Safe at Home Program Keeps 100 Kids in Communities

So far, 100 West Virginia children who were bound for institutionalization have instead remained in families and communities across the state.

The Gazette-Mail reports those results are due to a program with a singular goal in mind — keeping children safe at home.

Started last Oct. 1, Safe at Home West Virginia is a program of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

The initiative was launched last October in Boone, Cabell, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, Putnam, Wayne, Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties.

DHHR Secretary Karen Bowling says the federally-funded program uses dollars previously used to reimburse inpatient placements and redirects them to community-based wraparound services. It’s a big shift from the funding model that West Virginia and other states had been beholden to for years.