New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 18 - DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES › Chapter II - Regulations of the Department of Social Services › Subchapter B - Public Assistance › Article 2 - Determination of Eligibility-Categorical › Part 361 - Case Management Activities For Pregnant And Parenting Adolescents › Section 361.9 - Comprehensive needs assessments; identifying goals, tasks and providers; personal plans

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a) Timing.
			 Within 90 calendar days from the date an eligible adolescent is referred to
			 case management staff for case management activities, the case manager must
			 provide the adolescent with the information and assistance necessary to ensure
			 that the adolescent understands which services and assistance providers exist
			 to help the adolescent to maintain and strengthen family life and to attain or
			 retain the capability for maximum self-support and personal independence so the
			 adolescent may make an informed choice regarding the services and assistance
			 providers to which he or she would like to be referred. The case manager also
			 must complete a comprehensive assessment of the adolescent's needs; identify
			 the short- and long-range goals the adolescent needs to achieve and the tasks
			 the adolescent needs to complete in order to maintain and strengthen family
			 life and to attain or retain the capability for maximum self-support and
			 personal independence, and the estimated time periods for achieving those goals
			 and completing those tasks; identify and inform the adolescent about the
			 services and assistance providers available to help the adolescent attain those
			 goals and complete those tasks; and develop a personal plan for the adolescent
			 to gain access to the services and assistance providers to which the adolescent
			 chooses to be referred.
(b)
			 Comprehensive needs assessment.
(1) The case
			 manager must complete a comprehensive assessment of the adolescent's strengths
			 and short- and long-term needs in each of the primary assessment areas set out
			 in paragraph (2) of this subdivision as they relate to the adolescent's ability
			 to maintain and strengthen family life and to attain or retain the capability
			 for maximum self-support and personal independence in order to ascertain what
			 services and assistance providers are available in the community to help the
			 adolescent meet his or her needs. The case manager must ask the adolescent to
			 provide the information needed to complete the comprehensive needs assessment
			 and, when and if appropriate considering the individual case circumstances,
			 seek to obtain, with the adolescent's or his/her authorized representative's
			 permission, needed information from other sources. The case manager may not
			 deem an adolescent's refusal to provide information needed to complete any
			 portion of the comprehensive needs assessment as a request by the adolescent to
			 have the case closed. However, the case manager must indicate in the
			 adolescent's case record the reasons such information was unavailable and must
			 pursue whatever other areas of assessment and planning are possible based on
			 the information provided by the adolescent or obtained from other sources. The
			 findings of the comprehensive needs assessment must be documented in the
			 adolescent's individual case record.
(2) Primary assessment areas.
(i) Basic maintenance. The case manager must
			 assess, at a minimum: the adolescent's progress in resolving the emergency
			 needs identified in the initial needs assessment and the actions necessary to
			 resolve the conditions which contributed to those emergency needs; the
			 adolescent's understanding of basic public assistance, food stamp, medical
			 assistance, child support, and housing assistance, as appropriate, and the
			 actions necessary to obtain and maintain entitlement to such assistance; and
			 any other factors relating to the adolescent's ability to obtain and maintain
			 the basic necessities of daily living for himself or herself and his or her
			 child(ren).
(ii) Basic educational
			 competence. The case manager must determine the adolescent's current
			 educational status, including the adolescent's current grade level or the last
			 grade the adolescent completed and the extent to which the adolescent is
			 performing at the expected grade level and if the adolescent has any special
			 educational needs or problems. When necessary, the case manager must attempt to
			 have the adolescent obtain, from appropriate educational professionals, a
			 formal assessment of the adolescent's educational capacities and needs. Special
			 emphasis must be placed on assessing how the adolescent's current educational
			 status and attitudes may affect the adolescent's vocational
			 aspirations.
(iii) Vocational
			 orientation. The case manager must assess the adolescent's vocational
			 aspirations and basic attitudes toward employment. Any special talents,
			 capabilities and competencies which the adolescent still must achieve before
			 his or her vocational aspirations can be fulfilled must be assessed. The case
			 manager must determine the adolescent's employment history, past vocational
			 experience, job-related training and vocational education.
(iv) Health maintenance. The case manager
			 must assess the adolescent's knowledge of, and attitudes toward, family
			 planning, parenting, sexual activities, and reproduction. The case manager also
			 must determine if the adolescent and/or his or her child(ren) potentially are
			 eligible for programs which may be needed to ensure the health of the
			 adolescent and/or his or her child(ren). The case manager must attempt to have
			 the adolescent obtain from a medical professional an assessment of the
			 adolescent's and his or her child(ren)'s general health, medical history and
			 any special health or medical needs relating to the adolescent's ability to
			 accomplish his or her goals, including any need for specialized medical
			 treatment of specific health problems. If the adolescent is pregnant, the case
			 manager must assess the extent to which the adolescent has followed through on
			 any initial referrals for needed medical services. The case manager also must
			 explore the adolescent's knowledge of basic health maintenance, including
			 personal health maintenance and nutrition; the prevention of sexually
			 transmitted and other diseases; and the types and timing of professional
			 preventive health care, such as immunizations and periodic checkups, needed to
			 protect the adolescent's and his or her child(ren)'s health.
(v) Informal support network. The case
			 manager must assess the extent to which the person with whom the adolescent has
			 intimate and continuous social contact and/or the parent of the adolescent's
			 child(ren) and the adolescent's family members and friends are capable of
			 providing, or required to provide, assistance, guidance and emotional support
			 to help the adolescent implement his or her personal plan. The case manager
			 also must assess any needs or problems such other individuals have which may
			 impede the adolescent's ability to attain his or her goals.
(vi) Personal capabilities. The case manager
			 must assess the adolescent's knowledge, maturity, skills, abilities and
			 weaknesses, and how these personal capabilities are likely to affect the
			 adolescent's ability to establish realistic goals and to follow through on the
			 tasks the adolescent needs to complete to maintain and strengthen family life
			 and to attain or retain the capability for maximum self-support and personal
			 independence. The case manager must determine the extent to which he or she
			 needs to supervise and monitor the adolescent's personal plan activities, and
			 determine if the adolescent needs any personal counseling services.