What is Enhanced Visitation?
Enhanced Visitation provides interactive, supervised visits to assist parents in improving their ability to meet their child’s needs through supportive, targeted, hands on skill building. The program utilizes a strengths-based approach by assisting parents in identifying those positive skills they do possess and building upon them.
How does Enhanced Visitation assist in the family reunification process?
Enhanced Visitation provides a system of increased visitation for families whose children have been placed in foster care. The program assists parents develop written goals to meet their children’s needs and on-site Visitation Specialists to encourage parents to build the skills necessary to meet those goals. The program offers visits at a neutral visitation location to help simulate a home environment where families can …show more content…
Initial visits occur as soon as possible following the staffing. A Visitation Specialist will work initially with the parents to provide directed intervention/coaching as need. Parents are guided through the process of identifying their children’s needs during pre-visit meetings, and then assisted in remaining focused on those needs throughout the visit. Parents can also learn to acknowledge how their own needs can interfere with meeting their child’s needs. Parents are encouraged to engage their children, asking questions to help facilitate dialogue and learn more about their children’s likes and dislikes.
During post-visit meetings, the parent(s) and Visitation Specialist review the visit, offering the parent feedback on their interaction with the child. Specific goals to work on during the next visit are determined and discussed. Periodic updates for the DHS case worker will be made available so as to ensure open communication between agencies and to better determine readiness to reunite families.
Where do the visits take