Therapeutic Garden Gets Grant

The now one-year-old Nimick Family Therapeutic Garden at the Children’s Institute in Squirrel Hill has picked up some additional support to add hands-on programs. The bulk of a $30,000 grant from the Kennametal Foundation will be used to fund programs where kids learn how to care for plants in the garden.

“As we use the foundation as the lead to establish this relationship with the institution, tat will allow our employees to in turn come back every year or every month and be involved as volunteers,“ said Kennametal CEO Carlos Cardoso.

The fully accessible 10,000-square-foot garden is open to the children in the neighborhood as well as the Institute’s clients. Cardoso says the garden has achieved its goal of creating a place of serenity where everyone can relax and feel good.

Child Welfare Workers in PA Graded A-F

A national social workers’ advocacy group has given a mixed bag of grades to Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. The study by the National Association of Social Workers looked at the education levels of child welfare workers. Overall More than 80% of caseworkers in the state meet the standards set by the Council on Accreditation even though the state has a much lower standard. The council looks for a bachelor degree in human services but Pennsylvania calls for just 12 hours of college level social service credits. Jenna Mehnert is with the executive director of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. She says eight counties, including Butler and Lebanon, have received ‘A’ grades because all social workers in those areas have bachelor degrees in human services. Meantime seven counties, including Mifflin, Somerset, and Wayne, got failing grades with about 70% of caseworkers holding human services degrees. “We are a county-based child welfare system, which means each county can set their own standards. Counties like Philadelphia have a standard of a college degree, but other counties don't,” says Mehnert. She is advocating for increased education standards for social workers.

SIDS Education Bill Passes House and Senate

A bill that requires hospitals and nurse midwives to educate new parents on SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) has been approved by the Pennsylvania House and Senate. The bill, which is expected to be signed by Governor Ed Rendell this week, will force hospitals not currently providing new parents with SIDS education to do so.

Introduced by State Representative Lawrence Curry (D)- Montgomery/Philadelphia the bill only needs to be signed by the Governor before taking effect.

Nilima Karamchandani, Chief of the Division of Neonatalogy at West Penn Hospital, says that most hospitals already offer SIDS education but without a law there is no way of making sure that every hospital does..... "I think the nurses are being educated and the hospital personnel are already aware, they just need it formalized so it is done consistently." She also said that education varies from hospital to hospital and more requirements on what parents are told could save more lives.

Karamchandani says that some of the most frequent mistakes by parents that may contribute to SIDS death are laying infants on their stomachs, letting them sleep in a crib with a thick comforter or stuffed animals, and parents sleeping in the same bed with the child. She also said that parents can sleep in the same room as infants but not in the same bed. According to the Department of Public Health, in 2008, 85 infants in Pennsylvania died of SIDS or accidental suffocation compared to 93 in 2007. 51% of those deaths deemed "sleep related" involved the infant sleeping with others.

Retreat for Teens Transitioning from Foster Care

This year and every year, about 1,000 young people across Pennsylvania "age out" of the foster care system.
150 foster youth ages 16 to 21 are in Johnstown this week for a retreat to help them transition more smoothly to adulthood. The retreat is at the Pitt Johnstown campus and is intended to motivate participants to pursue higher education. The event is hosted by the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, which oversees foster care in the state, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. Wendy Unger of the School for Social Work says it features educational sessions, group discussions and social activities..."we hope they come away with a sense of determination, that education is important...and being in foster care doesn't define you, you define who you are."
Unger says that youth aging out of the foster system need resources beyond age 21..."so we do a lot of support of permanent connections from the time they come into foster care to make sure they don't age out without the resources for someone to help them transition into successful adulthood."
Unger says young people in non-foster homes need support and nowadays most aren't leaving their parents' homes till they're 26. So, she says, it's important for their counterparts in foster homes to have support and resources to help them deal with their struggles with everything from auto insurance to health insurance to employment to where they're going to live.

Under state law, youth leave the foster system at age 18, or at 21 if they are in treatment or in post-secondary education. There are about 20,000 youth in foster care in Pennsylvania, about half of them are more than 14 years old.