Children's Rights

Basic Rights of Children Placed at the Home:

• A child who has endured grief, pain, and horror can still harbor a miraculous resilient spirit. Each child has the right to strong support in finding his/her resilient spirit.
• A child placed at BMH has a right to be free from fear, injury, abuse, and maltreatment.
• A child, who comes to BMH with fears, anger, sadness, and confusion from past experiences, has the right to respect, compassion, and consideration from all adult caregivers.
• A child who comes to BMH and who needs an opportunity to heal and be supported has the right to frequent encouragement and hugs.
• A child, while a resident at BMH, has the right to adequate food, clothing, education, shelter, regular medical and dental care, and recreation.
• A child living at BMH retains a reasonable right to privacy, personal belongings, and space.
Admissions:
• If BMH is too rigid in admissions, a child may be rejected who could have benefited from care at the Home. Each applicant has the right to careful consideration for admission and to be placed in the least restrictive placement.
• If BMHC is too loose in its admissions, a child may be unnecessarily subjected to placement failure. Children and families have a right to receive complete and clear program information.
Family Time and Respect of Family Privacy, Culture, and Religious Tradition:
• Irrespective of the personal problems or inadequacies of particular family members, the child and family members have the right to family time including regular visits, telephone contact, and the delivery of unopened mail when not prohibited by Court order. Records of visits and contacts will be placed in the child's Individualized Service Plan.
• All children will be treated equally regardless of race or ethnic background. The cultural values and traditions of each child and family will be recognized and respected.
• Spiritual experiences and education are important to a child's total growth…the child has the right to participate in spiritual activities without any coercion to make commitment decisions.
• In receiving services from BMH, and to support the personal pride of the child and the family, each has the right to refuse to publicly acknowledge dependency or gratitude to the Home.
Input in Setting Goals and Planning for Services:
• To help meet immediate goals, and for a successful transition to the next stage of the child's life, the child and family have the right to express opinions concerning care and treatment.
• The family and child need to have reasonable privacy as services are received from BMH and the right to confidentiality. The child should also have the right to freedom from publicity that brings embarrassment.
• The child and family members have a right to an honest assessment of effort and progress within BMH services.
Discipline and Values Development:
• Exposure of the child to positive values even without immediate compliance can still bring progress. The child has the right to patience from adults when compliance comes slowly.
• Although constant close adult monitoring may bring quick temporary behavioral results, the child has the right to have opportunities to develop long-term internal controls and values.
• To help the child with the challenge of developing positive patterns of behavior, the child has the right to receive reasonable consequences from adults at the child's teachable moments.
• To help the child cope with the reality that life is not always fair, the child has the right to clear communication and values and flexible discipline based on the child's needs.
Community:
• A child cannot practice life and social values in a vacuum. Each child at BMH has the right to be a part of the wider community through schools, churches, jobs, recreation, and friends.
• The life of the child will be a series of challenges and risks needing confidence and coping. The child has the right to experiences of reasonable exposure and risk in the community.
• All children need to work to aid in their future growth and have a right to in-home and community work experiences.
Conclusion:
• When children come to BMH from challenging situations, everyone involved must work diligently to meet the goal of giving each child the right to transition into adulthood successfully.
• Staff and youth, families and children, are all on an important life journey in which each must work to protect the child's right to discern God's life plan within a loving family.
Revisions Approved by the Board of Directors on September 25, 2008.