By Grace Lavigne
The American Humane Association and Casey Family Programs have chosen 21 teams from public and tribal child welfare agencies to participate in a project to improve safety and risk assessments in the child welfare system.
The effort, known as the American Humane–Casey Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Safety and Risk Assessments, will employ a quality improvement process used extensively in the health care field and originated by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Associates in Process Improvement, according to the Casey Family Programs.
The teams are from California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, as well as the Navajo Nation Division of Social Services and the Chippewa Cree Tribe.
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the teams will test various ideas, processes, strategies and tools for improving the assessments of safety and risk in their child welfare systems. The most successful approaches will be implemented by the other teams.
More information is at http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pc_initiatives_bsc.
