IPS/VOC
What are 5 Best practices when interviewing children?
- minimize harm to children (setting, timing, approach)
- build rapport
- be aware of our authority
- consider childs linguistic development and culture in which they learn language
- interactive play and creative projects
- be mindful of body language, facial cues, words
- open ended quetsions (tell me more)
Another common error in critical thinking outlines the failure to look at our own files and overlooking past information. Munro also found information isn’t communicated to or compared with what other professionals know. Can you outline an example of this and ways you have been able to work through it?
- Taking a report at face value and failing to complete collaterals in a timely manner
- documenting the danger to a child but doesnt recognize danger signs that were documented
- tendence to 'make it fit' what we think
Where should you be capturing the history in your investigation?
What is the contact notes and risk assessment?
What would you do if you are feeling really overwhelmed at work, you recently went out on a difficult file, and find yourself staying up at night thinking about work
Take a deep breath, take a break, positive self talk
Speak with your supervisor about feeling overwhelmed and discuss a plan for support
Connect with EFAP or other programming as needed
Where can you find out what we are allowed to pay for as workers and what level of approval we need for purchases?
What is The Business Catalog!
What are the phases of a child interview? Be specific from when you get a file to when submitting a file for closure
1. Preparation and interviewing strategy development—including location, parent/caregiver permissions, history review, and clear identification of interview’s purpose.
2. Introduction, explanation, and a check for child’s understanding of interviewer’s role and purpose of the interview.
3. Engagement, rapport building, and shared agreements—conducting an interactional, linguistic, and developmental assessment; establishing permissions, managing differences in authority and power.
4. Practice neutral topic narrative expression—free report of one or two specific events in the child’s life and explicit transition to main focus of the interview.
5. Balanced questioning and conversations about the child’s perspective about what is working, what is worrying, and desired next steps related to the topic area.
6. Interview closure: “Is there anything else?”, appreciations, answering questions, addressing worries, and next steps (offering choices when possible).
7. Return to neutral topics prior to ending interview.
8. Document the interview.
Patterns of behavior are the most reliable warning signs that patterns are escalating or situation is deteriorating.
Failure to take a long term perspective and note emerging patterns is a crucial role in investigations. What makes this hard to complete at times?
- staff turnover, have to cover immediate/short term
- No time to complete Family Service History on the family prior to going out
- failure to ask what has changed
- want to see the best in our famillies
What is the different between a risk and safety assessment?
What is A Safety Assessment asseses immediate present danger while a risk assessment looks at the likelihood of future maltreatment
If you have someone in the office for an unscheduled meeting who is getting escalated, you have a court application due in 20 minutes, and you have an immediate report to go out on.
What is speaking with your supervisor and ask for help prioritizing and delegating. Security and Supervisor can book an apt for the escalated client then help with the court application while worker attends out
When is a risk assessment due?
What is No later than 15 calendar days from the date the intake is assigned and prior to any decision to open a case for ongoing services or closure of the file?
What are types of solution focused questions and can you provide an example? (There are 5)
Coping questions allow the child to reflect and express how they have managed during tough times. Coping questions also provide encouragement to the child and help them recognize the strengths and support network they are using to cope. “You have had so much on your hands this week. Who helped support you? How did they help?”
Relationship/position questions allow children to explore their situation from someone else’s perspective. These questions elicit who is important to the child and help them empathize. “If Ray were here, what would he say is different about your actions when you are focused on getting your life stable and on track?”
Exception questions draw out hidden strengths and coping behaviours when a child’s situation feels overwhelming or has more going wrong than right. “Tell me about the last time you felt confident in school. What were you doing that made you successful?”
Scaling questions ask the parent/caregiver to rate their perspective on safety, confidence, hope, agreement, progress, and ability. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how safe did you feel growing up in your family home?”
Preferred-future questions help children visualize their desired outcomes. “If we were to work together for a period of time and our work together was successful, what would you notice about your life?”
Why is it dangerous to be skeptical about new evidence that challenges our existing views what it comes to famillies?
We are an explaining species. When we’ve formulated an explanation for something we’re satisfied, and not considering alternatives is the principle cause of faulty analysis.
- Failure to consider other professional/informal supports information as it doesnt fit what we think we know - miss crucial information and perspectives and ways to support
- Leads to plans that do not work
When do you do a safety assessment to return a child over a reunification assessment?
What is In new placement cases where a child has been in care for less than 45 days, a case plan has not been established, and there is consideration of a return to the removal home, use the initial SDM safety assessment to assess whether the child can safely be returned home. Use policy for the safety assessment to guide decision making.
You cant find a parent for court?
What is completing a substitutional service oorder or dispense order?
What are the three different outcomes of a reunification assessment?
What is
Reunify (return to removal or other parental home) Maintain placement and reunification services
Change goal from reunification
Why did IPS get developed and what are some tools that we can use when interacting with famillies to determine worries, needs, and supports? Name at least 4
IPS was developed to take a more supportive approach when dealing with famillies. It is used to provide supervision and support, bring out family strengths, focuses on family engagement and helps to create a good working relationship among all stakeholders.
3 column mapping
CAP framework
eco map
genogram
circle of support
3 houses
shared agreement
harm and worry statements on safety plans
Why can it be dangerous to take a parents reaction during assessment as representative?
- just because a parent is heated during a conversation with MSS about the safety of their child does not mean that they dont have protective capacity. Parents should be (to a certain extent) upset with MSS involvement.
- parents can be calm when speaking to workers, but this cannot be correlated with how they deal with their children on a daily basis when overwhelmed
- Some individuals/famillies know how to manipulate workers/the system to get what they want (ie file closed, requisitions etc)
The most common predictor of future behaviour is?
What is Past Behaviour?
What would you do.. if you show up unscheduled to a home where violence occurred last week, there now is a NCO in place between the parents, but you attend the home and find the parents together.
What is creating a safety plan where the family would be further supported/monitored, asking the offender to leave the home, explaining worries, and calling RPS / supervisor as needed.
When would you do a safety assessment to return a child over a reunification assessment?
What is In new placement cases where a child has been in care for less than 45 days, a case plan has not been established, and there is consideration of a return to the removal home, use the initial SDM safety assessment to assess whether the child can safely be returned home. Use policy for the safety assessment to guide decision making.
What are the essential elements of a well written safety plan? (There are 6)
- Identify current safety threat that would prompt protective placement unless immediate actions are taken
A specific description of the actions or inactions of a legal parent that result in child impact
A specific set of actions/change in location that occur immediately so that the present danger to the child is controlled.
A way to monitor whether the plan is working and some kind of fail-safe action that will be taken if the plan is not working.
A specific time limit (no more than 30 days) for the plan to be in effect or when it will be reviewed and renewed.
Signatures that indicate agreement. These must always include at least one legal parent, the child welfare worker, and any person from the support network who agrees to be responsible for an action or task. Verbal approval must also be obtained from the worker’s supervisor.
According to a case studied by Eileen Munro - she reported that 'The most striking and persistent criticism was that professionals were slow to revise their judgments'. This finding indicated that when the initial assessment was accurate; adequate to good practice was demonstrated. However, when the initial assessment was inaccurate, subsequent or different information that should have resulted in a re-assessment or further investigation was not considered.
How can this issue be resolved?
Can you provide an example?
Time and again deaths have been due to not predicting the future but failing to accurately investigate and assess circumstances.
- speak to all members of the household - parents, people who know the family, all children
- assess the children's needs and development and what they need for caregivers in the home
- assess history and information from all collaterals/people who know the family
- assess the men in homes who have caregiving responsibility
- complete assessments after all the information has been reviewed, so there are no gaps. Ask more questions before scoring if needed.
What are the Seven Sacred Teachings?
What would you do if you attend a house for an unscheduled meeting, and you see a child in the window who looks to be about 7 years old, and no one comes to the door?
What is trying to contact the parent/extended family, then calling back to your supervisor for direction to assess if RPS need to be called to contact the family or breach the door?
How many hours is known as the 'period of grace' when referring to returning a child who has the right to custody without making an application to court?
What steps are needed for this?
After speaking with your supervisor, complete a safety reassessment with the outcome (safe or safe with services)