[On screen text: Intensive Safety Services]

[Calvin Kelly, Deputy Director Child Welfare Services, DHS]

Calvin Kelly: The Department of Human Services values keeping children together 
with their families in order to minimize childhood trauma from removal. We work 
with families to protect their children to keep them home and safe whenever 
possible so that we minimize the experience, the traumatic experiences that 
children have when they are removed from their family of origin. 

What we know from research is that often times for children who are served 
through the Child Welfare systems, the most traumatic experience they have is 
that trauma of being removed from their home. That is regardless of the 
experiences that they’ve had in their home as a result of abuse or neglect. That 
trauma of removal from their family of origin, their school, their friends, and 
that disconnect from everything that they know creates a lifelong experience for 
children that is often very negative. So, we value working with the family and 
the children to try to prevent that trauma whenever possible to keep children 
safe in their own homes.

[On screen text: Comprehensive Home-Based Services]
 
[On Screen text: Charlotte Kendrick, Program Administrator, Prevention, DHS]

Charlotte Kendrick:  The Department has had comprehensive home-based services 
and the ability to work with families in their home with the children in the 
home since about 2009 statewide. In the late 1990s and moving forward, the 
federal government has offered the ability to use some foster care funds 
flexibly. We applied for the opportunity to do that in late in 2013 and early 
2014. We sent the application in and started those services which we refer to as 
Intensive Safety Services. 

We noted that we had a lot of children statewide that we would remove from their 
parents’ home and take into custody and within six months we were able to return 
them home because the parents had corrected the conditions. So, the thought 
being that if we just had a little more intense service, would we have had to 
removed them at all? So, we applied and started in Region III, Oklahoma County, 
in July of 2015 with a project known as Intensive Safety Services. It builds on 
the package that we already have. It’s like another tool in the toolbox for the 
Child Welfare worker. 

[On screen text: Lucricia’s Family. Lucricia Gaines, ISS Client]

Lucretia Gaines: I started my journey with DHS and NorthCare about March, I can 
say or February-ish. The process started with me needing help overall with my 
family. I was going through a little bit of issues with myself, and I needed 
help, so I actually had a meeting with DHS and they offered NorthCare’s 
organization to me. 

[On screen text: Megan Standford, Program Manager, Intensive Safety Services, 
NorthCare]

Megan Standford: NorthCare is the contracting agency that serves the Department 
of Human Services or clients that work with the Department of Human Services in 
the Intensive Safety Services Program. So, what we do is we work with families 
that are involved in a prevention matter with the Department of Human Services, 
and we work with them 3 to 5 times a week. We are in the home almost daily. 
During that time, we are helping connect families to longer-term services. Most 
of the time those services look like substance-abuse, or domestic violence, 
typically they are related to whatever the safety threat that was identified by 
the Department of Human Services. 

[On screen text: Maria Gomez, Child Welfare Specialist, Family Centered 
Services, DHS]

Maria Gomez: I think that as an agency, we’ve always done things a certain way, 
and now these new programs that are in place, it’s allowing us to be more 
progressive. It’s allowing us to serve our families in a better way. And so, if 
we take a case of maybe a mom who had her children removed, let’s say five years 
ago, and maybe she didn’t have the support that she needed, and so her children 
came into custody, and maybe she tried and she tried to get her children back, 
but maybe she just didn’t have the support whether it was no support through her 
family or no support through the agency, or she felt that way, that she didn’t 
have support through the agency. If we now take that same case, but we put 
Intensive Safety Services into that case that outcome could be completely 
different because now we have a mother who has this therapist who is in the home 
three to five times a week. They feel like they have someone that is advocating 
for them on their behalf. 

[On screen text: Chris and Jessica’s Family]

[On screen text: Jessica Martin, ISS Client]

Jessica Martin:  I’ve had previous history with DHS. I’ve had rights terminated. 
I’ve relinquished rights. This time I wanted to do something different and work 
on keeping my children. 

[On screen text: Chris Holder, ISS Client]

Chris Holder:  When we first had Nevaeh at the hospital, of course the stuff 
that happened in the past, they were going to come anyway. They came and they 
removed the baby from the hospital and put us in this program. 

Maria Gomez:  We’ve had some cases where we can do an in-home safety plan and 
have a monitor come and check in on the family daily, and I’m out there weekly. 
We also have plans where we can do an out-of-home safety plan, but then maybe 
the kids come over on the weekends. It’s all dependent on the safety threat and 
how much the threat has been diminished in order for us to make those safety 
decisions. We’ve seen kids never be removed from their home, and then we’ve seen 
kids removed for three months, sometimes a month. It’s all just dependent on 
family and how we assess the safety threat. 

Lucretia Gaines:  I’m the person that’s been there from day one and it’s been 
me, so I’m pretty much all they know. So, for them to be at home with me and to 
be able to stay home was a very, it was a plus all around. It really was for 
them.  

[On screen text: ISS Therapy]

Maria Gomez:  When we get an ISS case we actually meet the therapist at the 
child safety meeting. So, when that decision is being made on whether this is 
going to be a prevention case or a court involved case we get to sit at the 
table and be part of the decision making. 

Megan Standford: So initially our therapist will go into a home and they will do 
a battery of assessments to kind of assess what the family’s needs are, what 
they see their needs are, as well as taking the information that the department 
has been able to provide us. From those assessments we make recommendations for 
whatever those struggles may be whether that the substance-abuse, whether that 
be mental illness, trauma, parenting. 

Gretchen Kendrick:  In working with these families in these more intense 
situations, these higher risk situations, should we find that the child does not 
continue to be safe in their own home we would work with the ADA and the judges 
to have a petition filed and work with this family through the court system. 

Megan Standford:  The first session or two can be rougher, but our therapists 
are all trained at motivational interviewing. They use a lot of, that’s the 
primary method they are using in the home is motivational interviewing. They 
also use a lot of cognitive behavioral therapy. After about the second session, 
families typically see us as allies and they really work beside us. It’s very 
rare that we get a lot of resistance. Typically, we can work through that 
resistance. 

Maria Gomez:  A lot of our families feel voiceless, so when they do have that 
therapist in the home, that therapist can tell us so much more about the family 
than we could tell you because they are in the home so much and we do staff with 
them. We do have ongoing conversations with them about what the family is doing, 
what the family needs from us to be successful. So, I just feel like they feel 
that they have support. 

Jessica Martin:  They’re very understanding people. They’ll work with you any 
way that they can. They’re not in it to take your children away. They want you 
to keep your children, or bring your children home as soon as possible. 

Lucretia Grimes: It actually helped me a lot with my stress and my anxiety 
because they gave me counseling and therapy. So, like I said, me being a single 
mom, I deal with a lot. I have three personalities I deal with, day in and day 
out, and just everyday life. There would be days, where Trulisa would come out, 
and I am at 100, and she would calm me down. It gave me an insight to be more 
patient with myself and knowing that I am just one person, and I cannot do it 
all, and that I do have an organization behind me that’s there to help me. I can 
call her and talk to her. You know, it helped me to be more patient. It helped 
me to stay focused on my goals to being a better parent. 

Megan Standford:  One of the biggest differences is that we are using licensed 
professionals or we are using therapists that are under their candidacy to 
become licensed. So, there is a higher level of training. There is a higher 
level of skill when it comes to the therapeutic strategies that we can utilize 
the families. We also spend more time with the families. We spend anywhere from 
three to five days a week. Most of the time when we start case we are spending 
five days a week, so we really, when you are in the family’s home you really 
kind of become you know, part of that family. You know our goal is to set the 
family up for success so that they can be successful in the comprehensive home- 
based services program, as well as their family centered services program with 
the department. 

Lucretia Grimes:  Just the counseling within itself and the classes that I’ve 
been taking has helped me tremendously. I see a change within me. I’m not saying 
I’m a better person, but the process and the program has made me a better 
person. It really has in a way. 

Chris Holder:  I learned to never keep anything in. Anything that you need to 
talk about, let them know because they’re there to help you. They’re not going 
to turn against you. People take DHS for granted thinking they’re bad people, 
there’s a reason for them coming in, to show you where your faults are, to show 
you everybody deserves a chance, but keep on that right track when you do. Don’t 
fall off the wagon after they leave your home because they won’t leave you 
alone. 

[On screen text: Ongoing Communication]

Maria Gomez:  We staff with them on a weekly basis. Sometimes it’s by phone. 
Sometimes it’s face-to-face. We document that staffing. We staff the family so 
that we can figure out, are we serving this family in the best way possible? If 
I have concerns, I’m voicing them to that therapist. If she has concerns, she’s 
voicing them to me. Once CHBS comes in, then we’re all staffing with them, 
because the case is going to be handed off to CHBS. So, that’s pretty much how 
we communicate through the whole entire case, and then we continue to 
communicate with CHBS until the case closes. 

Calvin Kelly:  So we’ve worked as an agency to build some layers in to assist 
our frontline staff in making a quality safety decision to ensure that whenever 
it is safe to possibly leave a child at home, we work to do that, but we work as 
a collective team to do that work so that our frontline Child Welfare Specialist 
isn’t out in the field making decisions alone. They are supported by their 
Supervisor, by their District Director. 

We have a protocol in place where we have a child safety meeting whenever 
possible before removal to bring everybody into meeting rooms, sit down around a 
table, and talk about what is going on in the family system, and make the best 
decision for each child that we engage. As we’ve worked through that process of 
change, what we have observed in our region is that the workers are much more 
equipped to engage families in a safety discussion, to engage our partners in 
assisting us in making a good safety decision for the children, and the end 
result in an unforeseen by -product was we have seen a pretty steady, and 
consistent reduction in the number of children coming into custody and requiring 
foster care placements. 

Lucretia Grimes:  People always think that when DHS does get involved that it’s 
bad, or like, the kids will be taken away from the home, and that’s not always 
the case. If you do need help, you can call and get help. You don’t have to hide 
behind a closed door and not think that there’s not agencies out there that will 
help because NorthCare and DHS have helped me, so the programs are definitely, 
definitely a plus to families that are in need. 

[On screen text: ISS: 4 to 6 week period, 3 to 5 times per week for 8 to 10 
hours. Comprehensive Home-based Services (CHBS): up to 6 months, 1 to 2 times 
per week.]

Charlotte Kendrick:  About midway through that 4 to 6 week period, we bring in 
our comprehensive home-based services, and they work together with the family 
for a week or two. Then, the what we refer to as ISS or Intensive Safety 
Services Therapists terminates their services, they are already engaged with the 
Comprehensive Home-based worker, and that can continue on for up to six months. 
The therapist that’s in the home the home four to six weeks, that’s the ISS 
therapist, their main job is to get these families in these parents motivated to 
get engaged in the services, whether that is substance abuse, mental health, 
domestic violence, to get engaged in those services that created the issues in 
the first place. 

Chris Holder:  t’s a great feeling to talk to them. To get things off your chest 
and trust a stranger is very hard, and they weren’t strangers to me at all. They 
were very heartwarming. They were right there for you. 

Jessica Martin:  I made a connection, and I felt very safe to open up to her. I 
mean, not right off the bat, but after a couple of weeks, yeah, I mean, there’s 
things that I told her that nobody in my life knows other than him and a handful 
of people, I guess I should say. We built a friendship. She wasn’t just here to 
help us get our kids back. I mean, we cried when she left. We loved her. We 
loved every one of them that came in here. 

Charlotte Kendrick:  In working with these families while the trauma is reduced 
to these children, always at every weekly visit, at every bi-weekly visit, every 
time anyone is in the home we are always ascertaining if the child is still 
safe. In fact, in this service, we actually have some forms that our workers and 
the ISS therapists go over every week together to see where are the safety 
threats, how have the protective capacities of the families improved. So, that’s 
always the number one thing that we look at, is the child still safe. 

Maria Gomez:  We have the ISS therapist that’s in the home. We’re in the home 
once a week. When CHBS comes in, they’re in the home one to two times a week. In 
a lot of cases, well, in every case we have to have a safety plan monitor. The 
safety plan monitors, they could come in and check on the family three times a 
week. We may ask them to come every single day, and we’re following up with all 
of those people. My worker was so, so good at making sure that I wasn’t stressed 
out about where my kids were going to be at, who was going to monitor me; or, 
she didn’t really want me to worry about that. She made sure everything was 
right on point, right then and there, so I really do appreciate DHS for that. 

Maria Gomez:  When you have that service in place, the ISS services, it’s like 
okay, now there’s a team surrounding the family. It’s not just the worker, so 
even though, it might be something new and different, I would just encourage 
workers to utilize ISS because the impact that it has on our families is a very 
good thing. As far as our agency goes, I understand there’s more paperwork 
involved. I understand that it may just seem different or outside of what we’re 
used to, but what I can say is not only does ISS offer support to family, 
ultimately it offers support to the workers as well. 

Jessica Martin:  There’s no words to explain how it feels to have your family 
together when you thought they were going to be ripped apart. There’s no words 
to describe that. 

Lucetia Grimes:  My self-esteem has changed, my personality, too. I’m not so 
angry. I’m not so frustrated. I’m more calm, you know. It’s a thing like when 
you feel like you don’t have nobody, you’re all over the place, and me being 
able to have help and have people that I can call on keeps me at a peace, a 
peace of mind, you know. I am, can sit here and say that I have changed. I’ve 
made a step to change and anybody can do it as long as you put your mind to it 
and you have people like NorthCare and DHS to help, you can do it. Nothing’s 
impossible. Nothing is at all, that’s what I would say.