FEATURE STORY FEBRUARY 2015 - OFFICE OF CLIENT ADVOCACY, FOSTER CARE OMBUDSMAN

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Kathryn Brewer
Advocate General
Office of Client Advocacy

Kathryn: Director Lake specifically requested that there be a Foster Care Ombudsman, and really it's a wonderful fit with the Office of Client Advocacy. What we do is provide advocacy services for children and adults with developmental disabilities. We address consumer complaints. We conduct investigations of foster parent retaliation or foster parent harassment. We also do investigations in facilities involving juveniles. So, it's really a natural fit for what we do. 

So we began the process of trying to figure out how would we create this position that didn't already exist. Around the same time that we were having this conversation, the legislature began having a separate dialogue about some of the same concerns that we were all discussing as an agency. A bill was passed that created a complaint line jointly with the Office of Client Advocacy and the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth. 

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Lisa Buck
Foster Care Ombudsman

Lisa Buck: My standard line is I may not always get you the answers that you want to hear because we do have certain policies and laws that we have to abide within, but I will get them an answer. I will get them an answer in a timely fashion because this new state statute requires that we open and close within 60 days. So, we're on a very tight timeline of getting resolution. So, they will get a call back. They will get an answer. It will be a correct answer, and they'll know what their options are.  

Kathryn: I think one of the key issues not only with the Foster Care Ombudsman, but with the Office of Client Advocacy is that we really are a neutral, independent body. I report directly to Director Lake, and one of the reasons for the creation of this position in this office in that way was to be able to report back to the Director if there were concerns. So, we really are independent. We're a neutral entity. We have lots of responsibilities in terms of investigations that require us to be independent. 

Lisa: We're trying to funnel everything through an online form, and it can be found at www.okfosterparentvoices.org. When you log onto that, you just fill out a brief form as to what your issues are and what your concerns are. That form is a shared partnership between the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth and the Office of Client Advocacy. That's a joint process, and then it comes over to our department. 

Our intake staff reviews it, and they have two days to get back to the complainant. They let them know that we've received it, ask them any questions for clarification, and try to get some more information from them. Then, they determine where it's going to be dispositioned. So, it either goes into like one of basically three categories. It's either a complaint and those things are: "I'm not getting my money," or "I'm not getting mileage reimbursement," or "I have a question about paperwork and documentation," - any of the general complaint-type issues. We sort through those first. 

Then, we have the grievances, and grievances are any violation of the Foster Parent Bill of Rights. The Foster Parent Bill of Rights is an established state statute. One of the things that I learned as a foster parent is that many of us don't get those. We don't even know that we have rights. And so, on that website, the okfosterparentvoices.org, the first link that they come to is your rights as a foster parent. So, any violation of those - and the very first one on that is that you will be treated with dignity and respect and treated as a professional part of the team. That's critical. That's really... if we can accomplish that first one, if we accomplish number one, we will alleviate a lot of problems with our foster families. 

Kathryn: What we really are trying to ensure people's voices are heard and trying to connect people to the right resources. So, if someone has a complaint or a problem, we may not directly be able to assist them, but we can sure get them where they need to go. Certainly one of the things I think with the agency that's always been difficult with an agency this size - if you don't know who to call or where to go with your complaint or concern, it can be very daunting. So, that's really one of the important components of what we've tried to do to is make this whole process a lot easier. 

Lisa: The third category, as we look at this, are any retaliation, discrimination, or harassment occurring? If any of those things are occurring in the complaint or report, we send it over to our investigation division, and we do a full investigation on it. 

Kathryn: So what Lisa's position is doing and what our changes with respect to the grievance procedure are doing is ensuring that there is one person kind of making sure that there's appropriate follow through and that an issue is followed from the beginning to the end. With an agency this size, it's very difficult when you're dealing with multi-layers of people that may have touched a case or may have been involved - this really ensures that there's one person who the foster parent can go to, who the people in the local offices - the District Directors, the Regional Directors - know that this is the person that you contact about these issues. That not only provides more responsiveness to the foster parents, but it gives more responsiveness to the agency, as well - that issues are going to be addressed. Hopefully, our goal is that if these issues are addressed early on, if there's a lack of communication and we identify it and resolve it, that it's going to create a better system for everyone, particularly for the children and families that we serve. 

Lisa: The great thing about this is that we're tracking all of this data that we have coming in. We have to report it back to the legislature. We're required by law to report back once a year, but my position is that we're going to report it quarterly. We're going to report it quarterly not only to the legislature, but to the Child Welfare team. 

Kathryn: So, really part of our job is just to mediate, to be a neutral party to try to figure out what we can do to resolve people's problems and Lisa's absolutely 100% the perfect person for that. 

Lisa: The whole while in eight and nine years that we've become engrained in foster care and the plight of foster children, and bio families in our state - the whole time that was going on in our personal life, the last ten years I've been a professional advocate. So, I've worked for a national pharmaceutical company, and I've worked for the National Alliance on Mental Illness both in advocacy roles. So, I was moving in the professional advocacy arena already, and then, this is the combination of my professional life mixing in with the passion of my personal life. 

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Office of Client Advocacy
Foster Care Ombudsman