Leadership & Innovation: Perspectives from the CA Practice Model California Linkages Convening May 18, 2015

Anita P. Barbee, MSSW, Ph.D. Professor Distinguished University Scholar PI, Child Welfare and Family Support Training Assessment Projects Kent School of Social Work University of Louisville Consultant

Outline  One’ state’s journey  Two things that facilitated collaboration: Practice Model that helped frame how we saw clients Leadership training  Role of Middle Managers  CA Practice Model creation- implications for Linkages  Relevant Leadership Theories that could be instructive

Kentucky’s Journey Passage of The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L )

Beyond eligibility If families could only be on TANF for 5 years total, then underlying issues affecting the parents’ ability to work needed to be addressed.

Examination of Personal and Interpersonal Roots of Poverty Intergenerational poverty Family violence Becoming a parent as a teenager Raising children as a single parent all along or as a result of divorce Parental cognitive or physical disability or other health problem Parental involvement in domestic violence Parental mental illness Parental addictions

Environmental Causes Lack of good K-12 schools Lack of access to higher education Lack of work skills to obtain and keep a job. Prejudice and discrimination Lack of fair housing, concentration of poverty Lack of job opportunities Lack of transportation Lack of high quality child care High rates of incarceration (felony box)

Similarities in populations  CW parents struggle with the same issues  Some of those issues contribute to child maltreatment  A deliberate decision was made to reduce silos and create more synergy between the family support side of the house with the child welfare side of the house

Department for Community Based Services- DCBS  Merger of training departments  Rehired the 9 Service Regional Administrators (SRAs) to oversee both functions- some of whom came from FS and some of whom came from CW  Created SRAA (Associates) positions to oversee FS and CW and their key component parts (e.g. TANF, Workforce Development, Investigations, Adoptions)

Human Services Leadership Institute (HSLI)  All SRAs, Central Administration Managers and SRAAs engaged in HSLI  All front line supervisors and workers engaged in Everyone a Leader-EAL  Structural changes of all DCBS offices across the state  Practice model education, cross training, collaborative case planning, strong referral services

 These trainings gave us a common vision, common language, common approach to working with families and introduced everyone to the learning organization framework  This helped to overcome the initial struggles (e.g. different types of work, different paths to employment for the workforce, resistance to change)

Integrated Framework from:  Relapse Prevention (Cognitive Behavioral Theory) (Marlatt & Gordon, 1985, Pithers, 1990, Beck, 1993) Cognitive Behavior Therapy  Solution-Focused Therapy (Berg, 1994, DeShazer, 1988) All three models have their own well-documented evidence base. Solution Focused Interviewing  Family Life Cycle Theory (Carter and McGoldrick, 1999) Family Life Cycle Theory

High Risk Situations for Abuse and Neglect Late Build Up Physical Signs Using fantasy Building Excuses Harmful Incident Physical abuse Sexual abuse Substance use Lack of action Early Build Up Negative Thoughts “Poor Me” Blaming others Triggering Events Justification Denial Guilt and shame Wild promises

Linkages What I like about what you are doing is the ongoing nature of grappling together with the issues facing families and continuing the dialogue about how to best work together to serve them better.

Factors related to successful implementation are:  Strong Leadership supporting Linkages  A workplace culture that supports innovation  Clear communication between CalWORKs and Child Welfare

Role of Middle Management Is Critical to Success  In our state it was our middle managers from Central Office and the Regional Offices working together to facilitate collaboration in the field that transformed the way clients received these various services.

6 Key Competencies of Middle Managers (Antle, Barbee & van Zyl, 2009)  Understanding the relevant federal, state and local policies  Use of data to determine compliance with laws and policies  Understanding the particular needs of clients in their jurisdiction and having the skills to build relationships with other community agency leaders to collaborate on behalf of staff and clients.

Middle Managers (cont)  Knowledge of practice innovations  Ensures their staff receive training which aligns with policy, strategic direction of the agency and includes innovative practice  Manages change while also helping staff cope with demands of job and change

California Practice Model  California child welfare leaders and county directors are developing a practice model for child welfare practice.  The first stage was to generate the theoretical underpinnings of the model as well as the values, principles, knowledge, skills and behaviors that we expect workers to execute when working with families.

California Practice Model (cont)  In the second stage, we are honing in on the organizational supports necessary to ensure that the CA Practice Model is implemented successfully so that positive outcomes for children, youth and families can be reached

Goal with Existing Practice The CPM builds on the great work already taking place by integrating key elements of existing initiatives and proven practices including CAPP and Katie A. 22

Problem, Process, Practice, Prevention  Theories must help staff understand: 1. What causes the problem, including the types of internal vs. external causal attributions staff will make about the causes of child maltreatment 2. What process is going on that is impacting the person and making the situation or problem worse, including past and ongoing oppression and trauma 3. How to engage in optimal practice including the proper 3. orientation to take towards clients and the way to successfully intervene and provide effective treatment 4. How to create efficient and compassionate systems that 5. effectively sustain ongoing treatment and prevent future problems. 23

Three Subgroups of Micro- Theories 1. Orienting Theories- These help set the orientation towards clients and work with clients in the child welfare system. Any child welfare casework practice model must choose at least one theory from this cluster to set the tone for all interactions with clients. 2. Neuro-Developmental Theories- These focus on the developmental nature of children and families. These approaches help us understand how and why maltreatment happens and how and why interventions work. 24

 Intervention Theories- These help set an understanding of the process leading to maltreatment and specify what needs to change in order for maltreatment to end and safety to be ensured.

26 Orienting Theories

27 Neuro-Developmental Theories

28 Intervention Theories

29 Organizational Theories

Quinn’s Competing Values Framework

31 Learning Organization

 A learning organization is one in which people at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about.

The Five Disciplines of a Learning Organization (Senge, 2006) 1. Building a Shared Vision--the practice of unearthing shared “pictures of the future” that foster genuine commitment. 2. Personal Mastery--the skill of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision. 3. Mental Models--the ability to unearth our internal pictures of the world, to scrutinize them, and to make them open to the influence of others.

The Five Disciplines (continued) 4. Team Learning--the capacity to think together which is gained by mastering the practice of dialogue and discussion. 5. Systems Thinking--the discipline that integrates the others, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice. ( Senge, P. (1986). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Double-day.)

36 Parallel Process

37 Trauma Informed Care

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