PATHWAYS TO STRENGTHENING AND SUPPORTING FAMILIES IN ILLINOIS

1. PATHWAYS TO STRENGTHENING AND SUPPORTING FAMILIES IN ILLINOIS Module 3A – Assessing Child Safety Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development 1

2. Job Competencies • Review and discuss skills necessary to protect children. • Define the core concepts of safety and risk • Discuss how safety and risk relate to and are different from each other. • Differentiate between safety and risk. • Develop an understanding of the CERAP protocol’s effect on children and families. • Develop an awareness of the potential effects culture may have on our application of the CERAP protocol Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

3. Job Competencies (Cont’d) • Assess child safety taking into account: • the child’s age and developmental status • exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACES), and • the protective capacities of the parents Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

4. How many of you drove to training today? What are the inherent risks of driving an automobile? Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

5. Legislation / Development • In 1994, Illinois passed Senate Bill 1357 which required DCFS to develop a valid and reliable child endangerment protocol. • assists the Department in strengthening its focus on protecting endangered children. • mandated that public and private child welfare staff receive training in the Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol (CERAP), and to become CERAP certified (pass the CERAP exam). Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

6. What knowledge and skills do DR workers need to assess safety? • to identify factors that pose concerns about immediate safety; • to assess whether the current circumstances mitigate for or against these safety factors • to determine whether children are safe or unsafe; and • if they are unsafe, to develop and implement interventions in order to control for safety Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

7. “But that’s not how it’s done in the field.” The CERAP training is the officially sanctioned way the child endangerment risk assessment protocol is to be completed. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

8. Safety-based Model of Practice “What have you seen the parent or caregiver do to the child” Refocused as “What have you seen or what do you know that would cause you to believe the child might be in imminent danger of significant harm?” Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

9. CERAP Effects on Children & Families • Requires that we intervene with families when they most need our services (at each milestone in a case) • Increases the safety of our most vulnerable children • Increase and enhances the services that we provide • Offers an extra measure of protection by requiring specific supervisory involvement in the decision making early on in a case. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

10. Illinois Statutory Definitions • “Abused Child” • “Neglected Child” Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

11. Definition of Safety A child is considered to be safe when an assessment of available information supports the belief that a child in a household or in custodial care is not in immediate (near future) danger of moderate to severe harm. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

12. A Safety Concern The potential harm to the child which could be immediate or in the very near future and moderate to severe If an intervention is not made to control the situation. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

13. Definition of Risk The likelihood of any degree of longer-term future harm/maltreatment. It does not predict when the future harm might occur, but rather the likelihood of it happening at all. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

14. Viewing Safety and Risk Concerns • Risk Concerns • Longer Term • Low to severe • Decrease/Resolve • Safety Concerns • Moderate to severe • Immediate/Very near future • Control Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

15. Safety Risk Concerns Similarities • Prediction of harm • Describes potentially harmful • home conditions • family members-caretaker behavior • family interactions Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

16. Safety Risk Concerns - Similarities • Can change quickly • Can often be controlled by family strengths or change in circumstances • Can be addressed with interventions Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

17. Safety Concern Immediate or near future Risk Concern Future or in the longer term Safety Risk Concerns - Differences Aaron, age 3, has been living with his grandparents for 6 months while his mother received in and out-patient substance abuse treatment program. He was originally reported as neglected (Inadequate Supervision). She is now clean and has had no relapses. Aaron is in daycare. Grandparents state his mother is doing well, and have returned him to her care. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

18. Safety Concern Moderate to severe Risk Concern Low to severe Safety Risk Concerns – Differences Safety Concern Risk Concern No/Low Moderate Severe Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

19. A father locks out his 13 year old son, Joseph, for violating curfew, and says he’ll do so again if he continues to come in late. Joseph just started being defiant. The father also tells the DR Specialist that he wishes to get into family counseling before he hurts Joseph because Joseph’s “teenage angst” is starting to increase. What are the “degree of harm” issues in this situation? Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

20. Safety Concern Needs to be controlled now Risk Concern Needs to be resolved or reduced in the future Safety Risk Concerns Differences Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

21. Mark, age 3, was berated by his father Frank because he refused to eat his carrots. The chastisement was so severe the child began to shake uncontrollably. Frank also berated Mark’s mother, Lola, because she let the child play with his food and didn’t make him eat it. Lola says she tries to stop her husband from berating Mark, but he is a madman when he’s angry and there is nothing she can do. What is the immediate “safety” issue ? What is the long term “risk” issue? Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

22. Comparing Safety to Risk Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

23. What does this mean for you? • Safety must be assessed quickly, often in one visit. • Risk is assessed over a longer period of time, allowing time to gather, assess, and evaluate information. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

24. How Culture Affects the Safety Determination Process • Definition: • the totality of a person’s learned behaviors. • based on values, beliefs, and assumptions derived from shared experiences, history and geographic proximity. • guides people’s interpretation of life experiences and development of coping strategies for day-to-day living. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

25. Impact of Culture How does … • Culture affect our work at various points in the Safety Determination process? • Attitudes guide our decision-making? • Lack of knowledge regarding a certain culture affect our safety determinations? • Culture get defined broadly? Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

26. Impact of Culture – Cont’d • What are some examples of cultural misinterpretations in the following areas? • Verbal threats • Parenting responsibilities of children • Living arrangements • Physical markings and healing practices Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

27. Cultural Competence • The ability to evaluate behavior that is acceptable, although culturally variant from one’s own standards of behavior, and compare it to truly dangerous and unacceptable behavior or conditions is the goal of cultural competence regarding the identification of safety concerns Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

28. Stages of Cultural Competence in Safety Determination • Engage Families • Use the relevant broader social network of the family • Use culturally relevant services Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

29. Determining Safety Concernsand Risks Mini Case Scenarios Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

30. Mini-scenarios Activity • Each scenario is one of the following: • a safety concern, or • a risk concern, or • no concern. • Identify if there are any • cultural factors or • contributing factors. • Write answers in the margin. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

31. Jody – Safety Four pre-school age children – Safety Melissa – Risk Carrie and Simon – Risk Jonathan - Safety Judy - Safety Carter Family - Safety Milo Children - Risk Curtis - Safety Chris - Safety Mini-scenarios Activity Debriefing Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

32. Trenise - No Concern Eduardo - Safety Ahmad - Safety Bennett Children - Risk Joseph - Risk Kyle - Risk Mini-scenarios Activity Debriefing Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

33. Steps to Determining Safety Step 1: Identify relevant safety factors. Step 2: Describe the safety factor you checked. Step 3: Record family strengths and mitigating circumstances. Step 4: Make Safety Decision Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

34. Safety Factors Factors 1-14: Assessing immediate danger of moderate to severe harm due to the identified factor. When assessing for Safety, consider: • Age & developmental status of child • Mental, medical, developmental status of caretaker • Type, severity, location of injury • Intent, severity or duration of the behavior Factor 15: Provides discretion for identifying other safety factors. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

35. Definition of Paramour “…no legal or biological relationship to all the children.” Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

36. Definition of Caretaker In relation to CERAP, “caretaker” refers to anyone who impacts the child’s safety in the home. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

37. Family Strengths Sometimes the best way to identify strengths is to directly ask the family. What might you ask the families in order to elicit their areas of strength? Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

38. A child is beaten by his mother’s paramour resulting in the boy’s arm being broken. Mother ensures the child’s safety by securing medical attention, seeking a protection order, leaving her boyfriend and moving in with her parents. Furthermore, she advises the boy’s father of the situation and requests his assistance in providing care for their son while she removes her belongings from the boyfriend’s residence. What are the family strengths that are present? Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

39. Mitigating Circumstances While family strengths and mitigating circumstances may overlap they are not synonymous What are some examples of family strengths that can help mitigate child safety? Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

40. A DR Specialist and a SSF Worker respond to a report of two children, ages 7 and 5, who have been seen on two recent occasions playing in the park unsupervised. They discover the children are presently supervised by their sitter, a 15 year old aunt who is visiting during three weeks of summer vacation. She initially denies leaving the children unsupervised but later discloses she let the children play in the park across the street while watching them from the living room window. Their mother discloses that she wanted to save money by having her sister watch the children while she worked. She is clearly upset at her sister for leaving the children unsupervised and identifies other caregivers she will use to watch the children while she is working. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

41. Making the Safety Decision If no Safety Factors are marked or Safety Factors that are marked as concerns can be mitigated, it is SAFE. If Safety Factors are marked as concerns and cannot be addressed by family strengths or mitigating factors, it is UNSAFE. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

42. What should the DR Specialist and SSF Worker do if the situation is determined to be unsafe? …transfer the case to the investigative track; it is ineligible for the DR Pathway (safety plans will not be developed in DR) Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

43. Preparation for CERAP Exam Questions Case Scenarios General questions about assessing for safety Safety Determination Form Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

44. Preparation for CERAP Exam Questions Sample Test Questions Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

45. Sample CERAP Exam Activity Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

46. Question #1 Has there been physical abuse or threat? Has there been neglect? Are there issues with a paramour? Is there previous history of abuse/neglect? Is the caretaker’s behavior influencing/causing the abuse/neglect? Are there any special issues? Answers no concern safety no concern safety no concern safety – DV Sample CERAP Exam Debriefing Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

47. Sample CERAP Exam Debriefing Questions: • #1-Risk, #2-No concern, #3-Risk, #4-No concern, #5-Risk, #6-Risk • #1-Safety, #2-No concern, #3-No concern, #4-Safety, #5-No concern, #6-Safety • #1-Safety, #2-No concern, #3-No concern, #4-No concern, #5-Safety, #6-No concern • #1-Safety, #2-No concern, #3-Safety, #4-Safety, #5-Safety, #6-No concern Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

48. Sample CERAP Exam Debriefing Questions: • #1-No concern, #2-Safety, #3-Safety, #4-No concern, #5-Safety, #6-Safety • #1-No concern, #2-No concern, #3-Safety, #4-No concern, #5-Safety, #6-Safety • #1-No concern, #2-No concern, #3-No concern, #4-No concern, #5-Safety, #6-Safety Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development

49. SACWIS Safety Assessment Activity Complete the Safety Assessment for Robin and her children. Division of Service Support, Office of Training and Professional Development