Today’s episode included the following speakers (in the order they appear):Opening quote: Jennifer Jones – Chief Strategy Officer, Prevent Child Abuse America Host: Luke WaldoExperts:Dr. Kristi Slack – Professor, University of Wisconsin School of Social WorkTim Grove – Senior Consultant – Wellpoint Care Network Dr. Julie Woodbury – Family Preservation and Support Manager, Children’s WisconsinSoua Thao – Home Visitor – Children’s WisconsinAshlee Jackson – Family Support Specialist II – Children’s WisconsinTheresa Swiechowski – Family Support Supervisor – Children’s Wisconsin00:00 – Jennifer Jones – “Investing in prevention not only keeps kids safe and in their own families and communities, but it also creates significant savings in our systems. We will see savings in healthcare, we will see savings in corrections, and we will obviously see savings in the child welfare system.” 00:22 - Luke Waldo – How might we move further upstream to prevent overloading families with stress and the potential for neglect? Building Better Childhoods – Prevent Child Abuse America and Frameworks Institute4:38 - Jennifer Jones – Our country needs to invest way more in prevention. $33 billion spent on federal child welfare each year, but only 15% is spent on prevention. We need to invest more in Home Visiting, Family Resource Centers, and anti-poverty programs such as economic concrete supports. Access to these services and supports shouldn’t be impacted by where you live, but we know that it does for too many overloaded families.Home VisitingFamily Resource Centers6:20 - Dr. Kristi Slack – There are not a lot programs or services designed specifically to address neglect. What about parenting needs to change if we are to prevent neglect? We need to get better at assessing what it is that parents need to prevent neglect. We are not likely to see significant reductions in neglect unless we treat it at a structural level, particularly in the area of financial instability and poverty. 1. It’s not one size fits all. 2. We need to learn more about what prevents neglect specifically. 3. We need to focus on systems and structural issues and how they contribute to conditions that lead to neglect.8:54 – Jennifer Jones - Families too often get the support that they need once entering the child welfare system, which is too late. We need a child maltreatment prevention system that supports families once problems begin to occur to prevent child welfare involvement and family separation. We need to think about prevention differently that includes housing, anti-poverty programs, and addressing systemic discrimination.11:02 - Luke Waldo – Early Intervention Services as a potential prevention investment for child welfare system. In this next segment, we discuss the challenges we face with a well-intentioned, but often overloaded workforce that frequently experiences secondary trauma or an empathy overload due to the many work-related and community-based experiences. We also are influenced by our mental models, our beliefs and biases, which can limit our ability to best serve overloaded families or deliver programs with the efficacy and compassion that is needed. Early Intervention Services12:30 - Tim Grove – Discusses the 3 month old child from previous episodes. If there was evidence of physical abuse, the child welfare caseworker would have to take the child to a Child Advocacy Center. This can be overwhelming for the child welfare case worker and manifest as secondary trauma. People that go into the helping fields have a disproportionate rate of their own trauma. This can make them more vulnerable to triggers and reenactment. Between pandemic times and high caseloads, there is greater risk of burnout. This can make it even harder to show compassion to clients. Organizations need to find balance in accommodating staff while still meeting clients’ needs.Child Advocacy Centers – Children’s Wisconsin16:33 - Dr. Kristi Slack – Community Response models can support families that had been deflected from Child Protective Services. Worked with Social Development Commission’s Project Gain to provide greater access to better economic situations in Milwaukee. Through trainings and conversations with staff, discovered biases and beliefs as to why families were poor. Those mental models could impact how model was delivered. It’s interesting to see the differences between what people believe causes poverty and what research shows causes poverty. Changing mental models and cultures of our systems and organizations can improve these programs as families will feel more accepted and outreach will improve.Wisconsin Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention BoardCommunity Response Model and Project Gain study – Berger, Collins and SlackSocial Development Commission19:29 – Luke Waldo – How might we become more trauma-informed? We can address these challenges by shifting our mental models...
