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      Strengths and Stressors Assessment Tool - An ecological approach to assessing and working with at-risk families

      Safety and risk assessments are critical to our understanding of what factors contribute to the immediate safety needs and the risk of future maltreatment.

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      ISPCAN Resources

      Focus of this Training:

      This webinar introduces you to an ecological approach to measure needs (stressors) and identify strengths among at-risk families. The Strengths and Stressors Assessment (Berry, 2008) is an ecologically-based assessment that measures strengths and stressors on the following domains: environment, parental capabilities, social support, family interactions, family safety, and child well-being. The SSA was originally designed and tested with families involved in the child protection system in the United States. Among the US sample, the SSA was able to distinguish between factors associated with child physical abuse and child neglect and met established criteria for reliability and validity. While originally designed for working with families in the US child protection system, the SSA, has been adapted to use in family-serving organizations and with different populations.

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      Listen to the Recording

      Webinar Date:

      May 23, 2024

      Region:

      Global

      Topics:

      Risk Factors
      Child Abuse Prevention
      Intervention Strategies
      Risk Assessment Tools
      Strengths and Stressor Assessment Tool
      Resource Downloads
      Dr. Scottye J. Cash Presentation Slides
      Strengths and Stressor Assessment Tool
      Boys Town Service Planning Manual - Income and Finance Excerpt only
      Complete Boys Town IHFS Service Planning Manual
      Family Case Example - Strengths and Stressor Case Planning
      Family Case Example - Completed Strengths and Stressors Assessment
      Moving forward without looking back: Performance management systems as real-time evidence-based practice tools
      Measuring Service Delivery in a Placement Prevention Program - An Application to an Ecological Model
      Family characteristics and child welfare services - Does the assessment drive service provision
      Development of an evidence-informed in-home family services model for families and children t risk of abuse and neglect
      Risk assessments - Empirically supported or Values driven
      Risk assessment with actuarial and clinical methods - Measurement and Evidence-based Practice
      Family Risk and Needs Assessment
      Go To Resource
      Scottye J. Cash
      Go To Resource
      Scottye J. Cash - Research Gate
      Go To Resource

      Learning Objectives:

      One of the hallmarks of the SSA is how the assessment can be used to tailor interventions to the family’s needs, while also taking into consideration their strengths. Individually-tailored interventions can help promote engagement and trust with the family, and optimally lead to a reduction in the level of supports the child and family need from the agency.
      The webinar will include an overview of the Strengths and Stressors Assessment instrument as well as provide examples on how the SSA has been used in practice, including among different stakeholders (e.g., child protection systems, family-serving organizations, funders, administrators, etc.). The webinar will also present information on the Boys Town Service Planning system, that was developed to address the strengths and needs identified on the SSA.
      Participants will be provided with the presentation, the Strengths and Stressors Assessment instrument, the Boys Town Service Planning Manual, and the emerging knowledge base. Different stakeholder perspectives will be incorporated and recommendations on how the SSA and the corresponding Boys Town model can be used in different practice settings will be discussed.

      Presented By:

      Scottye image
      Scottye Cash, PhD
      Scottye J. Cash, MSSW, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Social Work at The Ohio State University
      Dr. Cash’s expertise has focused on assessment and targeted service delivery for at-risk children and families. She has been a Co-Principal Investigator on a federally-funded grant to develop, implement, and evaluate a children’s mental health training program for social work students pursuing a career in child welfare. Dr. Cash served as the Principal Investigator on the evaluation of the state of Ohio’s Comprehensive Assessment and Planning Model—Interim Solution case management and planning system. The project evaluated the measurement of safety and risk for children and families involved in the child welfare system. A primary aim of this research was to identify the relationship between the family’s identified needs, services received, and outcomes. Dr. Cash has continued her research on matching services to needs in her most recent work on adolescent mental health and social media. In a recent study, she explored adolescents use of suicide statements on MySpace and found that adolescents posted suicidal thoughts related to family and friends, methods to commit suicide, and issues with their family. Dr. Cash also conducted a nationwide survey with older adolescents to determine what type of mental health supports (text, Facebook, mental health provider, etc.) adolescents are willing to use when they are depressed, and/or suicidal. Dr. Cash has worked with Reachout.com in the United States, Ireland, and Australia to explore the relationships between using the Reachout.com website to increase mental health literacy, decrease mental health stigma, and increase help seeking. Finally, Dr. Cash has served as a research partner to the Young and Well Centre in Australia, which is a world-wide leader in using technology to engage young people around mental health and positive well-being. She is currently enrolled in their Certificate in Young People’s Mental Health and Technology program. Education PhD - University of Texas at Arlington, 1998 - Social Work MSSW - University of Texas at Arlington, 1995 - Social Work BA - University of Oklahoma, 1994 - Social Work Areas of Expertise Adolescent mental health and social media Child welfare research Safety and risk assessment Linking services to family needs Substance abuse in child welfare families Areas of Interest for Mentoring PhD Students Child welfare Adolescent mental health Technology and social work