All Kentuckians are mandated reporters of child abuse and neglect.

But this responsibility may have subliminally conditioned us to have our eyes open when around parents and stay on constant alert for the worst. We as a society may have become too preoccupied waiting for the anticipated other shoe to drop that we forgot to look at ourselves and see what role we play in the health promotion of families around us. While it’s important to know, recognize, and respond to signs of child maltreatment occurring, we may be collectively letting Mr. Rogers down by straying away from simply being someone’s neighbor when it’s not.

Tiers of Prevention
The child welfare agency was originally put in place for tertiary prevention, meaning abuse or maltreatment has already occurred and attempts are being made to mitigate future risk of harm.

The secondary tier of prevention is where we’ve created a foretelling situation through the use of predictive language. This category, deemed for “families with risk factors,” aims to target support at families with one or more characteristics associated with negative outcomes. It’s basically profiling a subject person for a paintball player crouched behind a bush scanning the scene for that predicted future perpetrator.

Research shows that when teachers underestimate students’ abilities, students will perform worse to match the bar set. So why do we have low expectations for parents and expose them to little support before an intervention is needed?

When we believe in parents, and believe they deserve achievable opportunities to meet their family’s basic and physiological needs, we invest in the first tier of prevention – otherwise known as primary. These efforts step away from a victim-blaming mentality and operate under the understanding that parenting, and life in general, is hard and deserves to be universally supported by the surrounding environment – the community. Parents are not blamed for what they individually are missing or “deficient” in, but rather communities are assessed for lacking conditions for families to thrive. Those who live and work somewhere share responsibility for available services and resources and identify chances to walk alongside “families with potential wellbeing gaps” or opportunities to support.

Regional Primary Prevention Action Plans
Following the lead of the national Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative – a movement to reimagine child welfare – Kentucky is continuing to progress with regionally-specific efforts to get away from knee-jerk calling of the child agency hotline and return responsibility of family wellbeing to communities. This process began in the summer of 2022 with brainstorming strategies for community strengthening, so parents and children can have their needs met before stressors escalate. These strategies were turned into plans with specific and measurable goals and timelines, which have been implemented across all 9 DCBS service regions since the early months of 2023.

The plans are living documents with projected tasks and objectives continuing over an anticipated 18-month span. Each region already has something to celebrate. Here a few current highlights to acknowledge:

Northeastern Region
Through the collaborative meetings, a Youth Services Center Director connected with a Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) representative to receive sponsorship for a community baby shower held in May. This region was also able engage with a growing list of Kentucky Health Access Nurturing Development Services (HANDS) program staff interested in increasing enrollment and participation in this prenatal and postpartum home visiting support.

Northern Bluegrass Region
In this region, Community Action and the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) linked with school personnel and court staff to discuss bringing Parent Engagement Meetings (PEM) to Scott County schools as a form of prevention against educational neglect. The goal is to implement this school 2023-2024 school year.

Two Rivers Region
This team has also been on board to address educational neglect through expanding PEM to Warren County Schools. They also have poverty versus neglect education with schools underway.

Eastern Mountain Region
Here they are fortunate to have representation from several MCOs ready to dive right in who were able to join together as a small group. Interagency meetings also began again as another way to increase communication and collaboration here.

Cumberland Region
With a big focus on addressing transportation needs in this part of the state, local DCBS office staff have been consulting with Central Office for funding to meet this need. Local agencies have also been coordinating around this goal to increase access to transportation.

The Lakes Region
Support only goes so far if caregivers don’t know where to go to receive it. To point families in the right direction, several coalitions, the Regional Interagency Council (RIAC), and health departments have been building an up-to-date guide. This region is in conversation with the Kosair for Kids Face It Movement for webhosting of the compiled resources.

Southern Bluegrass Region
With the same goal in mind, Southern Blue recently launched their updated version of area resources on Face It’s CONNECT page, with intentional efforts to be inclusive of Central Kentucky’s Latinx population. In addition, the Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities, DCBS, University of Kentucky (UK), and UK’s Targeted Assessment Program (TAP) have also been working jointly through ongoing meetings around Plan of Safe Care.

Salt River Trail Region
Since early summer, plans here have been rolling out to lay the groundwork for a behavioral health framework. Regional leaders in prevention have also been connecting with the Jefferson Region to duplicate this effort there as well.

Jefferson Region
Strategy teams in this region have been merging with birthing hospitals for safe parenting practice education. They are also in the draft stages of creating a self-questionnaire for organizations to assess the inclusivity and accessibility of their services to meet this region’s diverse population needs.
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All families deserve an opportunity to thrive safely and together whenever possible. When we focus on “risks,” we can miss that a single parent might be surrounded by an army of supporters, while a transient couple may be solo raisers of their kiddos – far away from the friends and family they relocated from. There are high-functioning and accomplished people living with mental illness. Substance use disorder can be managed successfully. An inability to provide can be reversed with concrete and economic supports.

As a reminder, all the regional plans, along with continued updates, can be found here. If you are a business or community member interested in becoming involved in your region’s community strengthening efforts, please reach out! There is a role for everyone.

Something to consider:
When it’s abuse, put the phone line to use. Where there’s opportunity to support, don’t jump straight to a report.