1. Safety Organized Practice: Key Skills to Develop
Sue Lohrbach 2012

2. Webinar Guide Child Welfare History 101 Practice Model Components
Constructive Engagement
Involvement
Research Translated into Direct Practice
Gathering, Organizing & Analyzing Information
Ongoing Assessment, Planning & Decision Making
Critical Thinking
Engagement Specific to Children/Youth
Questions

3. Where were we before we recognized strength based work with children, youth and families?

4. Child Protection Transformation Toward Partnership & Collaboration
Incident Based
Retrospective
Fact Finding
Paternalistic
Isolation
Adversarial
Safety
Well-being
Permanency
Ecological
Prospective
Needs Based
Partnership
Collaboration
Settlements
Sawyer/Lohrbach 2004

5. Practice Model Constructive engagement
Inclusion of family, extended family & community
Collaborative engagement
Utilization of research
Lohrbach - Sawyer

6. Practice Model Safety organized Responsible use of authority
Comprehensive assessment of risk including protective capacity
Lohrbach - Sawyer

7. “Engaged relationships hold the promise for sustained change”
Communicate interest by
Asking good questions that
Provide a high yield of information and
Share resources that are available to
Support assessment, planning and decision making now and
Into the future

8. Communicating Interest: Setting the Stage
Greetings – inclusion of disclosure of role and purpose of the meeting
Transparency – “the agency received information……….”
Choices – even if between “rock and hard place”
Questions – open ended questions signal interest

9. Asking “Good” Questions
Open ended: What? When? Where? How?
Avoid: Why? Questions that elicit a “yes/no” response unless desired
Solution focused
Strengths based

10. Open – ended Questions with a Focus
What?
> brought the family to the attention of the agency?
> alternative explanations are there?
> is known about any previous history with child protective services/youth services? Specific allegations?
> behaviors were observed or described?
> is known about safe and protective parenting practices?
Lohrbach, S. (2010). Framework Questions. Unpublished manuscript.

11. Open – ended Questions with a Focus
Where?
> do family members live?
> do family members go when times are stressful?
> do folks tend to get stuck?
> do folks tend to find success?
S. Lohrbach, (2010). Framework Questions. Unpublished manuscript.

12. Open – ended Questions with a Focus
When?
> was the first time you can remember using alcohol?
> did the relationship begin?
> did you first get the diagnosis?
> was there a time when you were feeling healthy?
S. Lohrbach, (2010). Framework Questions. Unpublished manuscript.

13. Open – ended Questions with a Focus
Who?
> is in your family?
> was/is involved?
> do you turn to for support?
> else is involved with your family (e.g. service providers)
> has been helpful?
S. Lohrbach, (2010). Framework Questions. Unpublished manuscript.

14. Open – ended Questions with a Focus
How?
> do caregivers manage frustration? Anger?
> are the children doing? Developmentally, academically?
> do folks typically contact one another?
> can we prevent this from happening again?
S. Lohrbach, (2010). Framework Questions. Unpublished manuscript.

15. Solution Focused Questions
Scaling Questions
Detail and Amplification Questions
Exception finding Questions
Miracle Questions
Coping Questions
Goal Setting

16. Strengths – based Questions
Listen to family stories rather than telling them or becoming preoccupied with moving through an assessment protocol.

17. Strengths – based Questions
Survival Questions – How have you managed to survive (or thrive) given the challenges you have had to contend with? What have you learned about yourself and your world or family during your struggles? What are the special qualities that you rely upon?
Saleebey, D. (ed) (1997): The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice 2nd edition. Allen and Unwin, New York.

18. Strengths – based Questions
Support Questions: who in your life has given you understanding, support, and guidance? Who are the people that you can depend on? How did you find them? What groups, organizations, etc. have been useful/helpful to you in the past?
Saleebey, D. (ed) (1U97): The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice. 2nd edition. Allen & Unwin, New York.

19. Strengths – based Questions
Exception Questions: When things were going well in life, what was different? When was a time you felt like ____ and did something else? What parts of your world and your being would you like to recapture, reinvent, or relive?
Saleebey, D. (ed) (1997). The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice. 2nd edition. Allen and Unwin, New York.

20. Strengths – based Questions
Possibility Questions: What are your hopes and visions? What fantasies and dreams have given you special hope and guidance? What people or personal qualities are helping you move in these directions?
Saleebey, D. (ed) (1997). The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice. 2nd edition. Allen & Unwin, New York.

21. Strengths – based Questions
Esteem Questions: When people say good things about you, what are they likely to say? How will you know when things are going well in your life – what will you be doing, who will you be with, how will you be feeling, thinking and acting.
Saleebey, D. (ed) (1997). The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice. 2nd edition. Allen & Unwin, New York.

22. Making Space for Critical Thinking
Use of language
Practice makes permanent
Gathering information
Organizing information
Analyzing information
Impressions & intuition
Lohrbach, 2000

23. Comprehensive Risk Assessment
Family Knowledge Network and Culture
Balanced Assessment of Risk
Safety
Danger
Professional Knowledge Network and Authority
©2000Andrew Turnell PO Box 56 Burswood WA 6100 Australia,

24. Consultation and Information Sharing Framework
Reason for Referral
Safety
GENOGRAM/ECOMAP
ℴ Detail re: incident(s) Bringing the family to the attention of the agency. Impact on child(ren).
ℴ Pattern/history
ℴ Strengths demonstrated as protection over time
ℴ Pattern/history of exceptions
(Gray Area)
Next Steps
Strengths/Protective Factors
Risk Statements
Current Ranking 1
(Immediate Progress) Safety/Protection Required
ℴ Assets, resources, capacities within family, individual/community
ℴ Presence of research based protective factors
ℴ Risk to child(ren)
ℴ Context of risk 2 3 4 5
ℴ Development of next steps relevant to risk context
ℴ What
ℴ Who
ℴ When
ℴ Etc.
Complicating Factors 6
Purpose/Focus of Consultation
ℴ Condition/behaviors that contribute to greater difficulty for the family
ℴ Presence of research based risk factors 7 8 9
ℴ What is the worker/team looking for in this consult? 10
Enough safety to close
Partnering: Action with family in their position: willingness, confidence, capacity
(Lohrbach)

25. Development of Risk Statements (aka: “danger statements”)
Two Components
Risk: What is it you are worried may happen to the child/children?
Context: When are you most worried that will happen?
Lohrbach, 2000

26. Risk Statement Prompts
________(child name) may be ________(risk) when/should _______(context).
Lohrbach, 2000

27. Risk Statement Prompts
Risk statements are generally built from the detail regarding harm done, impact on child – may include discrepant explanations
Safety plans and goals are built specifically to the contexts of risks
Risk statements can be organized specific to child safety, well-being and permanency in child welfare work
Risk statements are written in a language that makes sense to the family
Risk statements reflect the agency’s concerns
Lohrbach, 2000

28. Safety Statement Prompts
The risk of _______to _______ (child name) when/should ________(context) is being/has been addressed by ________.
Safety statements/goals are put in behavioral terms and reflect all detail.
Lohrbach, 2004

29. Creative Engagement with Children & Youth
Do ask for consent
Do use paper, crayons, markers, pencils, pens
Do mirror the developmental stages – move to the floor or the table, slouch as necessary 
Do give choices
Do be honest about how the information (pictures, etc.) will be used and with whom
Do adapt and flex

30. Prompts/Tools/Techniques for Engaging Children & Youth
The Three Houses – Nicki Weld/Maggie Greening
The Safety House – Sonia Parker
Fairies and Wizards – Vania da Paz
Draw a Person
Resource Game
Texting/passing notes
Using self - authenticity
Other

31. Children - The Little Prince
Grownups love numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask you questions about the essential things. They never say to you: What does his voice sound like? Which games does he like? Does he collect butterflies? Instead they ask you: How old is he? How many brothers has he got? How much does his father make? Only in that way do they get the feeling they know him.
- The Little Prince
Lohrbach

32. Sue Lohrbach twinoaksfc@aol.com
Questions?
Sue Lohrbach