News
New Differential Response Liaisons
By: Barb Joos
San Mateo County is one of eleven counties redesigning its child welfare system in order to improve the lives of children and families with a three-pronged strategy in prevention, protection, and permanence. One of the three strategies in implementing improvements in the Child Welfare System is Differential Response which is to ensure child safety and provide comprehensive social services. Working with community partners, a different response strategy is now used to provide a wide array of social services for children and families. This new approach offers more protection for children from abuse and neglect and provides enhanced early intervention services.
Have you met Han Yun, Roxanne Maqunena, Nilda Cardenas and Hayley Wise? If so, you know they are passionate about providing services to San Mateo County families. They all bring unique skills and a strong commitment to their positions in Children and Family Servicees as Differential Response (DR) Liaisons.
Han has ten years of experience in case management and is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, English, and knows basic American Sign Language. Her sweet nature and commitment to families make her a special addition to the unit.
Roxanne came to Children and Famnily Services from Quarry, where she was a Lead Office Assistant, and she previously worked as a Child Care Specialist in Redwood City. She has a Bachelor’s degree in human development, an Associate’s degree in psychology, a positive attitude, and a sunny disposition!
Hayley, mother of three, hails from Birmingham, England. She has experience working with the Early Head Start program and with foster care youth. She is full of energy and ideas and has also been helping out as a case manager for Katrina victims.
Nilda, who is bilingual, also came from the Quarry office, where she was a Community Worker. She previously worked there as a WOC Employment Services Specialist (ESS) and will be returning to an ESS position there on 4/24. She is a new homeowner and the mother of a young daughter.
DR requires the sharing of confidential case information with community partners who connect families to much-needed services. Because of confidentiality requirements, Liaison positions were created as a way to relay information via multi-disciplinary team meetings (MDT’s) with community partner staff. Meetings are held at Family Resource Center sites twice weekly and as DR expands to the entire county, the liaisons will be conducting MDT’s on a daily basis.
The CARE system, which was designed for DR by our talented BSG staff, is the web-based system used by Liaisons and community partners to refer, monitor, and track DR Path 1 and Path 2 cases. During the first four MDT’s, thirty-six cases were transferred to the community partners by our Liaisons, using the new CARE system.
Han, Roxanne, Hayley, and Nilda are located in Building B across from the supply room. Please stop by and meet some of our newest Children and Family Services staff!
For more information about Child Welfare System improvements, please contact Barbara Joos, Management Analyst, at (650) 802-5122, or visit www.smchsa.org.