Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs
General Questions
MonmouthCares is a nonprofit organization that is responsible for face-to-face care management and comprehensive service planning for youth and their families with complex needs. We follow the Wraparound evidence-based model in delivering care management services in the community, which include but are not limited to, comprehensive assessment, Individual Service Plan design and implementation, advocacy, and family support, monitoring, and information management. MonmouthCares is also responsible for local community resource development.
During our normal business hours of 9 a.m.- 5 p.m., you can reach our staff by calling our main office at 732-222-8008.
If you are an enrolled youth or family or are working with one of our enrolled families, you can reach us outside of our normal business hours at 732-222-8008 or 1-877-454-2805.
It is the practice of MonmouthCares to help each family create a family crisis plan at the initial visit. This plan, which is a safety plan, is reviewed and updated as needed. This plan helps a family identify and respond to situations before they become unsafe.
MonmouthCares’ Care Management is available to all families that live in Monmouth County and meet the eligibility requirements set forth by the New Jersey Children’s System of Care.
MonmouthCares serves under the age of 21. To be eligible for services, youth must manifest moderate to severe emotional or mental health challenges consistent with a DSM5/ICD 10 diagnosis. MonmouthCares also serves youth with developmental disabilities and/or substance use. Our care management services are delivered in the community. Our hours of office operation are Monday – Friday 9 am to 5 pm. However, MonmouthCares provides after-hours access to emergency management 24/7 365 days a year.
The care management services you receive are meant to only exist until your family is on its way to achieving your vision. Beginning with the first meeting, you and your Child and Family Team (CFT) will start planning for transition. That process continues at every Child and Family Team meeting. By the time transition happens, your family will have been connected to several community supports such as the warm line available through Family Based Services: (732) 542-4502.
Our Process
Wraparound is a planning process that follows a series of steps to help children and their families realize their hopes and dreams. The wraparound process also helps make sure children and youth grow up in their homes and communities. It is a planning process that brings people together from different parts of the whole family’s life. With help from one or more facilitators, people from the family’s life work together, coordinate their activities, and blend their perspectives of the family’s situation.
Wraparound is a family-driven, team-based process for planning and implementing services and supports for youth with complex needs.
Together, we are focused on your child and centered on your family.
Together, we respect the family culture, family values, preferences, and abilities.
Together, we build your team based on your family strengths and needs using people and connections to support you in the community.
As part of this planning process, you are assigned a Care Manager who will be responsible for working directly with your family. Your Care Manager will meet with you and your child to learn how they can help.
Your MonmouthCares Care Manager will:
Listen to find out what you are experiencing and what you really need to make life better for your family, and help you create your family VISION.
Plan with you to create an Individual Service Plan (ISP) based on the strengths, needs, abilities, and preferences you and your family identify.
Your Vision – Your Goals. . .
Your care manager will ask you to prepare your thoughts about your Vision and help you write a positive Vision statement to guide your plan over the next months of working together:
- How do you wish things to be in the future for you and your family?
- What will life be like when things get better?
- This is YOUR Vision, and it is a vision for the entire family.
Your Abilities, and Preferences. . .
Your Care Manager wants to learn about you and your family, to help plan with you and build your Child and Family Team to achieve your Vision. Help us learn about your family:
- What makes you happy?
- What do you celebrate?
- Who you are?
- What inspires you?
- What are you good at doing?
- How do you want to be contacted?
- Who shares in your life?
- How do you like to be addressed?
Your Strengths and Needs…
To help figure out the best way to move forward, your care manager will have a conversation with you, using the Strengths and Needs Assessment (SNA) Tool.
The Strengths and Needs Assessment is a comprehensive communication tool to determine the strengths, needs, abilities, and preferences that you and your family currently have.
The SNA tool is used to:
- Direct your Wraparound planning process, so the most important needs are being worked on.
- Guide your team in determining the appropriate level of care management.
- Monitor the outcomes and progress of the Team Process.
- Ensure your family is receiving the right kind of care, delivered in the right way.
There are many ways to meet your needs!
The first step is honesty – Wraparound works best when your Care Manager has the information they need to help guide the planning process, so your family can be successful. Such as:
- Your strengths, abilities, and preferences
- Your family traditions and cultural values
- Your history of treatment and services in the past
- Areas of concern and worry that you’d like to work on
We work to offer families a choice in the providers. Should you have any preference in receiving services with a particular cultural or ethnic orientation, please feel free to bring this to the attention of your Care Manager.
If your child or a family member is in need of an interpreter, please ask your Care Manager to coordinate this service for you.
If you or a family member is disabled, MonmouthCares will work to accommodate your needs to the best of our ability.
MonmouthCares uses providers from many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
MonmouthCares is dedicated to helping children, young adults & families live their lives to the fullest. Our goal is to keep the youth of Monmouth County at home, in school, and out of trouble.
Care Management is delivered through face-to-face engagement with the family minimally on a monthly basis. Phone contact is maintained at least weekly or as needed. Individual service planning, after the initial 30-day plan, occurs every 90 days. Care managers collaborate and communicate with system partners/child family team members including school, probation, and clinical supports (psychiatrist, therapist, behavioral assistant, outpatient mental health providers).
Referrals are generated through a variety of ways. All referrals are generated through PerformCare, a Contracted System Administrator. A family can request a biopsychosocial assessment from a licensed clinician who will determine if the youth’s needs rise to a CMO referral. Mobile Response and Stabilization services can document the need for a CMO level of care for families they are working with. Substance use providers and outpatient mental health clinics, as well as Children’s Crisis Intervention and Inpatient Services (CCIS) can make a referral to PerformCare for CMO level of care.
PerformCare
PerformCare New Jersey is the Contracted System Administrator (CSA) for the State of New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families, Children’s System of Care (CSOC). PerformCare is the single point of access to a wide array of behavioral health, intellectual and developmental disability services as well as substance use treatment for youth and families throughout New Jersey.
There is no charge for calling PerformCare. The services we recommend are authorized without regard to income, private health insurance, or eligibility for Medicaid/NJ FamilyCare or other health benefits programs. When your child is registered for services at PerformCare, you will be asked to provide details about your insurance coverage.
All community referrals to MonmouthCares must start with a call to PerformCare at 1-877-652-7624 to access services. 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. In case of emergency, call 911.
When a caregiver refers their child to the System of Care, a clinical professional goes to the child’s home and meets with the child and the family to complete an assessment. The assessment determines which level of care the child and family can receive.
Children’s Mobile Response and Stabilization services are designed to help stabilize a child’s placement in their living arrangements.
The least intensive level of care provides access to specialized services that are managed by the Contracted System Administrator in consultation with the parent and the clinical provider. Services are intended to be short-term and help families move forward through a difficult period.
Moderate and intense care is provided through the Care Management Organization (CMO) in each county. Care Managers help families create Child and Family Teams that are led by the parent and the child with the help and guidance of the Care Manager. The Child and Family Team helps the child and the family create strategies to resolve the challenges they face. Strategies and supports to be used are determined in the Child and Family Team meetings, which occur regularly. The Care Manager helps facilitate the Child and Family Team process until the team is able to move forward and handle the challenges they face without guidance from the Care Manager. The Care Management Organization works on a need-based timeline.
LGBTQ+
Yes! We collaborate closely with Your Authentic Self (YAS), Teen – Monmouth, a social group for LGBTQ teens. Please visit this page for more information
Youth Timebanking
Youth TimeBanking (YTB), an innovative approach linked to the wraparound model to foster community connections and informal supports that are reflective of the informed choice of the child/youth served and his/her parent(s)/legal guardian, if applicable. The plan is based on the child’s/youth’s strengths, needs, abilities, and preferences and specific service objectives that are reflective of the voice and choice of the child/youth and family served and the service team. As the model is strengths-based, plans are individualized and responsive to the person’s disabilities/disorders or concerns.
Family Handbook
Every family enrolled in MonmouthCares receives a copy of our Family Guide to Wraparound which details who we are and explains our Wraparound process. See Family Handbook »
More resources
Contact MonmonthCares
Don’t know where to start? That’s okay, we can help.
We would be happy to assist you throught the whole process.
Give us a call or fill out our contact form for assistance.
