Minnesota foster kids to get much-needed therapy under new state program

Hundreds of Minnesota children who have suffered the trauma of being removed from their birth parents, and are now living in foster care, could soon receive state-funded intensive psychotherapy services to give them safer, more stable lives.

Minnesota officials hope the mental health services, rolled out at a time of soaring foster care caseloads, will cut the persistently high number of children who cycle in and out of foster care placements without finding safe and permanent homes.

Until now, many of these children have gone years without receiving psychiatric treatment for their emotional problems, and end up in publicly funded group homes and treatment centers that cost the state Medicaid program millions of dollars, officials said.

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-foster-kids-to-get-much-needed-therapy-under-new-state-program/407687626/