While we are proud of the medical and mental health services we currently offer to over 400 children and youth in foster care, our aim at Forestdale is to become a one-stop-shop for the youth we serve. Our Teen Health Clinic will answer the urgent need of our adolescent population that we undertake a public health initiative to provide sexuality and health education as well as diagnosis and treatment of STDs. 

Forestdale provides high quality primary care to every child who enters our foster care program. Each child or youth receives a comprehensive medical assessment from our consulting pediatrician or from our medical services director.  A mobile dental van visits twice weekly to ensure semiannual cleaning and dental exams. If a child needs more extensive or specialized treatment, Forestdale helps their foster parents locate a quality health care provider in the family’s neighborhood.

Forestdale also strives to offer intensive, individualized mental health care. We work with community-based mental health professionals who visit children and families in their homes to provide crisis intervention and continuing counseling. Our partners are committed to holistic healing and limited reliance on medication. Additionally, our psychiatrists and social workers are from the community and understand the need for culturally appropriate treatment that stresses the whole person.

Forestdale’s Teen Health Clinic will meet the urgent health needs of high-risk adolescents with top-quality, low-cost health care and education. We will build on a solid foundation, including a history of successful work, strong community collaborations, staff and clientele dedicated to our programs and the managerial excellence to carry a program from launch to maturity. Forestdale combines each of these components for this exciting project.

We will not take on the task of renovating and opening the facility unaided, however. Forestdale has received a $25,000 lead grant from the health care insurance provider UnitedHealthcare to help launch the clinic. Additional capacity building funds from private foundations are being actively solicited.

In addition to caring foster families, Forestdale needs volunteers to mentor youth and young parents, provide job opportunities and training in the community.  Due to recent NYC budget cuts, Forestdale now reaches out to our community to organize toy drives during the holiday season and clothing drives for children and youth throughout the year. We also need donations of gently used car seats, cribs and children’s furnishings .To find out more about how you can help, please contact the Director of Community Development at 718-263-0740 x219. Or E-mail: development@forestdaleinc.org

Jimmy Rahman personifies the great qualities of a community volunteer to Forestdale. Jimmy, who works for the New York Department of Corrections, dedicates his life to helping those around him. A Queens resident since birth, he has strong ties through his family to the Muslim community near Jamaica. In addition, his grandfather owned and operated a neighborhood halal butcher shop in Long Island City.  Since childhood, Jimmy has lived in Astoria and Jackson Heights, and he appreciates the rich fabric of diversity that connects all these Queens communities. Throughout his deep and active involvement in the community, Jimmy credits the Jamaica Rotary Club as a source of the wisdom he uses to keep perspective.

As a result of his parents’ divorce when he was five years old, Jimmy has a deep understanding of the importance of balance within a family. He subsequently has developed a passion for helping kids in similarly unstable situations. Membership in the Boy Scouts of America was a steadying force in Jimmy’s life. For him, being a Boy Scout hones the sensibilities necessary for a balanced, successful life: leadership, accountability and community. He achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, at which point, he says, “The commitment just begins.” Jimmy is still active in the organization, and worked on the business side of the Boy Scouts for five years.

It is through Boy Scout activities that Jimmy made his connection to Forestdale. While organizing his youth for recreational activities, he met Scott Leach, then in charge of the local Police Athletic League and a fellow Scout leader. The two men got to know and respect each other’s dedication to serving their community through these interactions. When Scott came to Forestdale, where he directs the Fatherhood Initiative, Jimmy asked what he could do to help.

Jimmy is instrumental in organizing a group of alumni of the Forestdale Fathering Initiative. Many of these alumni fathers returned with their children to the Forestdale Fathers’ Holiday Party held at the Queens Museum, where Jimmy organized his community contacts to donate a delicious buffet lunch and toys for every child.  During the program, many fathers echoed Jimmy’s pride in the rich diversity of our Queens community, when they performed traditional songs and dances and related holiday customs from their respective cultures.   He is currently planning a retreat for the group to Camp Alpine, a Boy Scout site in New Jersey.

In Scott’s words, “Jimmy has been a super volunteer to the program.  He is very dedicated to our mission of helping fathers.”  We deeply appreciate Jimmy Rahman’s desire to help “anyone who may be in need” and his commitment to Forestdale and our greater community.

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For an issue so controversial and significant, the prescription of psychotropic medications to children and youth has gone under the radar for far too long. Most people today are familiar with the skyrocketing trend in the 1990s to diagnose and treat children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and its relative, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). During that decade, the rate of diagnosis for ADHD increased nearly fourfold – as did the diagnosis of autism in children.  A study published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2005 indicated that the two diagnoses peaked at ages twelve and seven respectively.

Still another trend can be highlighted as the major current in child psychiatry for the 2000s: the diagnosis of bipolar disorder (formerly manic depression) in children. As the PBS investigative show Frontline documented in its January 2008 episode The Medicated Child, this trend was sparked by a published study that pointed out the overlap between symptoms of ADHD and bipolar disorder. Because the symptoms are so similar, the author posited, it is possible that many bipolar children have been misdiagnosed as ADHD cases.

The very fact that doctors jump from prescribing one drug to another or adding combinations of drugs (which in some cases can result in lethal mixes) illustrates that the nature of treating childhood mental illness is very much an experiment. This is reinforced by the rise and fall in popularity of certain diagnoses. The same 2005 study mentioned above offered as its conclusion the following explanation: “Increases in rates of diagnosis of etiologically unrelated mental disorders suggest that there have been changes in diagnostic practices over time, increases in community prevalence of these disorders, and increased likelihood of hospitalizations for different mental disorders.”

The lack of clarity in interpreting these trends is alarming. Yet the general inability of psychiatrists to pin down the illness suffered by a child is not reflected in a similar unwillingness to put children on medications – most of which were designed for and tested on adults, not kids.

This trend has extended to the realm of foster care and juvenile institutions where children are cared for because their parents are unable to.  A January 2010 report in New York Magazine detailed the reaction of Gladys Carrión, who directs the NY State Office of Children and Family Services, when she witnessed the treatment of young men at the Tryon Residential Center. As the story describes, ”Almost every resident here has a diagnosis, if not four or five: ADD, ADHD, bipolar illness, depression, PTSD, schizophrenia. ‘Who do we incarcerate in the state of NY? Kids with serious mental-health disorders,’ Carrión says. ‘I feel like I’m running a psychiatric hospital.’”

There is no easy solution to the influx of children into foster care and other group home settings. Our children are in pain and have experienced excessive trauma.  What is clear, however, is that medication is too quickly relied on as an expedient remedy before other treatment options – individual and family therapy, and development of a caring home environment – have been exhausted.

As leaders in the community and guardians of our children, it is incumbent upon us to protect and love our children. Medication must be a last resort.

Anstiss Agnew
Executive Director

The Fathering Initiative is a 12-week job training and parenting course that prepares noncustodial fathers to reclaim a role in their children’s lives. The program helps men step up to the challenges of fatherhood through intensive parenting classes, continuing and job preparedness education, as well as individual and group counseling. Funded largely by the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), the Fathering Initiative has served over 200 families each year since its launch in 1998. In 2009, the Fathering Initiative opened a satellite office on Hillside Avenue in the heart of Jamaica, Queens. Additionally, the program receives crucial corporate sponsorship from the Verizon Foundation, which is dedicated to preventing domestic violence through education, relief, and empowerment.

Tom Ryer dedicates his life to youth service with unrivalled passion. As a result of personal experience as a youth, he prides himself as serving as an example and teacher to those young people currently in difficult circumstances. Tom enjoys the opportunity for personal contact with his clients, and he immerses himself into his work as a result. For him, his life and his work are one and the same.

As the youngest of fourteen siblings, Tom brings a unique perspective to his work. He recounts that as a function of being at the bottom of such a heap, it took until age 35 for his identity to clarify. He says, “I was told, ‘You have potential. What are you doing here?’” At that point, he entered the ministry with the determination to help those youth in situations similar to his own.

His experience as the youngest of more than a dozen siblings is not the only personal memory Tom brings to his daily work as a youth counselor. “My father was always in and out, in and out” of his life, he tells. Thus, one of the points he most emphasizes at Forestdale is the importance of the mother-father relationship to a child’s growth. Without a solid relationship between the parents, a child lacks an example of how to stay grounded. Tom teaches that to be a better father, the most crucial step is to become a better person.

Tom strives to be “an example, an educator, a healer.” To that end, he is currently a candidate for a doctorate in education. With his degree, Tom plans to continue his work in youth service, bringing honesty, consistency and the courage to step out and deal with problems to the youth he reaches.

Mukoie Usungu entered the field of social work through the side door. Having worked as a high school science teacher for nearly a decade, Mukoie began to be drawn to the personal lives of his students. He found that of the students who were not performing well in school, there were many factors involved, but the common thread was dysfunction at home.

Mukoie’s desire to help families was ultimately behind his decision to leave education for social work. Like Tom, Mukoie work brings him closer to his past, as he lost his father before he was born. “I grew up fatherless, and want to turn it back around to impact somebody’s life,” he says. His goal is to give back to the community, as he has a deep sense of what the community meant for him as a child and continues to mean today. “Our mission is to help get fathers involved in their children’s lives, and that gets me back to my childhood.”

Mukoie acknowledges the misconceptions that exist regarding social work – that his goal is not to care for a family, but to destroy it. He explains, “Once they get into the program, [families] start to understand why ACS got involved in their lives, why the social worker does what he has to do. The bottom line is the safety of the child. Some say it’s a piece of cake, a quick fix.” He keeps all this in perspective, because at the end of the day, “It’s amazing to hear testimonies from clients who have been positively affected by social work.”

Ms. Davis began her visit by stressing the importance of self-identification. Knowing one’s own personality, she taught, would lead to a wiser career choice, and thus a happier, more productive adulthood. In an effort to familiarize the attendees with themselves, Ms. Davis handed each a PDA and directed a modified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. This abbreviated personality analysis offered each youth a glimpse into the qualities that make each one who he or she is, while simultaneously offering a chance to explore just how accurate their colleagues’ results were!

Continuing the program, Ms. Davis worked to expand the youth’s knowledge of available careers. As she pointed out, “Most kids say they want to work in a field they are familiar with, just because of the familiarity factor.” Thus, she introduced the teens to five fields of work in which no one had expressed desire to work, much to the interest and attention of the audience. Naturally, Ms. Davis’ presentation had a slant towards degree programs offered by her university, but the information presented was unconditionally worthwhile.

Further, Ms. Davis spoke about factors that motivate one for the pursuit of higher education – specifically, the long-term benefits of the investment in a college degree. Since affordability is an omnipresent issue, Ms. Davis provided helpful tips on how to afford college, such as navigating the sea of financial, aid grants and scholarships. Other important topics included how to choose the right school, based on factors like the degree sought and career mobility goals.

All in all, the Forestdale teens learned a good deal about themselves and how to prepare for making the most of their futures.

In the same spirit, Forestdale teens have taken it upon themselves to return good will to those in need. In late 2009, they seized the initiative to organize, promote and execute a drive for canned foods. Now, they are preparing a Bottled Water Drive to aid Haitians in need of clean drinking water. We are currently accepting donations of any amount of water. Complete cases are preferred, for ease of shipping, but we are happy to receive any possible donation. Please ensure that the bottles are unopened and labeled.

If you would like to donate, please contact Rick Furel in our Youth Development department at 718-263-0740 ext 251, or rfurel@forestdaleinc.org.

Thanks in advance for your consideration!