Family Screening Tools

Most agencies that provide services to families have screening tools that help in assisting the agency to assess the specific needs of that family. It is important to have a screening tool as this helps the agency know more about the family they are working with. The tool should outline what the individual needs of the family are and gives the agency a specific plan of execution when providing the family with the unique services that they may need. At Summit County Children Services, there are many different screening and assessment tools throughout the different departments. Although each tool may be different, their goals are all to maintain the safety and wellbeing of the children that are in Summit County.
When a case is screened into the agency the phone room/hotline will use a screening tool to assess the safety risks of the children. The phone room is set up with approximately sixteen workers, all who have specialized training of how to screen calls in or out at the agency. The duty of the worker is to screen the calls being generated into the agency
There are many clinical level social workers at the agency; however, they do not diagnose any of the children or parents that are in our care. If there is a belief that a parent has a mental health problem or has been identified to need mental health care, the agency will refer the family to a mental health provider where an assessment will take place at that time. Even though caseworks don’t directly diagnose a person, there are many people in the agency who will refer to the DSM. I know that the DSM is something that is often used when speaking with service providers; however, this is after someone has already been diagnosed with a mental health problem. Once a client is referred to a service the caseworker has to assure them that the information shared between both parties stay