TRACES PARTICIPATING IN STATEWIDE COLLABORATIVE

Frontier Health is one of six statewide agencies selected to participate in the Tennessee Foster Care Collaborative to help write standards for therapeutic foster care. The agencies were selected by a panel of seven reviewers including staff from the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, Center of Excellence and an out of state consultant. The teams will come together in late August in Murfreesboro for a Standards Review and to evaluate processes used by existing therapeutic foster care programs in Tennessee. “We are having pre-team meetings to go through our standards and evaluate our own programs before we attend the collaborative,” said Kim Trantham, LCSW, Tennessee Division Director of Children’s Continuum Services for Frontier Health. “This is a great opportunity to be on the ground floor of setting standards for therapeutic foster care in Tennessee.” The collaborative will discuss barriers to achieving the established standards including recruitment, finance and sustainability, contracting measures, quality staff and supports for workers and foster parents.