1 Children’s Research Center A nonprofit social research organization and division of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency Integrated Safety-Organized Practice Module Two: Three Questions to Organize Your Practice

2 ModuleSubject 1Interviewing for Safety and Danger 2Three Questions to Organize Your Practice 3Small Voices, Big Impact: Keeping Children at the Center of the Work 4Solution-focused Inquiry 5Introduction to Mapping 6Harm Statements, Danger Statements and Safety Goals 7Mapping With Families 8Safety Networks 9Safety Planning 10Landing Safety-Organized Practice in Everyday Work 11 Organizational Environments: Reflection, Appreciation, and Ongoing Learning 12Summary and Looking to the Future

3 Agreements “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 work together to hold to these agreements and authorize the trainer to hold us to them.

4 Steve Edwards Andrew Turnell …and we hope YOU will continue to build on these ideas and approaches. Sonja Parker CRC Staff Insoo Kim Berg Steve de Shazer Our Thinking Draws From the Legacy of Others Rob Sawyer Sue Lohrbach Carver County John Vogel Sophia Chin Heather Meitner Nicki Weld Susie Essex

5 Reminder: What is this Series About? Safety is: Actions of protection taken by the caregiver that mitigate the danger, demonstrated over time. Adapted from Boffa, J., & 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.

6 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? Let’s Review and Reflect!

7 The Essential Question What is the essential question of this work?

8 The Essential Question What is the essential question of this work? Are the children safe?

9 The Essential Question What is the essential question of this work? Are the children safe? How do we get an answer to this question?

10 Three Questions that Organize THE INTERVIEW What are we worried about? What is working well? What needs to happen?

11 What are we worried about? Caregiver Behavior Impact on the child How do we keep that in our thoughts as we engage and interview?? Is the impact traumatic for the child?

12 When Asking “What Are We Worried About?”, Use Questions That… 1.Surface behavioral descriptions; move past vagueness, generalizations, jargon. 2.Get the perspectives of all the family members, especially the children: “If your children were here right now, what would they say worries them?”” 3.Stay connected to the heart of the interview: What is the impact of the caregiver’s actions on the child? 4.Remember the content you need to acquire: What will you need to know in order to make best use of the SDM tools? Is the impact traumatic for the child?

13 Generalizations vs. Behavioral Descriptions and Impact How do they know? What are the caregiver behaviors are associated with it? When do those behaviors show themselves? How do those behaviors impact the child? How do you know? How do you find out? What does the child know? What has the child seen? What are you worried is happening or will happen? “She is mentally ill.”

14 Generalizations vs. Behavioral Descriptions and Impact What does he drink? When does he drink? Where is the child when he drinks? What are the caregiver behaviors associated with it? When do those behaviors show themselves? How do those behaviors impact the child? How do you know? How do you find out? “He’s an alcoholic.”

15 What Is Working Well? If we do not know “what is working well” we cannot know how worried to be. Ask questions that rigorously surface the history of protection—and how this can be applied to the safety of the children going forward.

16 Suicide attempt by gas in the kitchen while the children were home Foster care Her father: physically abusive, dangerous Poverty DVDV DEPRESSIONDEPRESSION OFFMEDSOFFMEDS Past PresentFuture Looking for what’s working well

17 Suicide attempt by gas in the kitchen while the children were home Foster care Her father: physically abusive, dangerous Poverty DVDV DEPRESSIONDEPRESSION OFFMEDSOFFMEDS Past PresentFuture Looking for what’s working well What is working well?

18 “What Is Working Well?” Caregiver Behavior Impact on the child

19 Generalizations vs. Behavioral Descriptions and Impact Stable meaning what? Stable from what? What are the caregiver behaviors associated with being stable? When do those behaviors show themselves? How do those behaviors impact the child? How do you know? How do you find out? Trauma? “She’s stable.”

20 What Needs to Happen? “People support what they have had a hand in creating.” - Margaret Wheatley

21 What Needs to Happen? ONE WAY TO BEGIN

22 What Needs to Happen?: SCALING to SMALL ACTION STEPS On a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being “my children were in real danger when I turned on that gas,” and 10 being “my child was always 100% safe and could never be hurt when I turned on the gas,” where do you think things were that night? Concretely, what did you do that night that is letting you give it as high a number as you are giving it? What steps did you take to protect your children when you turned on the gas? At what number would you optimally want things to be? What action would you need to take in the future to get there? What would be the very first step? What number do you imagine I (or my supervisor) think things were at that night? What action do you think we would need to see you taking for our number to go up?

23 Exercise I: Surfacing the Generalizations We Live by Every Day In small groups: Make an exhaustive list of all the generalizations, labels, and generally imprecise descriptions we use every day to describe families. Start by taking a piece of paper and dividing it in half—the “working well” and the “worries.” Then come up with a list of all the common phrases and descriptions we use every day about families that tell us nothing about impact! Keep it real!

24 Exercise Part II: Interviewing for “the Worries” Caregiver Behavior Impact on the child Form groups of three: Interviewer Interviewee Coach/observer The interviewer should ask questions of interviewee about a family with whom he/she or a supervisee are working, with the goal of reaching an exhaustive list of all the worries, but they need to be described in the following format: Try not to use any of the vague or imprecise terms you just came up with!

25 What Information Is Needed? Check the relevant SDM ® tool! All information Information learned Information needed for decision at hand

26 Exercise Part III: Connecting With SDM ® Choose one of those worries—perhaps the one that concerns you most. Look at the SDM safety assessment and choose the item that most corresponds to that worry. Look at the definition that goes with that item. In your interview, did you gather enough details to know if you should score that item? What else would you need to ask about, if anything?

27 Conclusions: Interviewing Using the Three Questions Assessment is an interaction where the kind of relationships we have will influence the kind of information we get. If people feel we are interested in them as “full people” (people who both have “worries” and things that are “working well”) we will get better information and be able to make better assessments. It is not enough to have an assessment that is solely focused on the “history of the harm”—we also need to be as equally focused on the “history of protection.” These assessments need to keep at their heart: What is the impact on the child, and what is the information we need to get the most out of the SDM assessments. When you do this, you will have a balanced, rigorous assessment. Is the impact traumatic for the child?

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

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30 One Last Thing: Thinking Ahead In pairs: What is 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?

31 References Berg, I.K. (1994). Family Based Services: A Solution-Focused Approach. New York: W.W. Norton. Chin, S., Decter, P., Madsen, W., & Vogel, J. (2010). Enhancing Risk Assessment Through Organizational Learning: A Mid-Stream Report From Massachusetts. Protecting Children, 25(3): 7–20. Department of Child Protection. (2011). The Signs of Safety Child Protection Practice Framework. Department of Child Protection, Perth. Retrieved from White, M. (2007). Maps of Narrative Practice. New York: Norton. Turnell, A., & Edwards S. (1999). Signs of Safety. New York: Norton.