Chestnut Health Systems has been an active participant in the Madison County Local Area Network #12, a network of local service providers and representatives of the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and schools. With two other service providers, Chestnut formed a Family Resource Alliance, which developed and supports a brief telephone counseling and referral service for families with children called the Family Resource Service. Aimed at reducing child abuse and neglect and related risk behaviors, the resource line serves as a single point of entry for at-risk families into an otherwise fragmented service delivery system. The ongoing objectives of the Family Resource Service are:

• to develop and maintain a comprehensive, centralized database of helpful services;
• to improve access to information and services that parents and families need to raise healthy children;
• to assist families and caregivers to identify needs and to accept responsibility for the healthy development of their children.
• to strive to reduce child abuse and neglect, and improve the well-being of children, and their caregivers, through targeting resources to effective strategies for prevention and early intervention.

Services that may be accessed through the project include: emergency assistance in the necessities of daily life, such as rent, food, clothing, and medical services; mental health and substance abuse treatment; rehabilitative and supportive services offered by child welfare providers; crisis intervention; respite care; recreational and other supervised activities for families and children.

For more information, please contact Chestnut at (618) 877-4420.