As a family resource specialist Shana Bush is among those who appreciate the Family Impact Team (FIT) initiated by the Director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Elizabeth Hertel. And she told her so Wednesday during the director’s visit to Macomb County. “We have heard excellent feedback from the families that have been referred to (us),” said Bush.
Before the initiative was launched over the summer many families felt no one was listening, no one understood what they were going through, or that they were being treated unfairly by the DHHS. “This has aided in removing any past frustration that they might have felt,” Bush said of the initiative created to assist families within the Child Welfare System including Child Protective Services and Foster Care with the help and financial support needed to recover from crisis situations. Hertel said many families that come to the attention of the child protection system need help with providing their children with housing, food, healthcare coverage, quality childcare and other necessities so that they can be safe and healthy.
In that past they would have to navigate the system on their own to find the help. Now they are contacted by a family resource specialist who coordinates the resources they need through FIT so their families can stay together safely. “I am so pleased by what I’ve been hearing so far,” Hertel said of the program following a tour of the DHHS offices in Clinton Township.
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