Special Features / May 2008

A Special Woman Helping Special Children

Angie Hamilton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the last 18 years, Angela  “Angie” Hamilton, Senior Director of the Treatment Foster Care and Community Based Services in West Virginia and Virginia, has had a huge role to fill.   But, she does it with all the skill and care a special mother would give to her own children.  

In this issue, we wish to applaud Angie and her entire team in West Virginia for providing all the love, care and support they have for troubled children.  As Pressley Ridge celebrates Foster Care Month and we celebrate Mother’s Day, it is quite fitting to extend our grateful thanks and appreciation.

Pressley Ridge is a private non-profit organization that has been working with challenging children and families since 1832.  Pressley Ridge provides treatment services to these children and their families through effective programs that focus on all aspects of their lives.  Pressley Ridge provides services in nine states and in Hungary, Portugal and Ukraine.  Pressley Ridge offers four types of services:

• Treatment Foster Care:  A stable home with professionally trained foster parents.
• Residential Treatment Services:  Therapeutic placement outside the home setting.
• Community Based Services:  Individualized mental health services for children and families in their homes, schools and communities.
• Education Services:  Intensive, short-term education, with the ultimate goal of returning the student to the public school setting. 

“Our staff and professional treatment foster parents are well trained, supportively supervised and challenged daily to provide quality treatment for troubled children and when appropriate, to work effectively with biological families.  The children who are referred to Pressley Ridge have serious emotional and behavioral problems.  They are the most difficult children who are in need of intensive individualized treatment.”

 “Children are referred to us from the Department of Health and Human Services   These children may have suffered from abuse, neglect, or are having emotional and behavioral problems that are too intense for their families to handle alone without help.  Sometimes, children have to be taken out of the home environment due to these problems; however, when possible it is always the goal for Pressley Ridge to reunite children with their families.  If family reunification is not a possibility or in the best interest of the child, Pressley Ridge works with the treatment team to find permanency through adoption services, legal guardianship or independent living,” she added. 

“When children are referred for treatment foster care services, Pressley Ridge staff attempt to match children successfully with a treatment family who would work best with them based on their needs.  Pressley Ridge recruits treatment parents who will be able to provide a structured, stable living environment and provide needed treatment services.  Recruited treatment parents go through an extensive background check and must meet various criteria and regulations in addition to meeting intensive training requirements prior to being certified as a treatment foster parent.  Treatment Foster Parents are supported by professional staff, Treatment Coordinators, who provide direct services to children such as supportive counseling and behavior management.  Treatment Foster Parents must complete all initial training requirements to be certified as well as completion of an additional 24 hours of on going training per year to maintain certification.  Treatment Foster Parents must meet all state requirements as well as Pressley Ridge expectations to be certified,” she said.
Currently in West Virginia, Angie oversees the West Virginia offices located in Morgantown, Beckley, and Ona (near Huntington). 

“Probably the most important thing we do for children entering into treatment foster care is to attempt to match them with a family that is best able to meet their needs.   We look at the who ecology of the child when making this placement match.  We match based on individual needs of the child and the abilities of the treatment parents to meet their needs.  There is a lot of consideration that goes into making a placement match but we do it everyday and we are quite successful.  Normally, we are able to provide placement for a child within 24 hours.  We may receive 10-15 referrals per week and we attempt to place as many children as we can successfully matched to an appropriate treatment family,” she continued.

Children who are place at Pressley Ridge have a wide range of treatment issues such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, emotional, sexual and/or physical abuse/neglect, anxiety and depression.
Angie is a LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor) and a LSW (Licensed Social Worker).   Angie has always had an interest in working with children/adults with treatment issues and describes her career with Pressley Ridge as extremely rewarding. 

Angela Hamilton is the State Director of the Treatment Foster Care and Community Based Services in West Virginia and Virginia.  For more information on Pressley Ridge, please visit www.pressleyridge.org.

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