Athens County chosen for Alternative Response pilot
By Sherri Oliver
July 12, 2010Athens County Children Services has been selected to join in the innovative Ohio Alternative Response Pilot Project that will provide another tool to child protection agencies for working with children and families in trouble, the Supreme Court of Ohio and Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) have announced. Adding Athens County and nine others will bring the total number of counties participating in the pilot project to 25.
The American Humane Association, along with the Institute of Applied Research and Minnesota leaders (AIM), worked with Ohio to design and implement the pilot. The institute conducted an independent evaluation and found that under a rigorous randomized control trial of 4,822 families over an 18-month period, the "alternative response" practice is safe for children and beneficial to families and caseworkers.
During the pilot, caseworkers used alternative response to respond to anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of all reports of abuse and neglect. Instead of conducting a traditional family assessment, they responded with an "alternative family assessment response," in which they assessed the needs of the child or family — in a non-threatening, non-adversarial manner — and then offered services to meet those needs.
"States currently using this model report that families on the assessment track are less likely to experience a recurrence of child maltreatment. This also results in lower court caseloads,” said Steve Hanson, who manages the Supreme Court Children, Families & the Courts Program.
Andrea Reik, executive director of Athens County Children Services, had this to say about the agency’s acceptance into the pilot program: “Alternative response will allow our agency to engage families on an individual basis and better meet their needs. Our staff is ready to enter this next phase of child protection. It is an exciting opportunity.”
Alternative response is a form of practice in child protective services that allows for more than one method of response to accepted reports of suspected child abuse and/or neglect. This approach recognizes the variation in the nature of reports and the related value of responding differentially, either a traditional investigation or a family assessment response. A family assessment response assesses the needs of the child or family and offers services without requiring a formal disposition (substantiation) that maltreatment has occurred or that the child is at risk of maltreatment.
"Alternative response acknowledges that families have unique needs and that caseworkers need the flexibility to use a variety of tools and strategies to respond to a range of situations," said ODJFS Director Douglas Lumpkin. "Alternative response builds collaborative connections among the child protection agency, community agencies and families to identify issues and meet families’ needs using available supports and services."
Casey Family Programs, Ohio Children Trust Fund joined the project as partners in 2008. As the nation's largest operating foundation entirely focused on foster care, the Casey Family Programs recognized the potential for alternative response to safely reduce the number of children requiring foster care, one of the organization's national goals. Both organizations have provided funding to support county implementation of the alternative response approach.
For more information about the Alternative Response Pilot Project and evaluation visit: http://www.americanhumane.org/protecting-children/programs/differential-response/ohio-alternative-response.html.
