Increasing Family Engagement in Case Planning

The Permanency From Day 1 (PFD1) Grant intervention, Enhanced Permanency Planning Meetings, will be ending March 31, 2024. In our final newsletter, we are providing a summary of the collaborative practice that was established and acknowledge those who contributed to this process. 

The PFD1 Enhanced Permanency Planning intervention was collaboratively created to impact families' experiences in the dependency system by promoting increased engagement of family, youth, relatives, and caregivers in shared planning meetings. This intervention was established in part utilizing best practices of facilitators across the state. 

Family teaming requires that parents, youth, relatives, and family-like connections are championed as experts on their own lives, a source of solutions, and as partners in decision-making. This grant intervention worked to transform interactions with dependency families and youth from a compliance-based practice to one of family teaming. We attempted to empower family and youth voice in case decisions. Facilitators worked to foster a culture within meetings of equity and inclusion that could act as a model for everyday interactions between family and DCYF staff.

In acknowledgement of staff workload issues, we also ensured that less work was required of case workers (facilitators tracked meetings, ensured that meetings took place, sent out invites, and completed all scheduling and documentation).  

Positive Takeaways Vs. Myths

Initially when we started, several assumptions were told to us about family, youth, caregiver, and community partner teaming. Based on 5000+ permanency planning meetings, we found those assumptions (listed below) not to be valid.

*Parents will not stay in a meeting if plans other than reunification are discussed. Parents participated in permanency discussions. More importantly they were afforded the opportunity to make their own choice in whether they participated and how that looked. We attempted to have parents at the forefront of decision-making in meetings, realizing that the ultimate decision rested with DCYF. For any family team member to equally participate in a meeting, they need to have an understanding of all the information, including all permanency options; providing this in meetings empowered all family team members to give informed opinions. 

*Youth participation in shared planning meetings should be limited to those youth over age 12 and content should be limited to protect youth. Children and youth are a part of the family, and we offered family team meetings that were inclusive of all children and youth, in some manner. Children and youth who were able to communicate met with facilitators to determine what they were comfortable with sharing in the meeting, and whether they wanted to attend. Infants and toddlers had the opportunity to attend for parts of meetings to interact with the family and family team. Inclusion of youth is a necessary step to ensuring that children and youth of all ages, races, ethnic backgrounds, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities can safely and effectively partner in shared decision-making (reference QIC-EY ). 

*Attorneys will not participate in shared planning meetings. We found attorneys and GALs/CASAs to be an invested group in holding transparent and consistent meetings. Attorneys and GALs/CASAs attended meetings regularly. If an attorney could not attend, we were typically asked to reschedule the meeting so they could attend. Meetings afforded the opportunity for mediation on disagreements and minimally an understanding of the point-of-views of team members.

*Virtual meetings are not an effective tool to engage families. We found that virtual meetings facilitated family attendance and contributed to a neutral, more equal atmosphere for meetings. There is stress attached to entering a DCYF office for some parents and youth; virtual meetings decreased that trauma. Virtual meetings are more convenient for most families, caregivers, youth, and external partners. To increase actual engagement, facilitators requested that all family team members remain on camera. If a family requested an in-office meeting, one was provided.

Preliminary Data

The Enhanced Permanency Planning Meetings served 653 families in Regions 1, 4, and 6.

Preliminary data indicates more relative, youth, and parental participation in Treatment meetings:

• Participation of youth in the PFD1 meetings is between 5. 5 and 6.7 times greater than the Control group meetings.
  • Youth of all ages attending meetings contributes to family focused meetings.
• Other extended family attending is between 2 and 3 times greater.
• Fathers attending is between 2.25 and 2.66 times greater.
• Mothers attending is between 2 and 2.3 times greater.
•  In general, participants in the Treatment group (PFD1 meetings) received almost 6 meetings on average compared to 2.6 meetings in the Control group.
• We enter our Evaluation Phase April 1st; more data will be available this summer/fall.

Who We Are

 Several DCYF staff contributed to this intervention through their willingness to work within this project. Their passion for inclusion, transparency, and respectful relationships with family, youth, caregivers, Tribes, and community partners laid the foundation for the success of this intervention. 

• Paula McJohnson: Grant facilitator in R6, now Intensive Resources Program Consultant
• Shannon Quinn: Grant facilitator in R4; now Rapid Response Team Community Development Manager
• Stephanie Bieber: Grant facilitator in R6; now Family First Prevention Program Consultant
• Tracie Arnold: Grant facilitator in R1; now Spokane Central SPM Facilitator
• Annie Kurtz: Grant facilitator in R1
• Jessyka Bastin: Grant facilitator in R1; now CFWS Supervisor
• Sarah Cope: Grant facilitator in R4; now Complex Placement/LOS Program Manager
• Jennifer Campbell: Grant facilitator in R6
• Cari Morris: Grant facilitator in R 1
• Naz Oliveria: Grant facilitator in R4; now QPS/QA Specialist
• Caitlin Thompson: Grant facilitator in R1 & R4; now Family First Prevention Program Consultant
• Karin Scott: Grant facilitator in R1 & R4; now Complex Youth SPM Facilitator
• Joseph Ulrigg: Grant facilitator in R6; now DD/MH Program Consultant
• Jessica Kodai: Grant facilitator in R4; now Intensive Resources Program Consultant
• Heidi Castillo: Grant facilitator in R1 & R4
• Mindy Worley: Grant facilitator in R4 & R6
• Cassandra Jolly: Grant facilitator in R4 & R6; now FTDM/SPM facilitator in Tumwater
• Stefanie Harmon: Grant CQI/QA Program Manager

Appreciations

We'd like to acknowledge and thank the DCYF caseworkers, supervisors, and Area Administrators who participated in this intervention. Your dedication to best practices for families, openness to change and willingness to provide feedback was greatly appreciated. The successes of this intervention are your successes, and we thank and applaud your work. 

To the parents, youth, relatives, caregivers, family-like supports, DGALs, attorneys, Tribes, family advocates, providers, counselors, and other community partners who participated in PFD1 permanency planning meetings: Thank you! Thank you for your consistent participation, honesty, willingness to hold difficult conversations, and feedback (that we used to improve our process for families). The successes of this intervention are also your successes, to the benefit of family and youths in the dependency system. We appreciate your commitment to this process and to working with us to improve interactions with families, youth, relatives, and community partners. 

Debbie Marker, PFD1 Grant Administrator

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