Astor Services for Children & Families supports children and their families through a wide range of mental health and well-being programs for children of all ages. Offering care management, crisis response and intervention, early childhood education, school- and community-based mental health treatment, and therapeutic out-of-home placement in both foster homes and residential facilities, among other supports, Astor serves thousands of children and families in the Mid-Hudson Valley and the Bronx each year.
In 2021, the Dyson Foundation provided renewed funding to support the Dutchess County Enhanced Childhood Coordinated Services Initiative (ECCSI), which is a case management program for the families of children with complex health, mental health, social service, and educational needs. ECCSI staff, which includes a bilingual parent-infant educator to work specifically with families of young children, provide home visiting and case coordination. Using a child-centered, family-driven approach, staff directly support the child and family and coordinate services with other providers, where needed, to ensure all needs are met while preventing confusion and duplication. The program staff directly assist families but also work to remove systems-level barriers. In 2021, many families continued to experience increased stress, isolation, and financial need, making these supports as critical as ever.
At the onset of the pandemic, ECCSI and many other Astor staff continued to provide in-person support as much as possible, but also shifted to providing services virtually where necessary and effective – a flexible practice that has continued because it works well for some families. Astor had previously invested in staff training and infrastructure for telehealth, so was able to implement it quickly. However, many of Astor’s programs, such as residential treatment, could not by nature make such a shift and this presented long-term financial and human resource challenges due, in large part, to stagnant reimbursement rates from state funding sources. Astor’s leadership has taken an active stand in calling on funding and contracting agencies to better support the entire behavioral health sector so that it, in turn, can better support individuals, families, and communities.