1 children’s research center a nonprofit social research organization and division of the...

1www.nccd-crc.org

Children’s Research CenterA nonprofit social research organization and

division of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency

www.nccdglobal.org

Integrated Safety-Organized Practice

Integrated Safety-Organized Practice

Module Nine:

Safety Planning

2

Andrew Turnell

…and we hope YOU will continue to buildon these ideas and approaches.

Insoo Kim BergSteve de Shazer

Our Thinking Draws Fromthe Legacy of Others

Our Thinking Draws Fromthe Legacy of Others

RobSawyer

SueLohrbach

CarverCounty

John VogelSophia Chin

Heather Meitner

NickiWeld

SusieEssex

Steve Edwards

Sonja Parker CRC Staff

3

DefinitionDefinition

Safety is:

Actions of protection taken by the caregiver that mitigate the danger demonstrated over time.

Adapted from Boffa, J., and Podesta, H. (2004) Partnership and risk assessment in child protection practice, Protecting Children, 19(2): 36–48. Turnell, Andrew & Susie Essex Working with Denied Child Abuse, Open University Press, 2006.

4

AgreementsAgreements• “Try on.”

• Everyone always has the right to pass.

• Know that silence is a contribution.

• We agree to share airtime and stick to time limits.

• We agree to speak personally, for ourselves as individuals.

• We agree to disagree and avoid making assumptions or generalities.

• We agree to allow others to finish speaking before we speak and avoid interrupting and side conversations.

• We will all work together to hold to these agreements and authorize the trainer to hold us to them.

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Module Subject

1 Interviewing for Safety and Danger

2 Three Questions to Organize Your Practice

3Small Voices, Big Impact: Keeping Children at the Center of the Work

4 Solution-Focused Inquiry

5 Introduction to Mapping

6 Harm Statements, Danger Statements, and Safety Goals

7 Mapping With Families

8 Safety Networks

9 Safety Planning

10 Landing the General Authority Practice Model in Everyday Work

11Organizational Environments: Reflection, Appreciation, and Ongoing Learning

12 Summary and Looking to the Future

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Let’s Review and Reflect!Let’s Review and Reflect!

What have you tried from the module last month?

What worked well?What were your challenges?

How did you handle those challenges?

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• Safety as more than a list of services

• Sample safety plans• Building safety plans

» Collaborative» Rigorous» Action-Driven

• Practice!

What are we going to cover today?


8



SFQs + + +

++

Rigorous Collaborative= Action-Based SAFETY PLANS

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Safety Plans as More Than a List of Services

Safety Plans as More Than a List of Services

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Checking in: What’s the difference

between these two plans?

Checking in: What’s the difference

between these two plans?Plan #1:

•Cheryl needs to go to the therapist weekly to work on depression, the causes, and the impact it has on her life.

•Cheryl needs to go to the psychiatrist at least monthly to make sure that she is taking her medication and that it is working properly.

•Cheryl needs to attend a therapeutic group for “women facing depression” weekly so she can hear how other women have responded to this.

•Cheryl needs to go to job retraining course.

•Cheryl needs to go to parenting class.

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Plan #2:

Cheryl agrees to present the following to her children and to her safety network:

•Neighbor Paul, sister Sarah, foster mother Trina, and outreach worker Betsy all agree to be a part of Cheryl’s safety network.

•Cheryl will ask for help with the children if she is feeling more than a seven on a 10-point scale for depression.

•Cheryl will not be alone if she is thinking about hurting herself again and will ask for help from someone in the network if this happens.

•Cheryl agrees to keep a logbook of her work in resisting the worse parts of the depression. She will scale the impact of the depression every day in the book and write details of everything that is helping her reduce that impact.

•Paul, Sarah, and Trina all agree to call or visit once daily (once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening). They will talk to Cheryl, ask how she is doing, and also scale the impact of depression on her. They will also talk to the kids and ask them how they are doing. When the network visits they will also write in the logbook and ensure the children have their phone numbers as well.

•Betsy will perform two to three visits a week to the home and either she or her team will be available 24 hours a day if Cheryl want to call. During her visits she will also scale the impact of depression with Cheryl and write in the logbook. Betsy will work with Cheryl to make sure she get to the MD.

•Cheryl, the safety network, and CPS will meet to review this plan again in three weeks.

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Effective Safety Plans Are…Effective Safety Plans Are…

…detailed plans of ACTION made in response to

SPECIFICALLY identified dangers

(behavioral and action driven)Ensure no future trauma for the

children

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Effective Safety PlansEffective Safety Plans

Create clear and observable guidelines about:

•Contact between the children

•The potential danger

•How they are to be protected from the danger

Ensure no future trauma for the children

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What Does the SDM® P&P Manual Say?

What Does the SDM® P&P Manual Say?

A SAFETY PLAN IS REQUIRED WHEN SAFETY DECISION IS #2 “Safe with a plan.”

The following must be included in any safety plan:

1.Each safety threat identified in Section 1A.

2.Information written in a family-friendly manner.

3.Detailed information for each planned safety intervention.

4.Information that describes how the safety plan will be monitored (e.g., who is responsible for each intervention action).

5.Signatures lines for family members, the worker, and his/her supervisor.

Note: The safety plan should be documented in in CWS/CMS, MUST be completed with the family, and a copy should be left with the family.

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Safety Plans Are…Safety Plans Are…

• Collaboratively made with the family, child, and network;

• A process, not an event;

• A roadmap to achieve our hopes, not a guarantee;

• A method for keeping children safe; AND

• A intervention and change strategy.

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A Shift in How We Think About Change?

A Shift in How We Think About Change?

ACTION INSIGHT

“Fake it ‘til you make it!”

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Don’t Forget:Don’t Forget:

This must be reflected in the kinds of plans we create!

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Sample Safety PlansSample Safety Plans

And SDM’s Role!

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TerminologyTerminology

CURRENT PROPOSED

Safety PlanImmediate Safety

Plan

Case Plan Ongoing Safety Plan

? After-Care Safety Plan

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Another way to think about this:Another way to think about this:

We are aiming for “sustainable safety”

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Safety PlanningSafety Planning

Immediate safety plan

Keep the child home

Immediate safety plan

Keep the child home

Ongoing safety plan

Return a child home or move to enough safety to

close the case

Ongoing safety plan

Return a child home or move to enough safety to

close the case

After-care safety plan

Keep the child safe in the

future

After-care safety plan

Keep the child safe in the

future

CWS INVOLVEMENT

Safety plans develop sustainable safety in order to:

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An Immediate Safety Plan

An Ongoing Safety Plan

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Good safety plans = trauma-informed practice?

Good safety plans = trauma-informed practice?

We want to intervene at just the right level to keep the child safe when we make immediate safety plans.

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Immediate Safety PlansImmediate Safety Plans

What actions of protection need to be taken immediately that directly mitigate the danger, in order for the child to remain safely in the home?

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Sample Immediate Safety PlanSample Immediate Safety Plan

See handout!

TonyaMatt

AdamAge 8

Bill(Tonya’s brother)

Let’s take a look at a sample immediate safety plan for Adam.

Note: Safety Plan

Worksheet is a training

example only. it’s not a county-

approved form.

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When do you need an ongoing safety plan?

When do you need an ongoing safety plan?

Close the CaseReturn the Child Home

and/or

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Sample Ongoing Safety PlanReturn Home

Sample Ongoing Safety PlanReturn Home

Let’s take a look at a sample ongoing safety plan for Cheryl and her daughters – written both in a safety plan format and in a case plan format.

Visits are a critical place to see if early signs of “acts of protections”

are being demonstrated!!!

See handout! In pairs, pick the safety item that you thinkhas the best chance for sustainable safety.

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Sample Ongoing Safety PlanCase Closure

Sample Ongoing Safety PlanCase Closure

Let’s take a look at a sample ongoing safety plan for Cheryl and her daughters.

Here we are looking for sustainable safety…demonstrated over time!

See handout! In pairs, pick the safety item that you thinkhas the best chance for sustainable safety.

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After Care Safety PlanAfter Care Safety Plan

Let’s take a look at a sample After Care Safety Plan for Cheryl and her daughters.

See handout!

How will we know safety will be sustained over time? What will people do to keep the children safe once we leave?

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Let’s ChatLet’s Chat

Get into pairs and discuss this question:

How is this different from or similar to what you are doing now?

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Building Collaborative, Rigorous, Action-Driven Safety Plans

Building Collaborative, Rigorous, Action-Driven Safety Plans

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Steps in Building Safety PlansSteps in Building Safety Plans

① Building relationships, assessing danger and safety

② Get clear on the danger statements and safety goals

③ Orient the family and the children to the task

④ Identify and involve the network

⑤ Address the critical concerns

⑥ Reach agreement on the plan

⑦ Bring it back to the children

⑧ Monitor, build on it, and continue to assess

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Safety Planning Is a Process, Not an Event

Safety Planning Is a Process, Not an Event



③ Orient the family and the children






34

1. Building relationships, assessing danger and safety

1. Building relationships, assessing danger and safety

USE YOUR SFQs!

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2. Get clear on the danger statements and safety

goals

2. Get clear on the danger statements and safety

goals

36

Simple behavioral statements of the specific worry we have about this child now and into the future.

Danger StatementsDanger Statements

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The Question That the Danger Statement Answers

The Question That the Danger Statement Answers

What is CWS most worried will happen to the children if they are in the care of their parents and nothing else happens to mitigate the danger?

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Clear, simple statements about what the caregiver will DO that will convince everyone the child is safe now and into the future.

Actions of protection taken by caregiver that mitigate the danger

Demonstrated over time

Goal StatementsGoal Statements

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What does CWS need to see the parents and their network doing differently with their children so everyone will know the children are safe? (not services)

The Question That the Safety Goal Answers

The Question That the Safety Goal Answers

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Danger Statements(What we are worried could happen without intervention)

Acts of Protection(Taken by the caregiver that mitigate the danger, demonstrated over time)

Safety Goal(What we need to see to know we can close the case – not services)

The safety plan gets us from the danger statement to the safety goal!

41

3. Orienting the family3. Orienting the family

• My job is to make sure children are safe, and I am worried because…

• You and the people around the child are going to need to do some new things.

• We will include other people in the plan.

• This will not be easy! We are all going to ask hard questions to make sure the plan will work.

• We are going to keep refining this.

• Everyone involved, especially you and CWS, will need to approve.

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Orienting the FamilyOrienting the Family

Here’s an idea!

Step 1:

•Take your provisional danger statements and the safety goal to the family and the network.

•What acts of protection could they come up with to move their family toward the safety goal?

•Don’t forget agency bottom lines.

43


Safety is:

Actions of protection taken by the caregiver that mitigate the danger demonstrated over time. Adapted from Boffa, J., and Podesta, H. (2004). Partnership and risk assessment in child protection practice, Protecting Children,

19(2): 36–48. Turnell, Andrew & Susie Essex. (2006). Working With Denied Child Abuse, Open University Press.

Step 2: Share the Safety Definition with the family

44


What is working well?

What are the worries?

What should happen?

Look for potential acts of protection that have been working already.

Look for things that could get in the way of safety, that the parents, children, and safety network can be on alert for – that they can plan around.

Look for the parents,’ children’s, and network’s ideas about what could be done to increase safety.

Step 3a: Map for Past and Current ACTS OF PROTECTION

45


Step 3b: Capture the conversation on the safety plan worksheet

Safety Plan Worksheet

Danger Statement(s):

Safety Goal(s):

Who What action will be taken

How will we know it worked?



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4. Identify and Involve the Network4. Identify and Involve the Network

“It takes a village to raise a child.”

Keeping a child in close contact with safe, familiar people is an example of a Trauma-Informed Practice!

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Eliciting local cultural wisdomEliciting local cultural wisdom

• You can’t engage the village if you don’t understand the village.

• Our safety plans have to fit the culture of the family we are working with.

• The best plan won’t work if the plan does not fit with the culture.

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A Bottom LineA Bottom Line

You can’t make safety only with the people you are worried about.

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5. Address the critical concerns:Asking hard questions

5. Address the critical concerns:Asking hard questions

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Keep the plan focused on ACTS of protection

Keep the plan focused on ACTS of protection

A list of services is not a safety plan!

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What is the role of services?What is the role of services?

• Services are to support caregivers to take steps toward safety.

• People do need help.

• When you want families to start attending services, be clear to yourself and the family: What actions within the family are you hoping will change as a result of this service?

Remember, services are a means to an end. That end is sustainable safety for the children!

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6. Reach agreement on at least a provisional plan6. Reach agreement on

at least a provisional plan

“People support what they have a hand in creating.”

- Margaret Wheatley

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Reach Agreement on at Least a Provisional Plan: GRADIENTS OF AGREEMENT (Kaner,

2011)

Reach Agreement on at Least a Provisional Plan: GRADIENTS OF AGREEMENT (Kaner,

2011)

FULL ENDORSEMENT

SUPPORTIVE

NEUTRALVETO

RELUCTANT BUT WILLING

1 2 3 4 5

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7. Bring it back to the children7. Bring it back to the children

Empowering children and giving them a voice is an example of a Trauma-Informed Practice!

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Present the safety plan to the children and let them draw!

Present the safety plan to the children and let them draw!

Let’s review anexample!

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8. Monitor and Refine8. Monitor and Refine

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NetworksNetworks

• Remember Module 8.

• How is the network going to help monitor the plan?

• What will they do if things don’t go well? What are our agreements on this?

• Scale your ongoing relationship with the network and your ability to accurately monitor their ability to keep the child safe.

• Troubleshoot as needed.

58

Journals, Log BooksJournals, Log Books

• Who will journal the progress?

» The parent?

» The caregiver?

» The child?

» Other members of the safety network?

• What is the plan to ensure that progress on the safety plan guidelines are being documented?

• How will the journals or log books be shared with the network and with you?

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Safety ObjectsSafety Objects

If the child to sends a signal to her network that she feels unsafe, such as turning a light on at night, or bringing a safety object toy to school, or sending a text message, how will you know about it?

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Dry RunsDry Runs

• Try a dress rehearsal.

• Stage a false safety threat and see how the network responds.

• Debrief how it went:

» What worked?

» What were the challenges?

» How can the safety plan be adapted?

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Things to Focus on in Supervision

Things to Focus on in Supervision

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Check the SDM® ReassessmentsCheck the SDM® Reassessments

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Summary – Steps in building safety plans

Summary – Steps in building safety plans



③ Orient the family and children to the task






64

Let’s Practice!Let’s Practice!

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Activity WorksheetsActivity Worksheets



Safety Goal(s):





Mapping for Acts of Protection

Well? Worries? Happen?

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Let’s Practice! (Safety Plan Worksheet)

Let’s Practice! (Safety Plan Worksheet)

In pairs: One of you think about a family who is on your caseload right now who would benefit from the kinds of plans we have talked about today. Ideally, think of a referral or case where you are feeling stuck or unsure of what to do next. But don’t pick your most challenging family.

• What are the initial safety threats from the SDM safety assessment?

• What counts were filed on the petition?

67



Now have a three-questions conversation, with one of you documenting answers to these questions on the Mapping for Acts of Protection worksheet:

• What is working well to move the family toward safety?

• What are the biggest worries you have right now about the children?

• What is at least one thing you would like to see happen that would make you feel that the child would be safer and the family is moving toward the safety goal?

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Search for Existing Acts of Protection

Search for Existing Acts of Protection

Take a moment and look at your map. Circle anything on this map that could be an act of protection that would respond to the danger if it was repeated or enhanced. This is your first step in making a plan!

Next, write those down on your Safety Plan handout.

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Drop Those Actions on the Plan!

Drop Those Actions on the Plan!



Safety Goal(s):





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Identify Network MembersIdentify Network Members

• This will require some assumptions.

• Who do you know the family already has contact with?

• Who do you think the family might be willing to include?

• Who do you wish they would include?

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Wrapping it UpWrapping it Up

1. Who will do this action of protection?• The parent?• The network member?• The child? (in some cases)

2. What exactly will they do?

3. How will we know it worked?

Complete this on your Safety Planning Worksheet

72

DebriefDebrief

73Dorrinton & Saunders and Associates 2006

Summary: Safety Planning as a Model for Change and Growth

Summary: Safety Planning as a Model for Change and Growth

Goal: What future safety looks like.


Goal: What future safety looks like.

Safety Planning as a Model for Change and Growth


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Sometimes…Sometimes…


Strengths and Opportunities

Honor

Learn

Evaluate

Heal

Forgive

Gratitude



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Some CautionsSome Cautions

78*Turnell, A. and Edwards S. (1999). Signs of Safety. New York: Norton.

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Opportunities for PracticeOpportunities for Practice

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One last thing…thinking aheadOne last thing…thinking ahead

In pairs:

• What’s one thing you heard today that you value or makes sense to you?

• What are you already doing to put that into action in your work?

• What else would you like to do to “land it” even more in your work between now and next time?

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ReferencesReferences

Children’s Research Center. (2008). Structured Decision Making®: An evidence-based approach to human services. Retrieved from http://www.nccd-crc.org/crc/pdf/2008_sdm_book.pdf

Department of Child Protection. (2011). The signs of safety child protection practice framework. Department of Child Protection, Perth. Retrieved from http://www.signsofsafety.net/westernaustralia

Essex, S., Gumbleton, J., & Luger, C. (1996). Resolutions: Working with families where responsibilities for abuse is denied. Child Abuse Review, 5, 191–202.

Lee, M. L., Sebold, J., & Uken, A. (2003). Solution-focused treatment of domestic violence offenders: Accountability for change. NY: Oxford University Press.

Turnell, A., & Essex, S. (2006). Working with ‘denied’ child abuse: The resolutions approach. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Child Protection Messages from Research. (1995). Studies in child protection. HMSO: London. http://www.nctsn.org/resources/topics/creating-trauma-informed-systems

1 children’s research center a nonprofit social research organization and division of the...

Documents

safety planning slide

definition safety

safety goals

safety networks

future slide

cheryls safety network

actionbased safety plans

list of services slide