Mental Health Support in the Texas Panhandle with McHur Care

Matt Darrah (00:01.582)

Hello and welcome to All Things Foster, a place for coffee, connection, and community. Today's episode is sponsored by The Stretching Place. Foster parents and caregivers give so much of themselves every single day, but who's taking care of you? At The Stretching Place, we believe taking care of others starts with taking care of yourself. That's why we offer customized, professional, assisted stretching sessions designed to help you release stress, ease muscle tension,

and feel your best so you can keep showing up strong for the kids who count on you. Ready to feel the difference? Visit thestretchingplace.com to learn more. The Stretching Place. Loosen up, literally. So today's episode is, we've got a couple folks on from McChur, how do I say that? McChur Healthcare? McChur Care. So we've got Tippie and Sydney.

And they're going to talk to us today about mental health, behavioral health, and some of the urgent needs kids in foster and adoptive care are and kind of the services they provide. they do have locations in Amarillo, Lubbock, Plainview, and Dumas. And their heart is to serve families and their trauma-informed approach. So I'll tell you personally, my kids, and the

the things that they've gone through, they need the behavioral health stuff. And so you guys provide some of that support. tell us a little bit about McHur Care and how did it come to the panhandle Yeah, so we started this opportunity or business early October of 24. And we have an ownership group of a couple of us that

just have a big experience in building businesses and so it kind of came across our desk unexpectedly and I like to call it a little bit of a God wink of you know something that you didn't necessarily think you needed when you saw it initially and then it kind of has come to something that's really exciting and a really really cool opportunity for all of us and so we've come in and I guess we opened our first location early this year and we are expanding rapidly but we

Matt Darrah (02:27.853)

Since we've opened this, we've found that there's such a huge need and a huge gap of service for foster families and just families in general that their children need these services. We serve all age ranges, technically. Our kind of target audience age range is three to 17. Not, like I said, we kind of can serve anybody, but that's kind of where we feel the biggest gap is and the biggest need is.

somewhere where we can come in and make a big difference. If we can help these children now, then give them the resources and the opportunity to really become successful in their future. But yeah, we're, like you said, Lubbock, Plainview, Amarillo, Dumas, and then we're starting to expand in the central Texas area as well. So have really big plans to make a really, really big impact in Texas and hopefully fill the gap between the need for this behavioral and mental health.

Services and the you know the families that need it. So that's kind of we're working on now is filling that gap well, I know that you know kiddos need a counselor or something and and and there is there's a kind of a shortage around here of the the counselors that are that really understand Kiddos from trauma and so though, you know, they'll be on a waitlist, you know three six months or whatever and it's like I don't need it in three to six months. I need it now

A lot of these needs are urgent needs. And unfortunately, like you said, a lot of people have wait lists or they only accept certain things or it takes the approval process is a long time. we are hoping, obviously, we don't know until we get started. And we, like I said, just kind of got started. But we're hoping to really manage that need and be able to provide services without having that crazy wait list. Because I think that's important. If someone's in a

severe crisis need, they can't wait three months, three months might be too late. So I'm really hoping to manage that demand level there. Yeah. So Tippie, how did you get into this? Long story. Yeah. I used to work in corporate America for the hotel business. And at one point I decided I'm tired of not making a difference in the world. So I went to work, took a line level position from being a manager with the IDD population.

Matt Darrah (04:51.455)

Loved it. Had a wonderful mentor and decided this was what was for me. So I went back to school, got my degrees, and started with the IDD population. When I moved to Texas, I became involved with the child welfare system and it just broke my heart to see all of these kids out there who just needed someone to care. And then, you know, there are so many children in the foster care system.

Every day there's a half a million children being served across the nation. And Texas is number three on the list of the amount of children being served. So there's a huge need. And the need for foster families is enormous. Since the privatization occurred with DFPS in the state, they've lost over 600 beds, which is 600 kids who are now living in either a shelter

or an RTC type situation or a GRO because there aren't enough foster families. The last numbers that I saw from the state in our half of region one was that we needed about 100 beds and where do we find those? And so what ends up happening is it's kind of like just wherever they can go. So.

you know, the statistics that I pulled off the state's website is that 20, 22 % of kids removed in region one actually stay just in the county that they're from. So, I mean, they very well could be from Potter County to Randall County or whatever, but they also could be, you know, coming from Plainview and going to Houston or Dallas or whatever. And then those, and then there's kids from Houston that are coming here.

It's just there's just nowhere near enough foster families. so there's definitely a big need for that. And any child who comes into care in Region 1, because we don't have but one RTC within the whole region, and that's down at Flyer, down in Lubbock area, they're sent to Houston or Dallas or San Antonio.

Matt Darrah (07:12.897)

where the mental health facilities are. Up here we have the Pavilion, who is not an ideal setting for our children because they take emergency mental health cases only. And so all of these children are not only being sent to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, a lot of them are being sent out of state. And that has a devastating effect on their recovery process. Every time a child is moved while in the care,

their chances of being successful in life reduces exponentially. And so you have a lot of children who age out of care and become another statistic for the jail system or become homeless. Yeah, I don't know if you guys are familiar with Fostering Independence, but Amber has this organization, Amber White, and they provide

housing and case management for girls that are aging out. And so I had her on the podcast a few weeks ago and she talked about this. Well, Jaslyn came on the episode and Jaslyn at one point she was 20, she was pregnant, she was in Lubbock and she was homeless and had absolutely nobody. And she, I mean, she was on the phone trying to figure out where am I going to where am I going to live? How am I going to raise this baby? Right. And so

Amber came along and was able to scoop her up and get her taken care of and have the baby and do all the things. And now she's a junior board member for their organization. But that happens every day. I mean, kids, know, the research that I've read shows that every major move is a six month behavioral regression. so, you know, when

and Jaslyn had, she didn't know for sure, but she came into care at 14, she aged out at 18. She said she had had between 50 and 60 placements. Her high school, just her freshman year in high school, she had six high schools. It's not uncommon. No, no, and that's just, like you said, it's devastating. And so, I mean, my goodness, we are not doing a good job with these kids. I we're just not.

Matt Darrah (09:34.168)

There's not enough folks that are willing to open their hearts in their homes to provide a safe and stable, loving place for these kiddos. Yeah. And I think having the resources to do that is probably a big reason why a lot of people aren't able to do that or don't want to become foster parents, because there's no support for the mental and behavioral health of these children in this area. And so that's why we're hoping to be able step in and fill some of that gap so these kids can stay at home.

or in their home community where they have connections. They have an education center base instead of being sent down to Houston where, and let's face it, in RTCs, kids learn all kinds of new of habits. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they become institutionalized. Yes, absolutely. And then they age out and then they're... Repeat the cycle. Yeah. Yeah. So what's...

different about you guys versus some other mental health thing. Like you said, the Pavilion is an emergency only. We had to utilize that last summer. I get it. It's there. It's for crisis. what do y'all do to prevent that? How are you guys serving families? Our goal is to go into the home and work with the child in that home.

where the triggers may exist to deal with them transitioning. Because every time a child is removed, it's another traumatic event. trauma is accumulative. so every time that child has a failed placement, the odds of him succeeding become lower and lower and lower. And so we like to go in and we provide targeted case management, which is finding the needs that this child has and being sure that they're met.

whether that's housing for the family, if it's a pediatrician who understands the disability this child has, whatever that child needs, we help locate those resources for them. We also provide one-on-one skills training in the home with the child, teaching that child how to understand the emotions that they have, understand the mental illness that they may be experiencing, or to help them cope with the...

Matt Darrah (12:01.559)

feelings from being removed from their parents. Those are big emotions. And when you're four years old or five years old, you don't have the skills to be able to deal with that. And so our job as a QMHP is to go in and work one-on-one with that child so that they gain that understanding and learn how to manage themselves. We also provide medication management training for the child and help them make their voice heard.

if they're old enough to be able to make decisions about their medications, they need to learn how to advocate for themselves. And so we teach those skills as well. And then of course, we're available for children on our caseloads who are in crisis. And if the child is having suicidal ideation and needs some immediate assistance, we can respond to that for them.

Yeah, and to add on to kind of what Tippi was saying, I think it's important to kind of note how we, like you said, kind of are different from other organizations, because I do think there are some resources around the Panhandle that do come in and provide similar services to what we're doing. But I think that our approach and our model is to come in and be super, super, super intentional with that child and with that family. So to kind of...

bridge the gap between that foster parent potentially or their, you know, whoever their guardian is and that child and figure out what their needs are and how we can help that parent, parent or that guardian parent that child. So you do, you work with the kids, but you also work with the parents. Yeah, so we're kind of able to, obviously we're mainly focused on that child. But I think that a lot of the skills that we're teaching these children and helping these children, you know, emotionally and things,

if they're going home and the parent is or guardian is, you know, doing something to totally contradict what we're teaching, then that just, you know, is not beneficial to anybody. And so if we can come in and say, hey, you know, our licensed practitioner saw that this is was the case, this is the treatment plan that we've put in place based on their assessments. This is what we think that they need. These are the goals that I think that they need to meet. Basically, are you?

Matt Darrah (14:16.703)

do you approve of this? So there's an actual sign-off process there so that we can make sure and fill the gap of the need with the parent too because a lot of these children that we've started seeing are really young and they don't know what they need, right? These parents are seeing that this is the need. how can we create goals with that parent and the child making sure that everyone's needs are met there? And then I think another important part of what we're doing different than a lot of other organizations is the consistency.

we're able to see these children depending on what their actual need is, one to five hours a week. And so, you know, lot of that's just not something that is available right now. So we're seeing these kids, you know, potentially three times a week for an hour and a half at a time, an hour at a time. And then also on top of that, able to provide that targeted case management like Tippi said, and make sure that we're communicating what was going on in the session with that parent if necessary, talking to their teachers, talking to

their support system of how can we help prevent, you know, hopefully crisis mode with these children and come in and just be that child's advocate a little bit. You know, like she said, kind of if they're not old enough to say what they need, kind of help them show what they need or if they are old enough to tell people what they need to make sure that their voice is being heard. the consistency there I think is really important. It definitely is. Yeah. Yeah. mean, we talk about it.

a lot where kids need, they need structure, they need routine, they need consistent assistance and help. that really is beneficial. So talk to us a little bit about why, I mean we touched on it, but from your background, what does being put somewhere else do?

I mean, can you kind of dig into that for us for the kids to be, you know, moved out of the region, out of the state, whatever. What does that, how does that impact them? Okay. If you think about it, if you were to get a new job yourself and you up and moved across the country, you leave behind all of your friends, all of your family, maybe the school or the places that you go, your church.

Matt Darrah (16:39.989)

your connections to anybody and everything and that is stripped away from you. And so these children are sent down to let's say Houston to an RTC because they're having some mental health issues that require extensive care. They're down there, they have none of their personal belongings, just you know what they could carry in a suitcase. They don't know anyone there. They have a brand new therapist who doesn't know them.

Nobody knows their history or their background. They're just there and have to start all over again. Well, every time they move, they have to repeat that process. And so we get what we call institutional trauma. And every time they have to restart it, that kid regresses into themselves and doesn't want to go through that because that's painful to relive the reason why you're in the foster care system.

is painful, especially if it's something like sexual abuse or emotional abuse. Those things can be devastating in themselves. And then when you're having to talk about it with just kids your own age again, over and over, they're reliving that trauma every time they move. And they get a new therapist, and they get new staff, and they have to make new friends. And then they go to a new school. And maybe they're used to going to school and say Plainview.

and now they're in Houston and they're going to a school that now has 8,000 kids in it. I mean, I can imagine how insignificant that would make me feel and how small. And having nobody there who understands at all what I've been through. I tell folks it's kind of like dropping you off in the middle of the Amazon jungle naked. mean, just, nothing's familiar, nothing's similar. You don't know anybody, you don't, you don't, it's just...

It's just everything is stripped away. The kicker to that is these children don't usually have the normal coping skills for children their age because they have experienced significant emotional neglect. And so they haven't developed those skills for their age. And so that even makes more of a burden for them. And it becomes their responsibility and not the parents responsibility. It becomes their responsibility to be successful.

Matt Darrah (19:00.181)

And that's a lot to put on a kid. Life is hard enough whenever you're not in those circumstances, right? It's hard enough when you have a loving family and a support system. So whenever these children are five, six, seven, know, 15 years old, whatever it is, who are going through that, like you said before we started this, know, 15 times in a year, how could anybody be successful in that situation? know, much less functioning.

human that can handle their own emotions because they can't. I have two young children and I know how difficult it is to parent them who are in loving home.

And so I can't imagine being a foster parent that is taking in this child who has gone through that amount of trauma with zero resources, no help, no understanding. We've even found through some of our assessments that a lot of these foster parents don't even know the background of their children because there's no files on them, right? So it's like, well, we think this was the case or we've put two and two together and it's...

that child, if they're six, seven years old, they don't know what their birth mom went through and they don't know even why some of their situation or some of their needs are what they are because they don't even know what happened to them two years ago. And so it's devastating. And I think if we can come in and help fill that gap and help these children feel supported and heard, kind of be that constant for them and really build that relationship. And then also on the other end of that, be there to support these foster

and help them understand like we are here to help, what can we do to help you? I don't think they're probably asked that very much, but I think that's where we're really gonna be able to make a huge difference in this type of.

Matt Darrah (20:44.097)

this community, I guess. Yeah, the study that I looked at said that between half and two thirds of foster families quit within the first year because they don't feel supported. They've got nobody to lean on and they're just trying to slug through it themselves and they're new to it and they have no idea what in the world's going on and we just don't know what to do and we can't figure out a way to get help and so we just stop.

Yeah, you know the unfortunate thing is we can't love the trauma out of kids. Yeah, we have to treat. Yeah

the underlying cause of their behavior. know, no kid wakes up one morning and goes, I'm going to be dysfunctional today. You know, that doesn't happen. So we need to be asking the children not what's wrong with you, but what happened to I read that book. It's amazing though, the concept of that in our society. That's how we look at people is what's wrong with you. When as we don't look at the causation, which is what this position that I do does, we go in and

and we analyze the behavior. And we look for those things like triggers. Because every behavior is communicating something. There's a need that's not being met, or it's communicating an emotion that the child doesn't know how to express. Are you familiar with Robbyn Gobble She's got a podcast called The Baffling Behavior Show. She wrote a book.

called Raising Kids with Big Baffling Behaviors. So she studied with Dr. Perry and follows all of those goods. And we actually, every parent, when we do a placement package, every parent gets a copy of this book, and that's what she talks about. Every behavior makes sense, we just have to figure out why. We have to figure out what in the world's going on, because, you know.

Matt Darrah (22:43.325)

something happened to trigger that, to cause that, and so now we have to figure out why and how do we...

give that kiddo some coping skills to move past it and deal with the traumas and stuff like that. but the parents aren't trained, the foster parents aren't trained to know what those triggers mean, right? There's a gap in knowledge there and that's not to their fault. It's just if you don't know until you know until you do the research and you know, in today's world, everyone is so busy and everyone has so much going on that it's hard to spend ton of time, you know, training yourself and educating yourself to be able to support these kids. And I think that's, again, kind of

the gap that we can personally fill with those parents is we're trained in those things. I'm not the clinical side is. Which is why we're hiring people like her. But they can come in and help with their background and their knowledge and our LPCs can come in and with their counseling experience and kind of just guide them to help this child as much as possible. So walk us through what support

looks like when I'm a foster parent and I'm overwhelmed and I try to reach out to you guys. So what is it? How does that work? What happens? Yeah. So essentially we have a website that has an intake form. So very basic. If you think that your child or

you know, someone that you know may need our services, just if you'll guide them to our website, it's just Mchur, M-C-H-U-R dot care, C-A-R-E, on there, it's just, you just request a consultation. And so, very basic information goes into that form.

Matt Darrah (24:23.405)

One of our office administrators depending on the closest location to you would be Will contact you and schedule an initial assessment with our licensed practitioner. So That licensed practitioner is going to go through and well a little back up a little bit our admin will do some insurance verification and things like that make sure that we can support that child's needs and then the licensed practitioner will come in and do It's called a biopsychosocial assessment with with that parent or that guardian. So they're asking a lot of questions

about their background, what behaviors are they having, what is their current situation, what school are they in, you know, what...

triggers are they seeing, what emotions are they feeling, whatever that may be. And then they're actually going and doing an assessment after that once they're off the phone with the family. And that assessment's gonna tell us what level of care that child needs. Meaning how many hours a week basically we are approved to provide service for that family. And then they're creating a treatment plan and then they will give that file over to one of our QMHPs like Tippy. Tippy will go through or that QMHP will go through and

review all of those assessments, review all of those, you know, notes, anything that may be beneficial to their treatment. And then they're contacting the parents or the guardian and scheduling a time to meet with the client or the child and that guardian to go over that treatment plan with them. Like, hey, this is what our licensed practitioner saw. This is what the treatment plan we came up with. Do you agree with this? Are you okay with this? Do you approve of it? If so, we'll get a signature at that point and then we will actually schedule consistent

So we can go to schools, we can go to their home, we can go to after-school care. We had a client that we met at the park across the street from their house the other day. We want to make that child feel as comfortable as possible. They've already been moved around so much, we don't want to make them come into a clinical room that is white walls and scary. We want them to feel as comfortable as possible and we want to be able to kind of,

Matt Darrah (26:32.303)

see what's going on with that child too. If it's in their home, we can kind of figure out if there's maybe something at that home that's causing triggers. Or if there's siblings involved, maybe one of the siblings is causing triggers. Or just kind of get the best picture that we can possibly get with that child and then at that point, like I said, see them consistently. So we might see them twice a week for an hour, hour and a half, whether that's in school or at the home.

they're going to stay with that case manager, which is that QMHP, as long as they're in service, unless there's some crazy need to adjust QMHPs, we want to keep that consistent. And then, you know, if we see the need to contact the parent or to let the parent know what's going on, or if the parent wants an update or something like that, we can contact them after the session, let them know, you know, we're really making progress on this specific goal. You know, I'm not maybe connecting with this child. Do you see anything that I'm not seeing type thing?

And then they can also contact the teachers, they can contact their providers, their pediatrician, whatever that may be, and kind of just help assist making this treatment as targeted and specific to that child as possible. Right. Just for folks that may be listening that don't know, what is QMHP? Do you want to talk about that? Qualified Mental Health Professional. OK. So our background.

can be varied, but it has to be in a mental health type setting to where we've dealt one-on-one with children before, for example, being a DFPS caseworker or a degree, an advanced degree in a helping profession. Then we have to go through a training process to do specific.

training skills, we need to become certified to do things like the CANS assessment, which is the majority of the assessments used for children is the CANS, unless it's the ASQSE for children under three. So it's very intense. I think my first two weeks with McHur, I probably spent 60 hours a week in training.

Matt Darrah (28:38.837)

comprehensive and still more coming. It's still more coming. But it's an ever evolving type position. mean, as we learn new things about mental health, and especially with the new crisis coming up with how children are responding to the meth epidemic and being exposed to that as young children or in vitro, we're learning all kinds of new things about how children's behavioral and mental health is affected by their environment. And so we keep up

constantly with what's new in the research field and what's the new best practices to use. Constantly looking for those tools. Yeah, yeah, you know, we know like this much of really brain development, right? They used to say, you know,

By the time you're 18, you're done. Your personality is what it's going to be and it's fixed. And then we learn that neuroplasticity is a thing. But then there's genetic predisposition, but that doesn't mean that you're automatically or whatever. And this is one we talk about a lot. A lot of people will say, mean, there's just a baby They don't remember that. Well, OK. They might not be able to.

speak about it, but that book, Your Body Keeps Score, right? I mean, we're just learning so stinking much, know, constantly. And so, yeah, staying on top of what the newest, latest, greatest research is and how to really help. I mean, it's vastly different.

I mean, just the last few years, we realized that a child exposed in utero to domestic violence has actually impacted by those levels of fight or flight, hormones from the mother. Those fear hormones that our body sends those electrical signals affect that developing baby's brain. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Are you familiar with Karyn Purvis from... She wrote the book Connected Child.

Matt Darrah (30:52.317)

No, I'm not. Okay, so she passed a couple years ago, she and Dr. Cross developed TBRI, Trust-Based Relational Intervention. so, you know, she would talk about how important like this is, the face-to-face with the mama or the dad. And a lot of times, even a 15-year-old doing this helps build those neural pathways so that

you know, because like I said, they're not a blank slate. You know, just because they were removed at the hospital and go straight to the home doesn't mean that...

you know, it's a fresh, clean slate and you can kind of build on whatever. mean, there's long-term impacts. Well, and especially if their first year needs were neglected, that has a more profound effect on a child than physical abuse. You know, the studies in Romania when they studied all the orphanages and how those children reacted, I mean, they found children who their brain size was 10 % smaller than children who received

at least once contact a day with the human being. The children who didn't, their brains were smaller, their IQs were lower, their development was behind, and they had a difficult time making any kind of connection or form a relationship. Yeah, that's what Karyn talks about in her book, that she went over to an orphanage in China, and you walk into this room with 20, 30 cribs, 20, 30 babies, and it is deathly silent

silent because the kids learn, when I cry nobody comes so I stop crying. Well, they still have to manage those emotions somehow even at a newborn or six months. And so they don't develop that ability to connect with other folks. so, mean, so, you know, it's really important to stay on top of the research because we're learning so much.

Matt Darrah (33:02.835)

so much every day. what would you say to a foster parent who feels overwhelmed right now? You're not alone. You are not alone and we're here to help. I mean they need to know that there are organizations out there such as yours.

There's the Amarillo Area Foster Adopt Coalition that care about them and care about what they do and realize that their job is so hard. But without that job, the children now don't have a future, you know, without their love and they are so important. And so just to validate that what they do has meaning. And let them know that we're here to help.

Yeah, it's funny, I was editing the podcast from last week and the person I was interviewing said the exact same thing, you are not alone. And like I said a little while ago, foster families will quit because they don't feel that support. And so it is just important to know that, no, you're not alone. There are folks around that are going to...

they're going to help if you just find them and reach out. And that's purpose of this podcast is to connect foster and adoptive families with resources that are here to help. So I think we talked about it a little bit, but just how does someone connect with McChur? Yeah, just reach out. We're on Google.

Google McChur Care, Texas Care. And I'll put the link in the show notes too. That'd be great. And then also just our website. Our website's really good. There's a lot of information about what types of...

Matt Darrah (34:47.431)

know, disabilities or what types of needs we treat. Because obviously we do have a limit of what we can treat. We're not necessarily licensed for some super severe things, but we can definitely give you a referral to somebody who is if that's something that we can't treat. But yeah, just our website has a lot of information and has our intake form there. even if you don't know if your child needs it, fill out an intake form. We'd love to chat, see if it's something that we can help with. We have a couple of licensed practitioners on staff that also were available.

to help if there's need. Whatever we can do to help, we would love to help. And the start of that would be just filling out that intake form so that we can kind of get some information and figure out what their situation is and if it's something that we're able to do. Do you guys do like family counseling?

So we can, we are obviously new to this. we do not have the available hours for our licensed practitioner because our QMHPs are not allowed to provide actual counseling because they are not licensed counselors. But we do have licensed counselors on staff. We are hoping that that's something that we're able to provide very soon as actual family counseling. But we can provide the family case management. So our QMHPs, like I said, cannot provide counseling, but can go in there and figure out what their issues are, you know, where there's

gaps that need to be filled where the support is needed and then we can either refer out to a family counselor or at least provide individualized care to support that family. Hopefully in the near future though. On the business side that's a goal to be able to provide. Right, it's hard to find that kind of stuff, that kind of support. So the folks that do it are booked. Three months out.

That's something, a huge gap that I just don't think I was fully aware of until I dove into this work is that there's such a need. We're not gonna have an issue with the demand, right? On a business side, there's so much demand, but we need to find the correct people to provide the service. You are ready to love on those children and be the support system for those children.

Matt Darrah (36:55.573)

And so, being able to manage caseloads for our qualified mental health professionals is important to us.

so that they're able to provide the level of care that we're wanting for those children. Obviously our number one goal in this business is to be able to provide a certain level of care, the highest care possible and taking care of our QMHPs is important. But it's crazy that there's so many wait lists. We've had people that just can't be seen or they're in a crisis situation and there's nowhere for them to go. And so our goal is to obviously make sure that we can kind of manage that demand and make sure that we have, we're not just throwing people in there to take care of people because there is demand, but making sure that we have the right people, the trained people

people that's really important to us. Yeah. So what gives you guys hope? I think seeing from me. So I'm from business real estate background and this is all pretty new to me and I have been super.

taken back, like I said, by just the demand that's there and the lack of availability for care. But I think that for us as an organization, have being privately owned, we have the ability to really make a big difference and to be able to expand across state of Texas and expand with really, really good intentions. We're not doing this just to run a business to make money. We're doing this because we want to make a difference. We want to be able to support these families and support these children so that they can be successful in the future. It absolutely breaks my heart to hear

that someone can be transferred out of state, you know, I can't even imagine being in that situation or imagine my children being in that situation and, you know, even though we are only so big, I think we can make a really big difference. Texas is huge, but we're ready to kind of do what we can do to make our part. Yeah. Tippi, what about you? What gives you hope? I think...

Matt Darrah (38:40.353)

The smile of that kid that you connect with, when you actually make that connection and they realize that you're someone who cares and someone they can trust, there's no feeling like that. And the same way with a foster parent who's been struggling and downbeaten and they see you and you can just see that relief on them that they're not alone. I think that is what drives me.

when you feel seen, and again, this goes back to the episode that I recorded last week, that when you feel seen, it just makes an impact on who you are. so, you know, I told the story last week, I did a placement package a couple weeks ago for this little girl. She was five and she loves Barbie. And so she needed sheets for her bed.

And so I went and got her some Barbie sheets and she just, I mean, she was over the moon over just some sheets. know, it was just, and so when folks feel seen and supported, everybody's, everybody's better. And so again, that's part of the reason for the podcast is to connect and help folks know that they're not, they're not alone. Right. So.

We talked about your website. Thank you guys for coming and sharing. Is there anything that we didn't cover that you want to cover or anything like that?

I don't think so. think it's important to thank you too for doing what you're doing. I think that there's such a need and being able to come in and fill that need in the way that you're filling it is wonderful. And I think that if we can all do our part in making this a better situation for all these families, then I don't see how we can't be successful in teaching these children that there is a reason for that they're here. There's a reason that these people love them and want to help them.

Matt Darrah (40:41.983)

Supporting people and doing anything we can do to make that a better transition for these kids and these families I think is important. So thank you for what you do also. I appreciate that I do so again I'll put the I'll put the link to their website in the in the show notes and Share this episode like it Follow us. We drop our episodes Tuesday mornings at 10

And we've got lots and lots of great episodes that have been out. We've got a gal that fostered and adopted that's going to be on the podcast next week. And so just continue to listen and I hope that you feel seen and connected. I know we're not sitting right in front of you and can't give you a hug, but we are here. We do care about you. And there are a lot of folks in this community that do care and that do value you and the kids. And so

So if you need help, if your kiddo is going through something, we didn't mention how to pay. Okay, so what does that look like?

for this situation with foster children, all foster children are actually on a Medicaid plan and we accept Medicaid. So if we can verify their insurance and their Medicaid policy, it's actually zero dollars out of pocket to the family, which is a very huge blessing. So really it's a very, very simple process. Like I said, the admin will take that lead in and take some insurance verification from them, make sure everything checks out, and then really they're good to go at that point. So no payment needed for foster families.

families who adopted through the state through CPS those children remain on Medicaid till they're 21 and so if they've been adopted and consummated and you need help we can be there. Okay all right good as it is important to know how to pay and how much it costs. So anyways thank you guys so much for listening. Just a reminder we

Matt Darrah (42:44.077)

We lost that DOGE funding. And so we are looking for placement package partners. Maybe it's $100 a month. Maybe you can buy all the clothes for one placement package. Or maybe you can spend $50 a month and help us buy a case of diapers once a month. And if you can't do that, then $10 a month just helps us buy one outfit a month. We've done 45 placement packages so far this year.

But the reality is, that's a fraction, right? There's about 600 kids come into care in our half of the region, the 26 counties a year. And so we've got a long ways to go in order to get to where every kiddo gets a placement package. And that's our end goal is every kid coming into care in the 26 counties gets a placement package. And so please consider becoming a placement package partner.

And again, like, share the episode, follow us, subscribe, all the things. And thank you again, Marla from The Stretching Place. Marla, I've got some hip problems and they have been super, it's been super great to get that assisted stretching. So check them out. They'll have a link to them in the show notes as well. Thanks and have a great day. Thank you all for coming. Thank you.