Urgent Protection versus Chronic Need - The Application of an Urgent Protection or Chronic Need Taxonomy in a Child Welfare Agency Context

Objectives: Implementing a complex service mandate is a constant tension for child welfare agencies. The need to respond effectively to the clinical needs of the families and children in a fiscally restrained climate is of... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives: Implementing a complex service mandate is a constant tension for child welfare agencies. The need to respond effectively to the clinical needs of the families and children in a fiscally restrained climate is of fundamental importance to a child welfare agency. The conceptual model developed by Trocmé and colleagues which categorizes investigations into urgent protection and chronic need is applied by a large urban child welfare agency to: 1) understand recurrence rates; and 2) to assist with the differentiation of service needs. 

Methods: Using data from the Ontario Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (OCANDS), 3 fiscal years of data were used to construct entry cohorts of investigated children who received no further service and investigated children who were provided with ongoing services. Cases were classified as either urgent protection investigations (child under 4 investigated for neglect or physical abuse, all sexual abuse investigations and severe physical harm) or chronic need (all other investigations)

Results: Children investigated for an urgent protection issue were less likely to recur within 12 months of case closure. Child investigations with chronic concerns had a higher rate of recurrence; almost 19% of chronic need investigations were opened for a subsequent investigation within 12 months. Similar patterns were noted for ongoing services.

Conclusion: The urgent protection versus chronic need taxonomy allowed a large urban child welfare agency to understand what drives recurrence rates. The greater likelihood of recurrence amongst children investigated for chronic need provides evidence to support the development of a service approach tailored to chronic cases.  In child welfare greater resources and more specialized services are usually reserved for cases of severe physical harm and sexual abuse.  The current results support the need to re-examine the allocation of resources and to better understand effective services for both chronic and urgent cases.