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Acting on Child Welfare Disparities

. Contra Costa County?Where's that?. Background. Contra Costa CountyOver 1,000,000 in population; 9th most populous county in stateCounty is divided in to 3 geographic areasGrowing at approximately 1% a yearSome areas in East County growing at over 12% a year. Child Population. Increase of approximately 20,000 between 1998 and 2005.

JasminFlorian
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Acting on Child Welfare Disparities

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    1. Acting on Child Welfare Disparities Danna Fabella, MSW Office of the County Administrator Contra Costa County, California

    3. Background Contra Costa County Over 1,000,000 in population; 9th most populous county in state County is divided in to 3 geographic areas Growing at approximately 1% a year Some areas in East County growing at over 12% a year

    4. Child Population Increase of approximately 20,000 between 1998 and 2005

    5. Ethnicity and Population

    6. Disproportionality and Disparity Disproportionality The overrepresentation of a particular group (typically referring to ethnicity) in any given area (e.g., Child Welfare System) compared to their proportion in the population (e.g., African Americans = 11% of the youth population, but make up 49% of the youth in Foster Care) Disparity The comparison of one group to another (e.g., likelihood of a Black youth, compared to a White youth in being referred to CFS)

    7. Disproportionality Example

    8. Referral Information There is disproportionality throughout the Child Welfare System Referral Incidence Rates (2005) Black = 85.7/1000 White = 34.4/1000 Hispanic = 28.3/1000 Substantiated Referral Incidence Rates (2005) Black = 16.6/1000 (19.4% of referrals substantiated) White = 6.9/1000 (20.2% of referrals substantiated) Hispanic = 6.6/1000 (23.2% of referrals substantiated)

    9. Racial Disparity When we examine the disparity between Whites and Blacks for 2005, we see that: Referrals: Blacks have a 2.5 times higher incidence rate Substantiations: Blacks have a 2.4 times higher incidence rate First Entries to Care: Blacks have a 2.9 times higher incidence rate In Child Welfare Supervised Foster Care on 1 July 2005: Blacks have a 5.3 times higher incidence rate

    10. Ethnicity Differences Thus, comparing children of different ethnicities within the Child Welfare System: Black children have a higher likelihood of a referral Blacks and Whites have referrals substantiated at about the same percentage (20%) while Asian and Hispanics have slightly higher rates (around 24%) Black children are more likely to be removed from home and enter child welfare supervised Foster Care Black children are likely to stay in care for a longer period of time than children of other ethnicities

    11. 2001 Contra Costa County Stakeholders Summit Redesign Plan developed that included Cultural Competency Training to be developed Partners with MH SOC that included Cultural Competency as a key principle

    12. 2002 Implemented Cultural Competency Self-assessment and Survey Results indicated need for culturally-specific training on our client population

    13. 2003 Staff Development and Bay Area Academy Developed 33 trainings 1,219 participants attended 137 community partners

    14. Re-Evaluating November 2004 Baseline Summary of findings: Staff were more aware that cultural awareness training was being offered, but had not integrated the training into their practice Community agencies had increased their awareness and integrated learning into practice

    15. Cultural Competency Oversight Committee Established a bureau-wide cultural competency oversight committee chaired by Director, Danna Fabella, and a Division Manager Representatives included social workers supervisors System of Care supervisor clerical staff foster care benefits staff from all geographical areas

    16. Roll Out of “Strongly Encouraged Training” Cultural Competency Oversight Committee determined they could not endorse a training they hadn’t “previewed” and for which they had provided input April 2005 special screening of “One Worker, One Solution at a Time”

    17. One Worker, One Solution at a Time Tickets necessary for entry Director served popcorn Ended the training early to debrief and make changes to learning objectives and curriculum Buy-in from the committee to “recommend” the training to their peers Logistics for future trainings determined

    19. Learning Objectives To discuss how societal factors such as colorblindness, racial ideologies and institutional racism operate in tandem to mask the effects of modern racism To discuss how personal and institutional biases and their consequences can function virtually undetected in a “colorblind” society To utilize a transfer of learning tool which explores, conditions, behaviors and attitudes that can perpetuate bias To help participants recognize and ultimately modify conditions, behaviors and attitudes that can promote bias in their social work practice

    20. Staff Attendance

    21. Infusing Fairness and Equity into Supervision and Management Understand how unconscious or implicit biases can distort service decisions Recognize institutional racism in agency policies and procedures Identify incremental and seemingly harmless “business as usual” actions that can produce and preserve bias along the continuum of decision-making points Understand the role of supervisor/manager as a coach who can develop and implement strategies and tools for intervention Assess the agency infra-structure for cultural competency

    22. Off-Site Retreats Addressed the individual, institution and agency; then needed to make an agency and geographically specific plan Needed to institutionalize Fairness and Equity into our divisions

    23. Vision Improve the culturally-competent communication in each Division by creating a culturally-aware workforce that recognizes how their biases affect their work and the work environment

    24. Objectives and Desired Outcome Talk about biases and how we are going to bring attention to each other's biases in a safe environment Each retreat will develop ideas for next steps related to Fairness and Equity in their work site and for the larger agency

    25. Work is Continuing Focus on: Difficult Decisions/Difficult Dialogues Use of language in written reports Developed baseline training Evaluation

    26. Systems Strategies Taking Place Simultaneously Team Decision Making Differential Response Parent Partners Data-Driven System

    27. Have We Made A Difference?

    28. First Entry to Care

    29. In-Care Incidence Rates

    30. All Ethnicities Show Decreases in Time in Placement: Point-in-Time While all ethnicities show decreased length of average time in placement, there is still disparity Black youth have longer time in placement than youth of other ethnicities

    31. Decreases in Average Time in Placement: Point-in-Time Comparing July 1, 2001 to July 1, 2006 Black Youth (2006: n=892, 49.6%) Average time in placement decreased 3 years (40%) Native American Youth (2006: n=14, 0.8%) Average time in placement decreased 2.8 years (46%) Hispanic Youth (2006: n=254, 14.1%) Average time in placement decreased 2.3 years (46%) Asian Youth (2006: n=47, 2.6%) Average time in placement decreased 2 years (44%) White Youth (2006: n=592, 32.9%) Average time in placement decreased 1.6 years (34%)

    32. Questions?

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