, trauma, physical or mental illness, or behavioral problems, these challenges can be difficult for a family to overcome on their own and can impact a family’s ability to stay safely together. The primary goal of KVC’s preservation services is to keep children safely in their family’s home.

What is child, family and adult mental health therapy?

Using trauma-informed treatment approaches, KVC therapists provide high-quality mental healthcare to children, families and adults. To eliminate barriers that may prevent clients from receiving treatment, we provide therapy services in a variety of locations including clients’ homes, children’s schools, our offices or virtually via telehealth. These services are designed to help children and adults process trauma, resolve conflicts and address behavioral and mental health related issues so they can meet their full potential at home, school and work.

KVC’s therapy services give children, families and adults the tools needed to maintain healthy, stable relationships. Services are child-centered, family-driven and strength-based. We serve clients equally, without regard to race, color or national origin. KVC’s child, family and adult mental health therapy services are also known as Medically-Necessary services.

KVC provides these services to children and adults who have Medicaid and meet APS Healthcare and Medicaid criteria for medical necessity. We serve nearly every West Virginia county. Contact one of our offices to check if you’re eligible to receive these services and learn about therapist availability in your area.

What are in-home family services?

In-home family services, also called Socially-Necessary or ASO services, are interventions designed to help parents and caregivers resolve common problems and crises that may impact their family’s ability to thrive. These services aim to improve relationships and social functioning while preserving a family’s ability to stay safely together. We work with children and families in their own homes, where services are most effective and convenient.

We provide the following types of supports:

• CAPS Assessment
• Family Crisis Response
• Generalized Parenting
• Home Maker
• Individualized Parenting
• Pre-Reunification Support
• Safety Services
• Step-by-Step Parenting Program®
• Supervised Visitation I (One)
• Supervised Visitation II (Two)
• Transportation

KVC accepts referrals for in-home family services solely through the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. Only clients of Child Protective Services or Youth Services are eligible to receive these services. DHHR employees may contact their local KVC office to make a referral.