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Lifeway For Youth's Quality Management Lifeway For Youth was founded in March 1994 upon the foundational principles of quality, competence, and traditional family values in a progressive therapeutic foster care setting. Today, those foundational principles remain the same, and the essence of Quality at Lifeway For Youth proactively pervades everything we do. The job of quality assurance and improvement falls to no one individual or department, rather each staff member and foster parent is an integral part of this ongoing process, and a valuable partner in the success of Lifeway as a whole. The following is a list of current Quality Management measures in which Lifeway For Youth is actively involved with. Please keep in mind that while these activities will evolve and change regularly to reflect the process of change and growth experienced within Lifeway For Youth and the larger social service network in which it exits, the tenets for continuous quality and fidelity to the founding principles of Lifeway will never change. Continuous Quality Assurance: A. Regular weekly staff meetings in each regional office to discuss and share information pertaining to case planning and development, as well as agency news. B. Implementation of the CAFAS (Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale) in January of 2002, in order to do better case planning and coordinated treatment of children in care. C. Weekly peer review sessions for Case Managers to review case developments in detail, and present treatment dilemmas and changes, as reflected by the CAFAS ratings and treatment plan, for feedback from their peers. The sessions are facilitated by licensed professionals. D. Monthly Quality of Care Audits are completed by Case Managers on each of the foster homes they supervise, in order to help monitor and ensure compliance with the critical elements of foster care. This audit process also serves as the initial method of documenting and addressing concerns with foster parents, hopefully before they become problematic. E. Use of Letters of Concern and Corrective Action Plans in order to facilitate ease of use and promote improved communication, documentation, and accountability between Lifeway and their foster parents. F. Monthly Minimum Standard reports promote accountability of Case Managers to a minimum standard of contact with the children and homes they supervise. G. Monthly reviews of Monthly Status Reports from Case Managers, for each child on their caseload, in order to proof read and make changes before the reports are disseminated to members of the treatment team. H. Quarterly review and approval of CAFAS treatment plans and updates by licensed staff, before they are entered into the computer by the Case Managers, as well as proof read for grammar and content. |