Transcript Child Welfare Systems of Care

Strengths-/Needs-Based
Practice Principles Drawn from
Child Welfare Systems of Care:
from Principle to Practice
The Service Array Process
National Child Welfare Resource Center for
Organizational Improvement
A Service of the Children’s Bureau, U.S.D.H.H.S.
April 28, 2008
General Principles
 Family Involvement/Individualized/Strengths-based
 In a child welfare system of care, positive outcomes for children and
families are achieved through development of a relationship with the
family that recognizes their strengths and needs and uses those
capacities as the means to a positive case resolution.
 Cultural Competence/Community-based/Collaborative Agency
Systems
 The casework process connects the child and family with other
providers and community supports who can identify, and mutually
commit to address, the needs of the child and family through an
integrated system of services and care.
 Supervisory support is required for the time it takes to build interagency
relationships. The process can be supported by MOAs to share
information and blend resources to address the needs of shared
families. The process is also supported by having dedicated staff
resources who reach out to the community to build an culturally
responsive array of services and supports for families.
General Principles
 Each principle can be put into practice with frontline workers, but doing so requires vertical
changes inside the child welfare agency and in
its interactions with other agencies and the
community.
Principle-Driven Outcomes
 Child safety, attachment, well-being, and permanency remain the
cornerstone of sound child welfare practice and systems
 Children’s needs are identified and clarified
 Parents are assisted to understand and reconcile those needs
 Parents learn to listen to what their children need
 Caseworkers understand that parents model the nurturing and care
they received as children
 Case plans and services are built upon the strengths of the family
 Services are community-based and flexible
 Parents are included in development of options when they are not
able to meet their children’s needs
 The individual need for dignity is recognized and respected at all
times
Elements of Successful Child Welfare Systems of Care
in the Community
Community principles and practices that support
implementation of SOC principles and practices:
Multi-disciplinary case planning based on unique
strengths and needs of children
An expanded array of services
A collaborative approach to service delivery that allows
for the development of new resources for families in
response to unique child needs
A community sense of ownership for child safety, wellbeing, and permanency outcomes
Elements of Successful Child Welfare Systems of Care
in the Agency
Agency practices that support implementation of SOC
principles and practices:
1.
Strengths/Needs-Based Case Planning:
- Family-Centered Practice
- Use of family-conferencing or family-decision meeting models to
reach agreement with the family on children’s needs and a wraparound plan to meet those needs
- Availability of flexible funding to allow caseworkers the ability to
craft individualized service plans and secure services as quickly
as possible
- Initial and ongoing casework and supervisory training includes
strengths/needs-based focus
- Experienced, clinical supervision
Agency practices that support implementation of SOC principles and
practices (cont.):
2.
Expanded Visitation
- Natural, child-centered environments for supervised
and un-supervised (when safe) visits
- Early onset of visitation after placement and
increased frequency of visitation to keep parents
motivated and children connected
- Increased supervision of visits by foster parents (with
training for foster parents)
- Unsupervised visitation in the absence of any safety
issues
Agency practices that support implementation of SOC principles and
practices (cont.):
3.
Concurrent Planning
- Active concurrent planning from the outset of the
case with clear outcomes developed in meetings with
parents that are easily understood
- Frequent plan updates and achievable interim plan
goals for parents that keep them motivated
- Frequent reviews of progress toward reunification
and honest dialogue with parents about unmet needs
of their children based on their level of participation in
“their” plan
Agency practices that support implementation of SOC principles and
practices (cont.):
4.
Quality, Community-Centric Foster Care
- Increase number of licensed homes in each school
cachment area so children can be placed near their
homes and continue to attend the same schools
- Increase minority, relative, and under-represented
groups of foster care providers
- Train foster parents in the tenets of SOC and expect
them to be part of the team supporting parents
- Use foster parents as coaches and mentors
- Maintain a process for a quality review of all foster
homes
Agency practices that support implementation of SOC principles and
practices (cont.):
5. Systemic Needs
- Workload standards, to include manageable caseloads that
acknowledge the time necessary to fully engage parents
- After hours protective services response that is inclusive of the
principles and values of SOC
- Standards for staff, to include behavioral hiring that ensures staff
have the ability to convey SOC principles and values
- Community advisory boards that assist with collaborative
resource development and build ownership for child outcomes
- Organizational culture that embraces a move from a pathologybased child protection approach to a solution-based approach
- Acceptance that wrap-around planning supports the safest,
permanent outcome for children
Practice Examples: Sam’s Plan
Sam is 14 and has been out-of-parental control for several years. The family came to the attention of the child welfare
system and Sam spent time in a residential program after his father became overly frustrated and physically
abusive. Sam is about to return home and he is extremely attached to his family. Using SOC principles and
values, the family assists the caseworker and other providers to craft the following plan:
Goal #1: Sam needs to have appropriate activities in which he can channel his interests outside of school
Need that is Met: The parents and Sam need help identifying what is an acceptable activity and the resources to
pursue the choice
Action #1: Find an old car Sam can work on
Strength Match: Sam is good with his hands; Sam is interested in cars; Sam’s father is a mechanic
Person Responsible: Caseworker, Sam’s father
Date: April
Action #2 Connect Sam and his father to a father-son race track association
Strength Match: Sam and his father are both interested in cars; there is a local racing association
Person Responsible: Sam’s father and Sam
Date: May
Action #3 Arrange for Sam to have a slot in Driver’s Education in the fall school semester
Strength Match: By the end of fall semester, Sam will turn 15 and his car will be repaired and drivable
Person Responsible: Sam’s mother, school counselor
Date: September
Sam’s Example, cont.
Goal #2: Sam’s younger sister will be safe
Need that is Met: Increased periods of time when Sam is able to feel in control of himself
Action #1: Train Sam on personal crisis management skills he will use outside of residential care
Strength Match: Sam spent time in residential and has already learned how to chart when he would b e out-of-control
Person Responsible: Caseworker and Sam
Date: April
Action #2 Train Sam’s parents on safe restraint techniques
Strength Match: Parents are committed to Sam and a local residential program is willing to provide the training
Person Responsible: Sam’s parents
Date: May
Action #3 Identify a safety plan for the sister and get a lock/phone for her room
Strength Match: The sister is able to follow directions
Person Responsible: Sam’s parents
Date: September
Action #4: Work with a neighbor to develop a safe place in their home to calm down
Strength Match: Sam’s family has a good relationship with the neighbors
Person Responsible: Sam and his parents
Tyler’s Plan
Tyler is 16 and is in foster care. He has been in care since he was found living
on the streets at 15. When he was 14, his Native American mother passed
away and he ran away to a large urban area, from the reservation where he
had been raised within Tribal traditions. His extended family on the
reservation has been unable to provide a home for him. Tyler has not done
well in traditional foster care and a therapist has assessed that most of the
behavioral concerns are grounded in Tyler’s loss of identity.
Goal #1: Tyler will have access to culturally appropriate therapeutic
intervention
Need that is Met: Tyler participated in traditional, Tribal religious and healing
practices for the first 14 years of his life. He has a strong need to reconnect
with that foundation in order to regain his sense of self, his confidence, and
a sense of purpose that will work in his present environment.
Action #1: (a) Identification of a Tribal healer to work with Tyler and (b) access
to flexible funding that supports contracting for services
Strength Match: Tyler is an enrolled Tribal member and he has expressed
intense desire to pursue his cultural connections; Tyler’s Tribe is
participating in case planning;
Person Responsible: Caseworker, Tyler, Tribe
Date: April
Tyler’s Example, cont.
Action #2: Enroll Tyler in a Native American dance program at the Urban
Indian Center
Strength Match: See Action #1
Person Responsible: Caseworker, Tribe
Date: End of the month
Goal #2: Efforts will be made to reconnect Tyler to principal attachments
Action #1: (a) Identification of a Tribal family who can be a visiting resource for
Tyler in order meet his need to remain connected to his culture and
extended family and (b) access to flexible funding to support periodic travel
for Tyler to the reservation.
Strength Match: Tyler has expressed a desire to remain connected to the Tribe
and a visitation resource will help preserve principle connections and may
rekindle relative connections.
Person Responsible: Caseworker, Tribe
Date: Immediately
Nancy’s Plan
Nancy is a young mother who has been in repeat residential treatment for methamphetamine addiction. Her first three
in-patient experiences were in facilities across the state from where her two children were placed – a baby and a
toddler – and were the only facilities available through state and federal funds. Nancy’s therapist has indicated
that she lacks motivation, while in treatment, because distance prevents visits from her children. The therapist
also reports that Nancy has originally started using the drug to lose weight and that she would benefit from
participation in a program that builds self-esteem and from a positive peer group. Finally, Nancy is very fearful that
the reality of parenting two young children on her own, to include an autistic toddler, may push her to re-abuse.
Goal #1: Nancy will have access to an inpatient program where she can be housed with her children
Need that is Met: Nancy is motivated by contact with her children and she needs to be in a setting with her toddler
where she can learn to manage his autism at the same time that she is meeting the needs of her baby. Getting
clean, while learning to improving parenting skills will give Nancy the first real, mutually compatible
accomplishments of her adult life
Action #1: Scheduling a multi-disciplinary staffing that can show community support for Nancy and her children to
have priority access to a Moms’ Program
Action #2: Arranging with the local Education Service District’s Early Start Program, county Mental Health, and a
pediatrician to build a braided-funding service plan through which Nancy will learn how to parent her autistic
toddler
Action #3: The children’s current foster mother will provide infant-baby parenting coaching for Nancy in the treatment
program.
Strength Match: Nancy is able to articulate what she believes are personal barriers to remaining sober, as well as her
fears about losing her children and not being there for them.
Person Responsible: Caseworker, local children’s mental health program
Date: ASAP
Nancy’s Plan (cont.)
Goal #2: Once she has completed treatment, Nancy will have the assistance
she needs to secure housing, obtain basic household items and furniture,
get employment referrals, and secure competent child care while she works.
Need that is Met: Nancy will have a need for basic stability in her daily routine
in order to successfully work to support her children and have time and
energy to parent them, when she is not at work.
Action #1: Scheduling another multi-disciplinary staffing to build a services
plan that will address these needs, across agencies and systems.
Action #2: Flexible funding will be tapped to provide the means to secure
household goods, initial rent expenses, utility deposits, day care.
Action #3: The children’s current foster mother has agreed to provide
continued coaching in Nancy’s home and her own, as well as respite care.
Strength Match: Nancy is able to articulate what she believes are personal
barriers to remaining sober, as well as her fears about losing her children
and not being there for them.
Person Responsible: Caseworker
Date: ASAP
Nancy’s Plan (cont.)
Goal #3: Nancy will join a group developed for women in recovery from
methamphetamine addiction. One activity of the group is to work
with a local Dressing for Success program and a beauty school to
help members address self-esteem issues about appearance.
Need that is Met: Nancy has had poor self-esteem and she used
methamphetamine to help her lose weight. She needs to continue
efforts to reconstruct a strong, positive self-image.
Action #1: Enroll Nancy in the program and provide transportation and
child care for her, as needed
Strength Match: Nancy has demonstrated, during her times in
treatment, that she responds well in group settings and has been
able to incorporate positive feedback from other women into her
“sense of self.”
Person Responsible: Caseworker
Date: Arrange for enrollment 30 days before release from treatment
Reference/Reading
Beyer, Marty. Strengths/Needs Based
Child Welfare Practice.