Critical Incidents Matrix: a tool to support the multidisciplinary team within decision making process in child care and protection

In the daily work with families that live in vulnerable conditions, sometimes, something does not follow our expectation and predictable or unpredictable events can modify the expected outcomes. Although we consider to have... [ view full abstract ]

In the daily work with families that live in vulnerable conditions, sometimes, something does not follow our expectation and predictable or unpredictable events can modify the expected outcomes. Although we consider to have taken into account every aspect of the case, it may happen that the care project fails. The task of High Reliability Organization (HRO) (Weich and Sutcliffe, 2007) is to convert the failure - or the risk of failure - into an opportunity to learning from the experience (Dewey, 1910,1938; Serbati & Milani, 2013)
In order to understand the process and increase our professional and organizational mindfulness, developing tools and strategies analyses to support the multidisciplinary team in reflective practices is key (Fluke, 2011; Žižek, 2014). In such perspective the way to increase and value the potential implicit learning (Fook, 2012) in every event, is to consider it as a critical incident (Flanagan, 1954; Tripp, 2003; Collins & Pieterse, 2007).
The paper will present the tool “Critical Incidents Matrix” designed to support the multidisciplinary team within a decision making regarding the risk of placement out of home, in the process of analysis and interpretation of the real and concrete problematic situation. The “Critical Incidents Matrix” stresses the role of practitioner’s knowledge and awareness and offers a communicational strategy to share significant information among professionals involved in the care project.
The matrix has been experimented with multidisciplinary team involved in P.I.P.P.I. a research-training-intervention program funded by Italian Ministry of Welfare and developed as an intensive care program for vulnerable families. P.I.P.P.I. (Program of Intervention for Prevention of Institutionalization) aims at preventing child placement focusing on supporting parenting through a care process that uses participatory strategies and multi-professional and intensive-intervention. Results from case studies will be discussed.