, Inc.
40 Worth Street, Suite 605, New York, NY 10013 TEL: 212/691-0950 FAX: 212/691-0951
Interdisciplinary Communication Vignettes
(1) Intake/Immediate Hearing
The team meets a mother of four children during a busy Intake day in court. After reviewing the
neglect petition and interviewing the client, the team must quickly consider next steps. The
children were removed on an emergency basis and placed with a non kinship foster family. The
children’s father is charged with sexually abusing the 10 year old child and with extensive
domestic violence against the mother in the presence of the children. The mother, CFR’s client,
is also charged with neglect because she is alleged to have failed to protect her daughter by
disregarding her daughter’s accusations against the father, she has not excluded the father from
the home (she refused earlier suggestions to obtain an Order of Protection and/or help to move to
a DV shelter) and the children have suffered emotionally from years of exposure to violence. The
children do well in school and are involved in extracurricular activities; they are devoted to their
mother and want to be home with her. During the team interview, the mother agrees to seek an
OP against the father to exclude him from the home, participate in a domestic violence
educational and counseling program, and to engage in family therapy with her children. She
states repeatedly that she will do whatever it takes to get her children home, however, she
remains skeptical of her daughter’s allegations of sexual abuse and minimizes the domestic
violence in the home. While the attorney continues the client interview, the social worker learns
from the CPS worker that the domestic violence history is over 10 years long and that neighbors
report that the father has been in the home since the children’s removal, despite a Criminal Court
OP issued on behalf of the mother and children when the father was arrested on the domestic
violence and sexual abuse charges.
What other information does the team need?
What should the Social Worker do with the information from the CPS?
In discussing the possibility of a 1028 hearing today (emergency request to have the children
returned to the mother’s care), what different perspectives might the team have?
What are some immediate tasks the team should contemplate over the next few days? Weeks?
The children want to go home, what concerns might the children’s attorney have?
(2) Debriefing Intake/Communication Breakdown
At an initial court appearance, CFR determines that it would be best to reserve the mother’s right
to a 1028 hearing (emergency hearing requesting the children’s return home) and the case is
adjourned for a month.
The allegations against the mother are that she has some cognitive limitations and suffers from a
mental illness but is not engaged in any mental health treatment. The family resides in a shelter
and there are serious concerns that it is not maintained properly; CPS observed bags of garbage,
dirty clothes, and food throughout. The mother is not complying with shelter rules and is at risk
of being discharged from the shelter altogether.
The mother discloses to her team that she had a recent mental health evaluation that her shelter
arranged and she is willing to sign a release for the team but not for ACS. The children are
bonded to their mother. The mother has a strong support system that includes her boyfriend and
an aunt, though the aunt works full time and isn’t able to be a foster parent at this time. The
mother has been in therapy in the past and she grew up in the foster care system herself. She is
receptive to CFR’s attempts to involve her in the initial decision making on the case. She appears
willing to comply with ACS requests and referrals.
What are the next steps?
Which team member should be responsible for which tasks?
What may be some initial obstacles?
Should the team prepare for a hearing at the next court date? Why or why not?
In the same case, intake is so busy that day that the team is only able to discuss next steps very
briefly. Two weeks later, the attorney reaches out to the social worker to find out what the status
of referrals and services in on the case, but the attorney does not hear back from the social
worker. A day before the case, the attorney is not sure if the social worker is appearing in court
on the case and doesn’t have an update on the services.
What is the communication challenge?
What are some ways to address the time sensitivity of the case?
What are some suggestions for the attorney?
What are some ways to avoid this challenge in the future?
(3) Challenging Client/Client Splitting Team
The team includes an attorney, social worker and a parent advocate. The client is a father whose
5 year old son has been in a kinship foster home with the paternal grandmother for over a year.
The client has an older son who also lives with the grandmother, though that case was resolved
with an Order of Custody three years ago. The original allegations included substance abuse and
excessive corporal punishment and the Court entered a finding of neglect against the father. The
client has been inconsistent in attending court dates and has not fully engaged in the courtordered service plan (drug treatment, parenting classes) except for regular visiting. The parent
advocate has had the most contact with the father because she has picked him up for intake and
follow up appointments at a drug program and she observed several visits between the client and
his son. The client recently met with the attorney and social worker to prepare for an upcoming
hearing and he told the team he wants to fight to get his son home with him; he wants the hearing
to go forward and he says he’ll even testify. He says he will follow through with the service
referrals once he gets his Medicaid problems resolved. However, the client has also confessed to
the parent advocate that he is not sure he is truly ready to be a father to his son and is ambivalent
about getting his son home.
What is the client communicating to his team?
Whose ear does the client have?
What should the team be discussing?
The same client is very angry because following the hearing, the Judge stopped all of his visits
that were supervised by his mother (the foster parent) and ordered agency supervised visits only.
He storms out of court during the proceeding, angering the Judge. The Judge then also orders a
mental health evaluation for the client. The father later calls the attorney, apologizes for getting
so upset, and asks her to do something to get his visits back in place.
What is challenging about this scenario?
What are some things that each team member should be doing? Who decides what the next steps
are?
Could you imagine some disagreement about next steps?
(4) Contested Permanency Hearing/Social Worker Testimony
The team is working with a mother whose two children (ages 8 and 10) are in non-kinship foster
care. The mother recently admitted to the neglect allegations in the case which included noncompliance with mental health treatment, failure to ensure the children attended school regularly,
and one incident of excessive corporal punishment. To comply with the mandated service plan,
the CFR social worker referred the client to individual therapy and helped the foster care agency
caseworker identify a Visit Coach to enhance the mother’s weekly supervised visits with her
children. The CFR social worker speaks regularly with the therapist and the Visit Coach. The
case has been pending for 8 months and a Permanency Hearing is approaching. The client and
team want the Permanency Planning Goal to be “return to parent” and also want to see an
increase in the visiting, to include some community and unsupervised visits. The foster care
agency is not consenting to any increase in visits, is just now suggesting some new services, and
the team anticipates a contested Permanency Hearing in Court.
The team social worker recently spoke with the mother’s therapist who reported that the client is
progressing in therapy and that she personally feels the children could go home. However, the
therapist does not feel comfortable sharing this information in a report and reported that her
agency’s policy precludes making any recommendations about reunification. The therapist has
never spoken with the foster care agency caseworker nor met the client’s children.
In preparation for the hearing, the team attorney e-mails the social worker asking her to prepare
to testify about what the therapist told her on the phone. The social worker is very hesitant to
testify and pushes back with the attorney.
What are possible next steps?
What are some reasons that the social worker may feel hesitant?
Why might it be important to the attorney to have the social worker testify?
What are the pros and cons of having a team member testify in court?
What could be some reasons that the agency is not consenting to more liberal visits?
What other services might help the family?
What if they can’t agree on the next step or strategy?
How can the team engage the client around decision-making?
(5) CPS Investigation/Pre-Court Client
The team social worker receives a referral from a local homeless shelter regarding one of their
residents who is being investigated for child neglect. The shelter caseworker is the source of the
call to the State; however, she received permission from the client to refer for legal services. She
reported the case because the mother has two young children who are often wandering the shelter
hallways, has over-utilized the shelter day care by missing the pickup time on multiple
occasions, and she suspects drug use.
What initial questions do you have for the referral source?
What are the different options for reaching out to the potential client?
What do you want to make sure you discuss in your first discussion?
The attorney and social worker meet with the client at an initial “intake” interview at the office.
The client is in the middle of a neglect investigation. The CPS worker has requested that she take
a drug test. The client wants to know what to do. She also mentions that the CPS worker wants
her to come to the office to meet with her supervisor and some other staff that have expertise in
homelessness and substance abuse and the client is scared to go alone.
What will you counsel the client to do? What are the options?
If the client admits she smokes marijuana, how does that affect your strategy on the case?
What next steps could the team take? Who will do what?
What paperwork do you need from the client today?