Cody Adams talks with Dr. Jeb Teichman with United Healthcare and Patricia Tennen with Kentucky Youth Advocates about the foster care population in Kentucky.
C1 3 kentucky youth advocates.
Thank you both so much for being here.
Appreciate it.
Tell me about this program, what this is and the partnership that you guys have together.
Dr. jeb teichman: thank you for hosting us.
In kentucky, we have a big problem with our foster care population.
We have over, at any time period during the year, over 25,000 children in the state enter the foster care system.
Cody: wow.
Dr. jeb teichman: and they have very unique health and behavioral health needs.
We partnered with kentucky youth advocates to sponsor kids count conversations throughout the state to identify... to allow communities to identify problems within their community and to find solutions.
Cody: how important is this,patricia?
Because i know that sometimes these kids in the foster system don't have that advocate that other children might have, and that's where you guys play an important role.
Patricia tennen: right.
And we think one of the most important roles is to measure it.
So we know that what gets measured gets changed.
And so we've been using that kids count project where we have the data on the children who are in foster care by county.
And so, with united healthcare we had conversations where we pulled together folks from across different arenas, whether it's social workers, with educators, with pastors,emergency responders, to think about what role they played in helping wraparound supports and families in their community so they could stay together safely.
So we prevent kids from having to go into foster care in the first place.
Cody: this is such a great initiative.
How did this partnership kind of come together?
Dr. jeb teichman: at united healthcare, we're all about helping people live healthier lives.
When we come into a community,we look for partners in that community to come together and form a partnership to identify issues and find solutions.
And that's how our relationship with kentucky youth advocates started, among other community agencies that we work with.
Cody: how can people help?
Patricia tennen: well, one thing you can do,anyone can consider being a foster parent.
They can think about... reach out to the other folks in your community and pay attention to the data.
Check out how many kids are in foster care in my county, who's working on this?
Pull together a group.
What could we do to prevent the need for kids to go out of home care in the first place?
Cody: if people want more information,how can they find it?
Dr. jeb teichman: go to uhccommunityplan.com.
Cody: thank you both so much for being here.
I really appreciate it.
Patricia tennen: thank you.
Cody Adams talks with Dr. Laura Hieronymus from UK Healthcare and Whitney Allen with United Healthcare Community Plan of Kentucky...