37-3-602 - Part definitions. - Tennessee Statutes

37-3-602. Part definitions.

As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:

     (1)  “Family preservation services” mean short-term, highly intensive, services designed to protect, treat, and support a family, with a child at imminent risk of placement, by enabling the family to remain intact and care for the child at home;

     (2)  “Imminent risk of placement” means circumstances or behavior likely to produce, within a relatively short period of time, a reasonably strong probability that the child will be placed in state custody as a result of being adjudicated dependent and neglected, delinquent and unruly, or in need of mental health services under § 37-1-175;

     (3)  “Family support services” means community-based services to promote the safety and well-being of children and families designed to increase the strength and stability of families, including adoptive, foster, and extended families, to increase parents' confidence and competence in their parenting abilities, to afford children a safe, stable and supportive family environment, and otherwise to enhance child development; and

     (4)  “Time-limited family reunification services” means the services and activities described below that are provided to a child that is removed from the child's home and placed in a foster family home or a child care institution and to the parents or primary caregiver of such a child, in order to facilitate the reunification of the child safely and appropriately within a timely fashion, but only during the fifteen-month period that begins on the date that the child, pursuant to § 37-2-402, is considered to have entered foster care. The services and activities described in this subdivision (4) are the following individual, group and family counseling services:

          (A)  Inpatient, residential, or outpatient substance abuse treatment services;

          (B)  Mental health services;

          (C)  Assistance to address domestic violence;

          (D)  Services designed to provide temporary child care and therapeutic services for families, including crisis nurseries; and

          (E)  Transportation to or from any of the services and activities described in this subdivision (4).

[Acts 1991, ch. 185, § 2; 1996, ch. 1079, § 120; 1998, ch. 1097, § 24; 2000, ch. 947, § 8G.]