Module 8: Safety and Risk

Differentiating Family Conditions: Danger Threshold Criteria

- 5 criteria for determining when a family condition meets the safety threshold for impending danger: (1) observable (2) out of control (3) vulnerable (4) severity (5) imminence

Differentiating Family Conditions: Danger Threshold Criteria - Imminence

- a belief that threats to child safety are likely to become active w/o delay - a certainty about occurrence w/in the immediate to near future

Unsafe

- a child is considered "unsafe" when there is a danger threat to a vulnerable child w/in a family/home & the caregiver protective capacities are insufficient to manage the threat of danger, thus requiring outside intervention - when children are determined to be "unsafe", a safety plan must be put into place immediately

Present Danger & Impending Danger are different:

- a family may have been in present danger & not be unsafe at the conclusion of the family functioning assessment & vice versa - how we respond to children that are in danger is dependent upon the danger that is identified

Protection, Risk, & Prevention

- a family that is strongly protective will be at low risk for children being maltreated - protective factors help parents to parent & nurture their children despite social, environmental, or other factors & stressors they may encounter - risk factors are associated w/ family behaviors & conditions that suggest to use that caregivers are likely to maltreat their child in the future - when combined & compared against families who have known child abuse/neglect histories, risk factors provide various degrees of concern for the seriousness of the probability of future maltreatment w/in a family - some risk levels are better at indicating the likelihood of childhood maltreatment - risk factors include neg. family situations; protective factors are linked to lower incidence of child abuse & neglect; they lower the possibility of the family being at risk - 6 protective factors: (1) nurturing & attachment (2) knowledge of parenting & child development (3) concrete supports for families (4) social & emotional competence of children (5) parental resilience (6) social connections

Behavioral Protective Capacity

- a personal action that someone is able to demonstrate - it's the most readily observed type of protective capacity - specific action, activity, or performance that is consistent, w/ & results in, protective parenting & protective vigilance

Actuarial Tool to Assess Families at Risk - When is this risk assessment completed?

- at the completion of the FFA

What does "at Elevated Risk of Maltreatment" mean?

- at-risk: w/in the family there are a # of static factors that are indicative of a family where a child in that household could be maltreated - the more of these specific factors that are present in the family, the greater the likelihood that w/o intervention/prevention services, maltreatment will occur - risk of maltreatment: the likelihood that maltreatment will occur or reoccur in the future

Impending Danger

- child living or being in a position of continual or pervasive danger - a child being in a state of danger due to parent/caregiver behaviors, attitudes, motives, emotions, and/or situations which poses a specific threat of severe harm to a child - threats aren't immediate, obvious, or active at the onset of investigation - are identified & understood upon gathering sufficient family functioning info - unlike present danger, once the family functioning assessment is completed there is more info about family dynamics, the underlying family conditions & ultimately how danger is manifested - info gathered during the family functioning assessment informs us regarding the danger so action can be taken that is focused & ensures child safety

Actuarial Tool to Assess Families at Risk

- child welfare professionals are looking at the factors that increase the risk of re-referral to child protection services & subsequent verification or abuse/neglect - enables child welfare professionals to make prevention-focused judgments based on statistics about the families that have been referred to the abuse hotline & investigated - risk assessment results enable child welfare professionals to prioritize finite prevention resources on the cases of the children determined 'safe' but most likely to be maltreated, or maltreated again if the family doesn't participate in some intervention or support service - for decisions about how to prioritize finite resources

Actuarial Tool to Assess Families at Risk: - What is it based on?

- conducting a comparison of specific characteristics of 1 family as compared to the characteristics of the entire class of families that actually have confirmed maltreatment - based on the assumption of this tool that the families at the greatest risk of being referred again for child protection will be the same population as those at greatest risk for abuse& neglect

Differentiating Family Conditions: Danger Threshold Criteria - Observable

- danger is real - can be seen - can be reported - is evidenced in explicit, unambiguous ways

Child Functioning

- described in the FFA - when any new children come to the family at any point during an investigation or on-going services, they must be added to the FFA & their child functioning assessed - any special characteristics of any child in the family that makes them more vulnerable must be identified & described in the FFA - when an investigation determines that a vulnerable child is in impending danger, we are required to act when the harm: has already resulted in abuse, neglect, or abandonment OR a child is suffering from or is in imminent danger of illness or injury AND all of the above are the result of action, or inaction, on the part of the parent or legal guardian

Impending Danger Safety Plan

- designed to put detailed, protective controls around the child to protect the child being maltreated by his or her parent/caregiver - seeks to protect the child in the least intrusive manner possible, w/ the preferred solution that the child remain w/in the family - to know how to best protect the need need a thorough understanding of: the threat; the overt & covert family dynamics that impact how the family functions, makes decisions, responds, thinks, behaves, parents, & how it expresses emotion as a state of being

Protecting the Child Through Prevention

- done by identifying families that are at a statistically increased risk for future child maltreatment & providing parent/caregivers w/ essential supports & services to strengthen & build on their existing foundations to stop maltreatment before it reoccurs - protecting vulnerable children by keeping them safe is the child welfare solution that addresses family situations when the child has been determined to be in danger of severe imminent harm given known components associated w/ the family's overall & typical functioning & dynamics - protecting vulnerable children by decreasing the likelihood of future maltreatment through other voluntary support & treatment services before it arises in the 1st place is the job of the child welfare professional workforce at FL's DCF

Present Danger

- evaluated at the initial contact made by a CPI - the dangerous situation is in the process of occurring which means: (1) it might have just happened (2) is happening (3) or happens all the time & is reasonable expected to happen again immediately or in the very near future - when present danger is encountered, intervention must be immediate - w/ present danger, we will take protective actions to achieve child safety & will then complete all of the activities necessary to gather sufficient info for purposes of an impending danger, unsafe child determination - key criteria associated w/ the present danger definition: immediate, significant, clearly observable

Differentiating Family Conditions: Danger Threshold Criteria - Out-of-Control

- family conditions which can affect a child & are unrestrained; unmanaged; w/o limits or monitoring; not subject to influence; manipulation; or internal power; out of the family's control

Family Conditions Impending Danger?

- family conditions: situations & circumstances associated w/ family dynamics that affect a child; influenced by a child &/or caregiver behaviors, emotions, perceptions, attitudes, etc. that can have an effect on child vulnerability & safety - to effectively evaluate impending danger it's necessary to have sufficient info related to the function assessment areas: discipline; parenting; adult; child

Potential Impacts of Danger Threats on Child Functioning

- impending danger & the determination of impending danger is based upon gathering sufficient info to understand how danger manifests w/in the household, & how the vulnerable child is affected by that threat - physical injury - emotional trauma - basic care needs of child & siblings - special care needs - delays in child development - academic performance - social skills - intellect - self-control - behavior patterns - mood changes - eating & sleeping habits - sexual

Vulnerable Child

- knowing if a child is unsafe is dependent upon 3 variables: (1) danger threats (2) caregiver protective capacities (3) how a child is vulnerable to the family dynamics - vulnerable: unable to care for themselves; unable to protect themselves; depends on others; all children are basically vulnerable; given their age, any child is going to be unable to care for & protect themselves & depend on others to varying degrees - conditions that would make a child more vulnerable: any child under the age of 6; conditions such as ADHD; medically complex child; child w/ developmental delay or disability; child w/ autism; child w/ emotional disorders; acting-out teenage

Caregiver Protective Capacities

- personal & caregiving behavioral, cognitive, & emotional characteristics that can be specifically & directly associated w/ being protective of 1's young - assessment of caregiver capacities to manage impending danger is documented as part of the FFA - both definitions of CPC's & Impending Danger identify personal & family attributes that can be observed, identified, & described - both CPC's & Impending Danger Threats are things that: you can see or learn about from credible sources; can be described to you by others who know a family & can at time be observed by you; never rely only on a parent's self-report - when considering the danger threats & CPC's & the necessary info to understand how danger is manifested & which CPC's are associated, we should be able to: identify the behavior, motive, attitude, emotion, perception, or family circumstance that is out of control; indicate how the behavior, motive, attitude, emotion, perception, or family circumstance is dangerous to a child - 3 categories: behavioral, cognitive, & emotional

Present Danger: Criteria - Clearly Observable

- present danger family conditions are observable actions, behavior, emotions, or out-of-control conditions in the home - they can be specifically & explicitly described as to harm to the child or likely to result in immediate harm to the child

Actuarial Tool to Assess Families at Risk - Cannot be used for

- recognizing or controlling threats of danger - understanding how danger is manifested - targeting remedial services to improve protective capacity

Present Danger: Criteria - Significant

- referring to a family condition, this means that the nature of what's out of control & immediately threatening to a child is onerous, vivid, impressive, & notable - the family condition exists as a dominant matter that must be dealt w/

Differentiating Family Conditions: Danger Threshold Criteria - Severity

- severity is consistent w/ harm that can result in pain, serious injury, disablement, grave or debilitating physical health conditions, acute or grievous suffering, terror, impairment, death

Emotional Protective Capacity

- specific feelings, attitudes, identifications w/ child, & motivation that results in protective parenting & protective vigilance

Cognitive Protective Capacity

- specific intellect, knowledge, understanding, & perception that results in protective parenting & protective vigilance

The FFA will determine & document

- the danger threat associated w/ the behaviors of the parent who isn't in control - the adverse impact of the out-of-control condition on the protective capacities of the maltreating parent - whether the protective capacities of the non-maltreating parent are in operation & effective to protect the child

Present & Impending Danger: Legal Implications

- the differentiation of "present danger assessment" & "impending danger assessment" helps us to be aligned w/ core legal foundation: (1) we identify child's immediate need for safety w/ present danger (2) we will gather more info to know if this was a 1-time situation or not (reasonable efforts to learn what we need to know) (3) w/ impending danger, we will know enough about the family to really determine what would be least intrusive for the child & for the family

Protection vs. Risk

- there are specific protective factors at the family level, individual level, level of the school, & level of the community - these levels also contain specific risk factors - the more protective factors present in the life of the child at each of these 4 levels, the more likely that the child will grow to be a resilient, productive member of society - the more risk factors present in the life of the child at each of the 4 levels, the more likely the child is at risk of: being maltreated; developing personal behavior problems

Is a child in Impending Danger?

- there is a significance difference b/w a child who is experiencing present danger & a child who lives in a pervasive state of danger - in order to know that a child is living in a pervasive state of danger, & protective interventions are essential, we must gather & assess sufficient info to know 3 essential aspects of family dynamics: (1) danger threats (2) caregiver protective capacities (3) child vulnerability - the decision to seek dependency of a child who is in impending danger is based on whether the deeper intrusiveness of court supervision is necessary to help a child gain safety & permanency - must always strive to have sufficient info in order to know if a child is unsafe, & have the "legal sufficiency" necessary to seek court supervision should it be necessary after least intrusive options have been ruled out

Danger Threats

- used to qualify/identify present danger - descriptions of family conditions that are immediate, significant, & clearly observable

Present Danger: Criteria - Immediate

- what is happening in the family is affecting the child now - you are in the midst of the danger the child is subject to - the threatening family condition is in operation, meaning it might just have happened, is happening or happens all the time

Information Collection

- when the FFA is 1st completed by an investigator, there is enough info to know if a child is in "impending danger"; there is sufficient info to know that child is living in a situation of on-going, pervasive danger - there's a determination that the child is "unsafe" & that protective interventions by the department must occur, & they are not negotiable w/ the family - the identification of specific impending danger threats is directly linked to sufficient info in specific info domains - info obtained by parents needs to be validated w/ other persons - want the perspectives of extended family members, other persons who know the family &/or child well - may need a professional evaluation or info from a professional w/ expertise in the family condition

How many danger threats are there?

11

Actuarial Tool to Assess Families at Risk - answers what question

Which families are at the highest risk of re-referral & re-maltreatment to child protection services w/in the next 18 months if the family doesn't choose to receive intervening supports?

Safe

a child can be considered "safe" when there is no threat of danger to a child w/in the family/home or when the caregiver protective capacities w/in the home can manage threats or danger

Actuarial Tool

a statistically-modeled tool that looks at the likelihood of something happening compared to a class of people w/ specific characteristics

Differentiating Family Conditions: Danger Threshold Criteria - Vulnerable Child

dependence on others for protection