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Vol.
25, No. 1
November 2019
Helpful Intake Questions
- This situation sounds serious. What do you think should happen? How would that solve this problem?
- What do you think this family should do? What are they capable of doing?
- What has the family tried before, and how did that work?
- Has anything in the past worked to resolve other issues with this family, that we could try with the current situation?
- Tell me how you will know this problem has been solved.
- It sounds like this has happened before. What have you seen the family do to sort this out?
- Are there times when the family calls on others to help them with problems? Who do they call?
- On a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means you are certain the child is not safe and we should act immediately and 10 means the problems are solved, how would you rate the seriousness of this situation? What exactly makes it a __? What would it take to make it a few points higher?
- How much of the time would you say ___ is a problem? Oh, so ___% of the time it is not so bad. Can you tell me what is happening at those times?
- How well do you know the family? How do you know about these concerns? (e.g., direct observation, someone told me, etc.)
- If this problem is solved, what difference will that make to you?
- How will your life be different?
- Are there times when the problem you're calling about could have happened, but didn't? What was different about those times?
- Are there aspects of your relationship with the family that might influence them for the better? What have you already tried with them?
- What do you see as positive about the relationship between these parents and their children?
Source: NCDSS, 2019; Capacity Building Center, 2018