The idea of providing foster care may be an exciting thought for some, but may bring about feelings of nervousness and discomfort for others.  Nexus-PATH Family Healing foster parent, Mike Romans, and social worker, Megan Bjone, put those feelings to ease through sharing their stories and experiences in building families through foster care on the podcast, JJ Meets World.

Sport fishing is the lifeblood of the Mille Lacs Lake area in Minnesota where one of our youth residential treatment facilities, Nexus-Mille Lacs calls home. The simple joys of fishing are apparent – fresh air, the simple beauty of nature, the thrill of “fish on,” and a little peace and quiet to name a few.  But what about some of the deeper benefits that the sport of fishing has to offer?  Things like relationship building, the importance of self-care – allowing one’s mind and body the opportunity to relax and develop positive coping techniques.  Spending time in nature can reduce stress and anxiety and elevate your mood.

Nexus Family Healing, a national nonprofit organization providing emotional, behavioral, and mental health services to children and families, has named Jarrell J. McRae as Executive Director of their Baltimore agency, Nexus-Woodbourne Family Healing.

In this role, McRae will provide leadership and oversee operations of Nexus-Woodbourne’s residential treatment, vocational school, and treatment foster care programs. He will continue the organization’s goals to establish long-term positive outcomes for families by further establishing trauma sensitive care that focuses on the needs of each individual child.

Our first instinct as adults is to protect children from information that contains violence, depicts the suffering of others or is deemed as “too difficult to understand.” While this is true when the information serves no purpose, when the information is fake (like TV shows and movies) or when it doesn’t have applicable meaning, you do not want to shield children from difficult conversations when they are already being exposed to real-life situations. Under these circumstances, children need to discuss life events so they can appropriately make sense out of what is happening.

This has been a very difficult week in Minneapolis and across our communities. We are deeply saddened and upset by the death of George Floyd. At Nexus Family Healing, we place a high value on diversity and compassion. We work hard to see and respect every individual we serve and recognize the trauma they have endured. Empathy and understanding are at the heart of who we are and the work we do every day. That is why the events of this week, at a time when so many are already suffering, are so painful to observe.

There are many different ways we have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. One area of life that has drastically changed is how we celebrate or recognize meaningful life events. Special events like graduation, religious ceremonies, weddings, prom, anniversaries, baby showers, funerals, etc. are important rituals that mark the end of a developmental milestone while ushering in a different, future life stage. It is for this reason that it is quite normal for people to feel a great sense of loss and grief about having traditional ways of practicing significant rituals so disrupted, and in most cases, entirely cancelled.

Paul and Cara are Nexus-PATH foster parents. They provided informal care to two children prior to becoming foster care licensed in 2013. 

Have you ever wondered if your child is struggling with mental health? How does a parent know the difference between a child’s regular personality and a mental health issue that should be addressed? It is challenging to know the difference between a personality trait and a mental health issue because a child is still growing and developing. How personality traits and mental health symptoms manifest will both vary from year to year because a child is not done changing.

There are many myths about becoming foster parents that people believe to be true. Some of these myths may even stop an amazing potential foster family from inquiring because they do not believe they would qualify. We are here today to debunk what tend to be the top five myths of foster care and set the record straight!