Concepts and Terms to Enhance Assessments of Safety and Risk

Success in child welfare work hinges in part on our ability to clearly identify whether safety or risk factors are present in a family. Our ability to make this determination affects whether we stay involved with the family, how long we stay involved, and the level of safety planning needed with the family.

North Carolina Definitions
Let's do a quick review of safety and risk as those terms are used in child welfare in North Carolina. According to statute, a safe home is one "in which the child is not at substantial risk of physical or emotional abuse or neglect" (N.C.G.S. § 7B-101).

When assessing safety, child welfare professionals look for "conditions or actions within the child's home that represent the likelihood of imminent serious harm to the child" (NCDSS, 2018).

Risk is the likelihood a child will be harmed in the future. Risk exists on a continuum from mild to severe. The level of risk determines our level of involvement with the family (NCDSS, 2018).

The box below shows a few illustrations of the difference between safety and risk.

Safety

Risk

You are driving and see a deer in the road 1,000 feet ahead of you.

You have an imminent threat of hitting a deer.

You are driving and see a deer crossing sign.

Because you are in an area with a large deer population, you are at risk of encountering a deer in the road.

A mother was arrested for a DWI after she was seen driving in the opposite lane of traffic. Her 5-year-old son was in the car; she was taking him to school.

This 5-year-old had an imminent threat of harm due to the mother driving intoxicated with him in the car.

A mother has a long history of substance use disorder involving alcohol, with several DWIs in the past. She is the only adult in the family who has a driver's license, and her 5-year-old cannot ride the bus to school.

The child is at increased risk of riding in a car driven by an intoxicated parent.

Harm and Danger Statements
Harm and danger statements are another way to help us distinguish between safety and risk. Based on the work of Andrew Turnell, Sonja Parker, and Sue Lohrbach, harm and danger statements are summary statements of what you know about the family based on your assessment thus far. Developing behaviorally-specific harm and danger statements is a great way to focus our efforts in our work with families. We can build on these statements to develop goals to ensure the child's safety in the future.

Harm statements provide a summary of the caregiver's past actions or inactions that resulted in physical, emotional, or developmental harm to the child (Parker & Decter, n.d.). In considering harm to the child, we want to ask two key questions:

Harm statements often describe why our agency initially became involved with the child.

Danger statements describe specific, credible worries we have about the child, based on what we know about the family. They describe how the caregiver's actions or inactions in the near future may cause harm to the child (Parker & Decter, n.d.). In considering danger, we want to ask:

Danger statements help us determine whether we need to continue being involved with the family, and what we need to address while being involved.

Harm	Danger
Abby's parents got into a fist fight last night in the kitchen. She was in her bedroom at the time. Abby heard dishes and furniture breaking, became upset, and was crying. When she came to school today, her face and eyes were red, and she admitted having trouble sleeping last night.	As the social worker, you are worried Abby's parents will continue getting into fist fights while Abby is in the home, and that the violence will progress. You are worried about the emotional impact on Abby, as she is clearly scared to be in the home when her parents fight.
Austin's mother is in recovery and takes 5mg of Suboxone daily for her opioid use disorder. She places her Suboxone on the top cabinet in her living room. Yesterday, Austin (age 3) climbed onto the cabinets, found the Suboxone, and took half of her daily dose. He was rushed to the hospital and spent the night in the emergency room.	As the social worker, you are worried the mother will forget to lock her medication up, Austin will find and take Suboxone again, and that he will end up in the hospital with an overdose.
There have been numerous reports to your agency for years about chronic neglect of Faith (age 7) and Jacob (age 10). Their father works 70 hours per week, has no support network, and cannot afford childcare. Yesterday, while the kids were home alone a small grease fire started in the kitchen as Jacob was cooking dinner. Jacob has a second degree burn on his right hand and wrist.	Your agency has had the family in In-Home Services several times in the past 3 years. As their current social worker, you are worried about the emotional impact of the kids being home alone every day, and about Jacob having to step into a caregiver role. You also worry about future physical injuries due to long periods without supervision.

Once we have clearly identified harm and danger, we then focus on planning around this key question:

Ultimately, our expectation is that caregivers will consistently take actions to mitigate danger to the child. This is demonstrated by behaviors and actions by the caregiver, not by participation in services or promises to do things differently (The Academy SDSU, 2014).

Developing clear harm and danger statements, articulating our concerns to the family, and developing clear safety goals is a first step in helping us get there. For more information on developing goals that address harm and danger, see the "Safety Mapping" article in this issue.