A youth at The Chase Home, Megan, had experienced significant trauma when she was the one to find her mom after she had died by suicide. Megan and her siblings were put into residential placement care following their mother’s death because they did not have any family to house and support them. Megan was initially placed in a higher-level residential treatment center, but not long after was relocated to The Chase Home.
At The Chase Home, with support from staff, Megan began the process of looking for a long-term foster care placement with the goal of adoption. A match was made with a family, but due to behavioral and mental health incidents, the placement did not work out and Megan returned to Chase Home.
Megan worked hard to form relationships with Chase Home staff and find comfort and stability in Chase Home’s care. Unfortunately, Megan herself began to experience suicidal ideation and was hospitalized twice following instances of self-harm. Chase Home staff wrapped support around Megan following these incidents, and the in-house Mental Health Clinician at The Chase Home began to play a vital role in stabilizing and supporting her emotional and behavioral health.
Since beginning to work with the Clinician, Megan’s self-harm and suicidal ideation has decreased significantly. She has done much better in school and is considering getting a job in the community. Megan’s main focus now is to stay well, strive for her treatment goals, and keep in contact with her siblings while they are in foster care.
Due to lack of trauma informed training and resources for foster care placements, Megan still continues to look for a family that will be perfect for her. In the meantime, she finds The Chase Home to be her safe home and the staff to be her loving family.
Megan is not the only young person that has been positively impacted by the program enhancements of our in-house Clinical care at The Chase Home. Since hiring an in-house Clinician in Fiscal Year 25, self-injury behaviors dropped from 55 incidents in FY24 to 21 incidents in FY25. Suicidal ideation also fell from 16 cases in FY24 to just 5 reports in FY25. This new role has allowed us to provide immediate therapeutic intervention, trauma-informed care, and coordinated treatment planning within 48 hours of intake—a stark contrast to the 3–4 month wait youth previously experienced when therapy was outsourced.
Maintaining low critical incidences of mental and behavioral health and improving wellness across youth remains a central goal. Our focus on early intervention, staff training, strong communication, and partnerships across treatment teams has laid the groundwork for a safer and more responsive environment. In the year ahead, we are committed to building on this progress and further equipping staff and youth with the tools needed to reduce crisis incidents and promote long-term healing so that youth, like Megan, can thrive and achieve permanency in a stable loving family environment.
*While names and specific details have been changed to protect the identities, Megan’s story is very real for many youths we are seeing in our residential program.