R. Allison Modica, MSS, MLSP
Director of the Outcomes in Behavioral Health Project (OBH) at the Support Center for Child Advocates
Allison began her career working with children at the Devereux Foundation where she served special needs children and their families. Allison received dual Masters degrees from Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research in 2005. After graduation, Allison was a Project Associate at PMHCC-Best Practices Institute, where she worked as a consultant to the Department of Human Services. Her projects included program monitoring and evaluation of Treatment Foster Care and Congregate Care reform. Allison joined the staff of the Support Center for Child Advocates in 2007 as the Director of the Outcomes in Behavioral Health Project.
The OBH Project seeks to improve access to and participation in behavioral health treatment services for child victims of abuse and neglect, by developing relationships with clients and their families; advising staff; providing direct representation and advocacy practice; and designing multi-disciplinary training sessions for caregivers. The Project focuses on developing relationships with the children, family members and professionals responsible for their well-being, including kin, foster parents, Child Advocates Attorneys, private provider and county agency social workers, judges and others. The objective of the Project is to advance and reach the goal of expanding approaches to obtain appropriate and effective behavioral health services for this needy and chronically underserved population.
Under Allison’s supervision, direct service staff (i.e., Support Center for Child Advocates Social Workers and Staff Attorneys) and assigned Volunteer Attorneys directly engage each client child and their family caregivers through home and school visits, family contacts, and collateral professional contacts. Each child is represented in court by a team comprsed of a Volunteer Attorney and a Support Center for Child Advocates Social Worker, who strategically focuses on helping or moving the child’s caregivers to obtain treatment services.
In the training component of the Project, Allison instructs the caregivers of our own client children and similarly situated lay and professional caregivers who are serving hundreds of other children in the five-county area. The trainings include creation and presentation of curricula that are targeted for both professional and lay audiences.
Under the Project, every client child will be tracked in our computer-based Client Profile and Outcomes Database for a range of identified service needs, physical and behavioral health diagnoses, completion of health and psychosocial assessments, recommended services and completion of treatment and barriers to treatment. Allison is also co-developing an electronic evaluation program to receive audience feedback on our training programs, assess participant comprehension and retention and encourage use of the information in the ongoing care of the child.
For more information about the Outcomes in Behavioral Health Project, please feel free to contact Allison 267-546-9207 or amodica@advokid.org.
Written by Raymond L. McCullough, Esquire
Raymond L. McCullough, Esquire is a member of the Board of Directors of the Support Center for Child Advocates and a volunteer child advocate. He is also an employee of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
