Safety & Risk Assessment Training
In child welfare cases, caseworkers conduct safety and risk assessments to determine how safe children are in their environments and the risk of future harm, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Assessments have to be made in tense, high-stress situations and may have to be done very quickly to decide whether the child will be safe when the worker leaves.
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Basic Principles
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"Safety" is an assessment of whether the child is in immediate danger, according to California's Sphere Institute. Risk is an assessment of how much danger a child will face in the future if left at home. Based on the assessment, caseworkers must decide whether to leave the child with his family or place him elsewhere. The institute has developed a standardized tool for making assessments.
Training
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Multiple state child-welfare agencies offer their caseworkers training in safety and risk assessment. Information on state training programs can be found on state child welfare agency websites.
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Training in Risk Assessment
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Missouri's Department of Social Services website says caseworkers must be trained to recognize key signs of high risk, which include: The caregiver has a history of child abuse; the alleged abuser has a serious substance abuse problem; the caregiver is unwilling to protect the child; injuries to the face or genitals; the abuse is sadistic or excessively violent; the caregiver has a violent temper; the alleged abuser denies or justifies a clearly abusive incident; and the family is socially isolated and lacks a telephone. Workers must also learn how multiple risk factors reinforce each other. A parent who just lost a job, for example, may be more prone to lash out at the children.
Safety Plan
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Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare says learning to develop a safety plan is an essential part of safety and risk assessment training. For a safety plan to work, the department says, it must be something that can be put in place immediately, providing immediate protection. It must be put into a written agreement and the caseworker must check and update it as often as necessary.
Training Programs
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Pennsylvania's training program covers such topics as the state's safety-threshold criteria; steps in the assessment process; definition and assessment of present danger; drawing up a safety plan; developing a safety plan; making an intervention; and deciding when it's safe to reunite a child with her family.
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References
- Child Welfare Information Gateway: Assessing Safety and Risk in Families
- Pennsylvania Child Welfare Training Program: Intro to the Safety Assessment and Management Process
- Sphere Institute: Comprehensive Assessment Tool (CAT) Safety and Risk Assessment System
- Missouri Department of Social Services: 9.1 Safety Assessment Versus Risk Assessment
Resources
- Photo Credit family image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
