CHILD WELFARE MANUAL

Section 3, Chapter 1 – Statewide Prevention Program

Revision Date: 06-11-2026

3.1.1 Prevention Workers: Roles and Responsibilities  

Community driven responses are vital to the reduction of risk factors leading to child abuse or neglect. Prevention workers seek family engagement to develop community-based solutions that support families and target a reduction of risk factors. Workers collaborate with communities and families by working Prevention referrals, attending and facilitating meetings, engaging community partners, and seeking resources.  

More specifically, the prevention worker is responsible for:

  1. Prevention referrals:  
    • Collaborates with a family to assess needs and establish connections to local community providers that can provide ongoing supports for the family;
    • Works with families to assist in increasing family functioning, building on protective capacities and connecting families to needed supports and resources;
    • Shares Children’s Division and Department of Social Services (DSS) resources;  
    • Provides support to team members to connect to resources; and
    • Provides direct education to families to help build parental protective capacities and increase family functioning.
    • Community Engagement and Meetings: Attends monthly meetings within their local community to connect with community partners, identify existing and needed resources, and develop strategies to address the service gaps and needs identified. 
    • Workers will attend and be active in System of Care (SOC) meetings and other community meetings, such as Community Care Alliance, Multi-Disciplinary Team Meetings, Interagency Meetings or Care Portal Community Meetings.
    • Workers are encouraged to facilitate a quarterly community meeting;
    • Builds relationships with community service providers to be informed on the availability of resources;  
    • Creates new community partnership opportunities; 
    • Attends community events to learn about available resources;  
    • Becomes experts on the available community resources; and
    • Provides community trainings (such as Stewards of Children® by Darkness to Light) when a need is identified and the worker has the requisite qualifications and prior supervisory approval.

 

As Children’s Division team members, prevention workers are mandated reporters pursuant to Section 210.115 RSMo. Prevention workers are required to complete a CD approved mandated reporter training. The initial training must be completed within 30 days of hire and annually thereafter. This requirement will be tracked yearly by the supervisors for their prevention workers. For additional information, see CWM 2.1 Mandated Reporting Requirements.

 

3.1.2 Prevention Criteria

Prevention workers will be assigned Prevention referrals through the Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline Unit (CANHU) screening. In order to meet criteria, the referral may not include allegations of child abuse or neglect. Appropriate referrals for Prevention services include when a family or caregiver is in need of:

  • Services to address parenting supports, physical, mental, and behavioral health; or
  • Economic or community supports.

What does not qualify as a Prevention Referral?

  • Concerns for current safety threats or risk factors that rise to the level of a child abuse or neglect (CA/N) report;
  • Situations that would require an emergent response;
  • Concerns of guardianship relinquishment;
  • Concerns for a child having no legal caregiver;
  • Concerns where a parent or caregiver is unwilling or unable to continue placement or parenting to the child(ren) due to out-of-control behaviors or being beyond parental control;
  • When the primary need is for direct financial assistance from the Children’s Division;
  • If there is no child under the age of 18 in the home; or
  • If there is an open report or active case on the family except for an open subsidy case.

 

CA/N reports should not be closed with the intention of calling in a Prevention referral, instead the CA/N worker should be providing resources to families while they have an open case. Prevention workers may share necessary resources across program lines as needed to support families. 

 

3.1.3 Prevention Referrals

Once a Prevention referral is received on the family, the policies and procedures found in CWM 2.4.1 Preventive Service Referral (P Referral) must be followed as well as procedures found within this prevention policy.

After a Prevention referral is called into the hotline, it will be assigned to a prevention worker. The central office prevention team will ensure timely assignment and service delivery through established procedures. 

Upon assignment of a Prevention referral, the prevention worker will connect with the family to assess needs and provide supports or referrals to assist with the identified needs. Community connections and supportive services that could be provided or referred to a family; include, but are not limited to: 

  • Community services to address concrete needs (rental assistance, food banks, clothing closets);  
  • Mental and behavioral health support (Department of Mental Health, Missouri Behavioral Health Council, community based mental healthcare services for parents or children, Youth Behavioral Health Liaisons);
  • Healthcare needs (WIC, health department, prenatal care, pregnancy resource centers, hospitals);  
  • Parental supports (Home Visiting program, COPE24 program, Good Dads, Family Resource Centers, Crisis Care services);  
  • Educational supports (Parents as Teachers®, advocacy programs, schools); and 
  • Applications for sustainable services (Family Support Division (FSD) services, community support programs, workforce development, transportation, low-income housing).  

There may be times when a home visit is warranted on a Prevention referral after supervisory review of the referral or after additional information has been obtained by the prevention worker.

This may include, but is not limited to:

  • When the family is not able to be contacted;
  • Concerns of substance use by a household member;
  • Concerns of unsanitary living/hygiene concerns; or
  • Prior history for similar concerns.

Home visits will be entered into the system of record as an in-person contact.

The Children’s Divisions primary focus is always child safety. It is important while working with families through prevention to ensure an understanding of the distinction between safety and risk. Safety assesses the imminent danger of serious harm to the child(ren) and the interventions needed to protect the child(ren). In contrast, risk is the likelihood or probability that child abuse or neglect will occur or reoccur in the future. For additional information about safety and risk, assessing safety, and identifying safety threats see the Child Welfare Manual CWM 1.5 Understanding and Assessing Child Safety. 

Risk vs. Safety

Prevention referrals are not intended to work with a family when there is an immediate safety threat present; however, there could be times a safety threat is present, and action must be taken to ensure child safety. . If a prevention worker encounters a safety threat, immediate consultation with their supervisor must occur. The prevention worker should call the alleged safety threat to the hotline for appropriate assignment and work collaboratively with the safety team to ensure the safety threat has been addressed. For additional information about safety planning and identification of safety threats see CWM 1.9 Safety Planning.  

FACES Entry for Contact:

The prevention worker will capture the work completed with the family through the system of record.

  • Investigation & Assessment Screen
  • Enter the contact using the Contact List Screen- Business Area: Investigation/Assessment
  • Filter By: All Active- Select Filter Individual List toggle.
  • Select Individual- from the drop-down box select the individual and select display
  • Click on the Individual’s name
  • Select Actual Communication toggle
    • Purpose: Contact
    • Type: Select type of contact with the individual
    • Point of Contact: Select the point of contact for the individual
    • Other Individuals Involved: Select those individuals that were a part of the contact.
    • Associated Functions: All applicable functions should be selected.
    • Enter Notes in Contact Box
    • Select Add Selected Communication toggle when complete.

If a family has an open case with Children’s Division

If the family has an open case with Children’s Division (including a CA/N report, Family Centered Services (FCS), Intensive In-home Services (IIS), or an Alternative Care (AC) case) the referral will be added to the assigned worker of the case. The worker assigned, will be responsible for contacting the reporter to notify them of the case assignment added. Prevention workers should share resources needed across program lines to support families.

If a Prevention referral is received on a family who has a subsidy with CD, the prevention worker must connect with the assigned subsidy worker to notify them of the referral and obtain any additional information on the family. The referral will be worked by a prevention worker if the family has a subsidy case.

If there is an open Prevention referral, and a new referral is received

 If there is a Prevention referral currently open with a family and CANHU receives another referral for the family that meets criteria for prevention, a separate prevention referral will be alerted for assignment. The prevention supervisor will review the referral to determine to whom it should be assigned, or if the case is eligible to be duplicated or combined (see CWM 2.3.5 Combining Reports for additional information).

 If additional services are identified

When working with a family through a Prevention referral, the family would be eligible for Children’s Treatment Services (CTS). These services can be helpful in reducing risk and improving family functioning and are to be identified in the case goals. The use of CTS funds must go through the circuit’s approval process for eligibility and payment. Some examples of services that can be provided are therapeutic services, transportation, family therapy and parent aide (see CWM 8.7.2 Children’s Treatment Services for additional information). 

What if ongoing case management is needed

 When working with a family through a Prevention referral, if it is identified that a family could benefit from ongoing case management such as an FCS case, the prevention worker should consult with their supervisor to determine next steps for the family. Prevention referrals are intended to be an avenue to connect with families and engage with them to offer support and connection to services. These reports are not intended to stay open for extended periods of time but are intended to address the reported concern, assess any additional needs and to connect families with appropriate community resources.

 Closing a Referral

Prevention referrals are intended to be an avenue to engage with families to offer support and connection to services. These referrals are not intended to stay open for extended periods of time (no more than 30 days without supervisor approval) and will close when the reported concern is addressed, and families are connected with appropriate community resources, or a referral has been made for ongoing case management. Prior to the Prevention referral being closed the entire referral must be reviewed thoroughly by the supervisor including but not limited to: Referral Narrative and Actions Taken Summary.

The following should be included in the system of record in the conclusion screen for Prevention referrals:

  • Brief summary about what took place in the report;
  • Reason for the referral;
  • What type of contact was made with the family;
  • What needs were identified for the family;
  • What services the family was connected to;
  • Any services the family is participating in (if applicable);
  • Any need for further case management outside of this Prevention referral; and
  • If a case was opened, why the case was opened and anticipated actions.

 

3.1.4 Supervisor Consult

A supervisor consult must be held on a Prevention referral when:

  • A home visit is required
  • A referral is open more than 30-days
  • Requested by a worker
  • Referring a case for Family Centered Services (FCS), or
  • Based on supervisor discretion.

The supervisor consult must be entered into the system of record by the supervisor within three (3) business days of the consult occurring. 

The supervisor consult is an interactive solution-focused conversation between the supervisor (or a person given supervisory authority through their job classification) and worker. The consult should encourage critical thinking focused on child safety concerns and risk factors, barriers and complicating factors, family strengths and existing safety. The consult must include supervisor recommendations and next steps that are time-limited and actionable, which moves the case toward safe closure.

The supervisor consult should be held in-person to enhance the collaborative process, interactive communication, and to produce shared understanding of both the discussion and recommendations from the supervisor during the consult. If the consult must occur virtually, it should be with camera on and in a location appropriate to share confidential information.

The purpose of the supervisor consult is not to substitute a performance-based conversation, discuss concerns for worker practice, or professional development. Such issues should be addressed through other avenues outside of case management and supervisory case review. A Prevention Referral Supervisor Consult Guide (CD-345) can be used during case consults as a guide for what needs to be included in the supervisor consult.

The supervisor consult must include, but is not limited to:

  • Discussion of the reason the Prevention referral was received;
  • Discussion of any concerns and risk factors;
  • Case goals connected to the concerns that caused the referral to be called in;
  • Services, community, or treatment supports currently in place, referrals that need to be made, or referrals that have been submitted for the family;
  • Identified strengths and challenges for the family;
  • Identified, demonstrated, and observed parental protective capacities;
  • Identified child vulnerabilities, including child specific information as needed;
  • The most recent contact or home visit with the family;
  • Identification of what needs to happen to move the case forward; and
  • If necessary, discussion as to if the family is willing to be compliant and continue participating in services through an FCS case with a case worker.

There may be other interactions between a prevention worker and supervisor as new information is obtained on a family that would not qualify for a supervisor consult but rather a touchpoint on next steps for the referral. It is the responsibility of the prevention worker to enter a contact in the system of record for this conversation and document the next steps and the actions taken.

FACES Entry for Supervisor Consult:

The supervisor consult must be entered into the system of record by the supervisor within three (3) business days of the consult.

  • Investigation & Assessment Screen
  • Enter the contact using the Contact List Screen- Business Area: Investigation/Assessment
    • Purpose: Case Consult with CD Staff
    • Individuals Involved: Supervisor, Case Worker, and any other individuals who directly participated in the supervisor consult, such as a worker who is shadowing.

Associated Functions: All applicable functions should be selected.

  • Enter Notes in Contact Box
  • Select Add Selected Communication toggle when complete.

Supervisor Coaching

One role of the supervisor is to support the worker by providing on-the-job coaching through shadowing.

The purpose of shadowing is to observe worker practice and engagement during family interactions and case work. The supervisor role is to provide mentoring in engagement, assessment, and collaborative processes with families. The shadowing experience is an opportunity for the supervisor to identify growth opportunities, support skill development and provide hands on mentoring.

The supervisor will shadow each worker within their unit in the field at least once a quarter to provide coaching and mentoring. This could be the supervisor observing engagement with families or attending/observing a community meeting with the prevention worker. Additional observations beyond the once quarterly requirement may be needed based on tenure, experience, and needed support of the individual worker as determined by the supervisor or central office leadership. After each shadowing experience, the supervisor should provide intentional constructive feedback, including skill development and encouragement to the worker.