The Plan of Safe Care Community of Practice is a monthly meeting occurring on the third Tuesday of each month from 2-3 p.m. The goal of this meeting is to provide relevant training topics and discussion to the community of professionals involved in the Plan of Safe Care body of work as statewide implementation is stood up.
These meetings will also provide opportunities for monthly updates on implementation, data collection, and virtual networking with other professionals serving the same population. All meetings are held virtually via Zoom, please contact dcyf.plansofsafecare@dcyf.wa.gov for the Zoom link.
Tuesday June 28, 2022 - Mandatory Reporting and Using the Plan of Safe Care Referral Portal
Alissa Copeland, MA – DCYF Intake and Early Learning Program Manager will lead a presentation and discussion about mandatory reporting when infants are born having experienced prenatal substance exposure. Reporting concerns of child abuse/neglect, or imminent risk of harm to a child is an important responsibility for mandatory reporters. When birthing hospitals are supporting families who’ve experienced substance use disorder and prenatal exposure to substances, added elements of assessing the family’s situation, the impacts to the newborn, and decisions that need to be made promptly and in alignment with hospital discharge require our birthing hospital partners to gather a significant amount of information in a very short period of time. This Mandatory Reporting refresher training is designed for birthing hospitals but will be of value to anyone participating in the Plan of Safe Care work.
This 45-minute training will cover:
- Mandatory reporting requirements
- Talking with families about the Plan of Safe Care
- Identifying safety concerns and risks to newborns who experienced prenatal substance exposure
- Plan of Safe Care referral portal overview
- Calling DCYF intake – the best way to organize your information
- Time for Q&A
Tuesday, July 26, 2022 - Safe Sleep
Having discussions with new parents about safe infant sleeping environments is a critical component of supporting families to safely parents their newborns. Please join us in welcoming Amanda Meyer, MSW for a discussion on safe infant sleep environments. Amanda is a coach/trainer with the Alliance for Child Welfare Excellence. Her primary responsibility is training DCYF caseworkers, and she is an expert when it comes to training to and assessing an infant’s sleep environment for safety. Amanda will share important components of safe sleep environments, as well as tips for discussing this topic with new parents.
Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022 - Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health
Presenter – Kimberlee Shoecraft MSW, Director of Education, Parent Child Relationship Programs, University of Washington
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) is a critical foundation for all parent-child relationships and subsequent child development. As professionals working with parents and their newborns, it’s important to understand basic principles of:
- The importance of early relationships
- Social-emotional development and how infants regulate emotions
- Cognitive development and how infants communicate and explore their environments
- Specific considerations for substance-exposed infants