Family Assessment Response: Addressing Family Challenges

"I' m from the govern­ment, and I'm here to help." Everyone jokes about this overused phrase, as it represents skepticism of government overreaching in our lives. As a Republican, I too often see proposals and stories where our govern­ment has gone too far. It's amazing sometimes to see how many bills we pass that are unnecessary or that must be passed simply to fix something government messed up in the first place. However, in the case of the recently-implemented Family Assessment Re­sponse, government work­ers have new flexibility to truly make a difference in the lives of struggling families.

Many people associate Child Protective Services (CPS) with taking children out of their home and away from parents. It may be because the child is being abused, or because there is some kind of danger or mistreatment in the home. The purpose of the program is to protect children, as it states. But often people as­sociate CPS with a negative connotation. They think of a state agency which rushes in, asks few questions, and breaks apart families, sometimes forever.

Social workers have told us they feel their hands were tied - that they had no flexibility to do anything but separate children from parents no matter the cir­cumstances. So the Legis­lature made some changes to the law. We adopted a law thatrsaquo;s been used na­tionally called the Fam­ily Assessment Response (FAR). This new method allows social workers to assess a familyrsaquo;s situation and determine what type of remedy could be employed that may entail a simple so­lution in that home to make the environment safer for all.

The focus continues to prioritize the long-term safety of the child and whatrsaquo;s best for them. How­ever, sometimes there is perceived abuse or neglect of a child because the mom is going through depres­sion, or maybe dad just lost his job, and now they have no car and itrsaquo;s putting stress on the entire family. Sometimes the children hide their struggles at home and express them only at school so the parents have no idea whatrsaquo;s happening. These are often situations where we donrsaquo;t have to break up the family, but in­stead, we can help bring the family together with other supports that address their needs. Social workers and caseworkers are trained to do this intervention work. Providing that flexibility to them to do their jobs in determining what is in the best interest of each indi­vidual family is essential.

Already, the results from implementing this new approach have shown great promise. In just two weeks of implementation of FAR, more than 50 per­cent of cases referred to the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) were solved using the FAR approach. This means chil­dren were kept safe, and more families were kept together. This is a win-win situation for all involved.

Irsaquo;m looking forward to seeing more results from FAR, and I hope we can provide more flexibility in every part of our govern­ment.