Family First

Family First: New York's Crisis Nursery

NEW YORK (CBS) ― If you have young children and feel you can't take care of them safely because you're overwhelmed, there's a crisis nursery that's helping families stay together.

Parents are able to leave their kids at the nursery for up to 21 days, while they get the help they need. Miriam Lox, LCSW, is the Diretcor of the Maria Lucadamo Crisis Nursery of The New York Founding.

Who does the crisis nursery help?

The Maria Lucadamo Crisis Nursery provides a safe haven for children when their parents when they are feeling overwhelmed and stressed and are in danger of neglecting or harming their children. The situations can include:

• Single parents who are need of medical, and psychiatric hospitalization and have no support system to care for their children at home

• Parents who are overwhelmed by sole parenting responsibilities due to inadequate parenting skills and environmental stressors such as homelessness, domestic violence and financial crisis.

Some of our parents need to be hospitalized because they are about to deliver another child, have medical concerns or are depressed and feeling suicidal and need to be seen and evaluated in an emergency room. Many of our parents are victims of domestic violence, where the children are witnesses to this violence. They are living in Domestic Violence shelters and need to look for more permanent housing.

Length of Stay: The children stay for a minimum of 24 hours to a maximum of 21 days. During a calendar year, their children can stay in respite for up to 49 days. We can also keep children in the nursery for up to 30 days when the parent needs substance abuse rehabilitation. The nursery admits children from birth to 10 years of age. We also admit siblings who are 12 years of age to keep the family together.

How does a parent contact the nursery and what's the process?

We have a 24 hour hotline that parents can call. The numbers are:

212-886-4000
212-472-8555
888-435-7553 (1-888-HELP-553)

Many social service agencies and hospitals know of the Crisis Nursery, so referrals are made by their social workers as well. When the parents call the Hotline, the Crisis Nursery social worker speaks to them about their current need to use the crisis nursery, and finds out information about their children in terms of any medical and behavorial problems, and any other resources and agencies that they are known to. If the call comes from an agency, the information is taken and then the parent is contacted before they come into the nursery. Some parents come for a tour to see the nursery before they make the decision to bring their children here.

Describe what the 21 days are like for the children.

After the decision is made to admit the child or children to the nursery, a time and date are arranged by the Crisis Nursery Social Worker. The parent is met in the lobby and the child/children are medically screened by nursing staff. The parent does not have to bring any clothes for the children as everything is provided here for them. The child care staff takes care of the children while the parent is seen by the social work staff in order to do a psychosocial assessment, risk assessment, and have the parents sign consent forms.

The following is a brief description of the children's schedule: The children wake up at 7:30, have breakfast, free play, snack time, story telling time. In nice weather, the child care staff takes the children to the park. After lunch, they prepare for nap time, and then have snacks, play games, color and do puzzles. They have dinner, watch TV, bathe, and prepare for bed.

You also help parents get the services they need.

While the children are in the nursery, the social work staff works with the parents to help resolve some of the problems/stressors that prompted them to seek the respite in the first place. There is an assessment of risk for harm to the children, crisis and supportive counseling, case coordination, information, and referral services, provision of information and counseling about parenting and other issues, advocacy, outreach and after-care services. Each social worker is assigned a family to provide follow-up services for three months. Because the parents develop a sense of trust with the staff at the nursery, they often call to speak with the social workers.

Is there a chance the child will be taken from the parent if they use the nursery?

ACS is one of several sources of referrals for the Crisis Nursery, however admission to the Crisis Nursery is voluntary. (i.e. If a family has involvement with ACS and ACS refers the family to the Crisis Nursery, the family can choose not to go.) Funding is from ACS. As a mandated reporter, The Foundling will report cases if there is evidence of abuse or the child is at risk of abuse or neglect.

Final thoughts?

Our goal is to keep the family together whenever possible. We teach parents to recognize when they are in crisis and in danger of harming/neglecting their children; we help them access the support they need; and we work with the family to ensure that the child

E-Mail comments to Cindy Hsu.

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