Danger Statement
The Danger Statement empowers the family to acknowledge their understanding of why the Department is involved with their family and express what needs to change within the family to protect the children. The Danger Statement should be written in language that is easily comprehended by all family members. Case management’s role is to guide the family during the creation of the Danger Statement.
Why is DCF involved?
What will it take for DCF to close case?
The father's overuse of prescription medication and alcohol has left his child without the proper basic care and safety. The mother stated that her mental health has resulted in many occasions where she was unresponsive and unable to meet the basic needs of her child; she recalls a few times she did not feed her child for over 8 hours at a time. Both the mother and father expressed that if they are able to manage their substance misuse issues and mental health concerns, they will be able to parent and protect their child and no longer need the Department's help.
Family Change Strategy
This strategy provides case management the opportunity to empower the family to take ownership of the dependency process by identifying their own goals, ideas to achieve the goals, and potential barriers.
Goal: This is the family’s chance to describe how their family will look and feel when the child is safe. Case management assists the family by guiding them to identify positive actions, feelings, and thoughts instead of just the absence of diminished caregiver protective capacities. For instance, the child will be safe when the mother and father are able to speak to each other calmly and respectfully in front of the child. This example eliminates the typically seen language of “parents will not use violence in front of the child” and instead provides the family a positive, concise, and attainable action.
Ideas: It is important that the family brainstorm their own possible strategies to achieve their identified family goal. If the family is unable to list ideas, case management may suggest potential ideas to help start the brainstorming process. Ideas should not be dictated by the Department and are not necessarily formal services or case plan tasks.
Barriers: Case management should provide a nonjudgmental atmosphere for the family to candidly discuss what they perceive to be their obstacles to achieving their identified goal. For an accurate depiction of potential barriers, case management must be cognizant of the Motivation for Change stage that the clients are in and be receptive to the true underlying issues directly impacting child safety.
The father and mother indicated their family goal is to regain custody of their child. The father wants to refrain from using alcohol and wants to drastically reduce and ultimately eliminate his prescription medication. The mother wants to gain better confidence as a parent and also not have "bad days" with her diagnosis of depression.
The father and mother indicated they will follow all their case plan services. The father wants to have an independent medical evaluation to see if he can reduce his prescription medication. The mother wants to join a woman's support group and desires to attend church services more frequently.
The father feels his dependence to prescription medication and alcohol may be too much for him to handle without a lot of support. The mother worries her depression will never allow her to be the "best mom" she can be for her child.
Motivation for Change
Case management must accurately assess the parent's motivation for change stage. By recognizing the problem leading to child safety concerns, parents may begin to accept and understand why that change must occur, and ultimately display enough self-determination to maintain the positive change.
