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The Center for Emotional and Behavioral Health@IRM H — Parenting Education Group — IRC - CSAC Be PROGRAM NEED STATEMENT (Entire Section B not to exceed one page) 1 . a) What is the unacceptable condition requiring change ? b) Who has the need ? c) Where do they live ? d) Provide local, state, or national trend data, with reference source, that corroborates that this is an area of need. , Children diagnosed with psychiatric disorders or who have problematic behavioral problems do not always respond to conventional parenting approaches. Usually a more sophisticated parenting approach is required to better manage these children. These new parenting skills improve the behavior of the children and reduce the distress in the family. The Parenting Education Group provides this skill . This type of parenting group is lacking in Indian River County. According to a national survey titled Speaking of Kids ( 199 lb) reports that a majority of American adults, regardless of age, race, marital, or parental status believe that it is harder to be a parent today than it used to be (88 percent) and that parents today often are uncertain about what is the right thing to do in raising their children (86 percent) . Therefore based on this alarming statistic, parent education groups would be an asset for the parents of Indian River County. Furthermore, an estimated 12- 15 % of all children suffer mental disorders; approximately 10% have received treatment in the past year (National Commission on Children, 1991 a) . Nearly 500,000 American children now live in hospitals, detention facilities, and foster homes. That number is expected to climb to more than 840,000 by 1995 (House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, 1989) In the United States, approximately 1 . 3 million people are in the State and Federal prisons and 4 . 6 million people are under correctional supervision in the community. About 7% of all incarcerated people have serious mental illness, and a much higher percentage have less serious forms of mental illness. People with mental illness who come in contact with the criminal justice system are often poor, uninsured, disproportionately members of minority groups, homeless, and living with co-occurring substance abuse and mental disorders . They are likely to continually recycle through the mental health, substance abuse and criminal justice system. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2002), women are a dramatically growing presence in all parts of the criminal justice system . Current statistics reveal that women comprise 11 % of the total jail population, 6% of prison inmates, 22% of adult probationers , and 12% of parolees. Many women entering jails have been victims of violence and present multiple problems in addition to mental health and substance abuse disorders, including child-rearing and parenting difficulties, health problems, and histories of violence, sexual abuse, and trauma. Gender-specific services and gender-responsive programs are in increasing demand but are rarely present in correctional facilities designed for men. Early needs assessment, screening for mental and substance abuse disorders, and identification of other needs relating to self or family are critical to effectively plan treatment for incarcerated women. Indian River Countyj ail currently has 629 prisoners of which 540 or 86% are men and 85 or 14% are women. Of this, 187 men and 33 women are sentenced felons and misdemeanants. All these 220 people are sentenced anywhere from a month to 12 months and will be released into the community. These inmates awaiting re-entry programs, need to be equipped with necessary skills to lead productive lives as responsible citizens . Both men and women lack adequate parenting skills and problem solving and life skills . Providing parenting education classes addressing their unique needs will help these men and women become more positive role models for their children. This will enable us to be one step closer to violence prevention and youth violence prevention. a) Identify similar programs that are currently serving the needs of your targeted population; b) Explain how these existing programs are under-serving the targeted population of your program. Although there are other parenting groups in Indian River County, none offer the clinical expertise and education to parents of children that have psychiatric and/or behavior problems that we are aware of. No parenting classes are available for inmates now. 6