Written by – Tabitha Clark – The Marion Star
MARION – On April 1, Marion County Children Services began Differential Response, which allows the agency to take one of two paths when working with families – traditional response or alternative response.
Terrie Robinson, placement services and community education coordinator for Marion County Children Services, said traditional response deals with more severe cases where the agency needs to label a perpetrator and provide information to law enforcement.
“Alternative response, that’s more of the hand-holding with the family,” Robinson said.
“It doesn’t compromise the safety of the child, but allows us to work one-on-one with the family to overcome the issues that may have caused the abuse in the first place.”
Robinson said alternative response works best with families that are more receptive to services.
“With them being more receptive, we can help link them to more community services that may help them get over the initial issues.”
Some things that have been found in other agencies employing alternative response is that the families are more satisfied with their services, and they have found a reduction in the number of children that require foster care placement, Robinson said.
“Also, they have seen a reduction of subsequent reports of child maltreatment for children who have gone through this approach.
“It’s not a new program,” she said. “It’s a new way of doing old business. We’re still doing the investigations we’ve done all along, but now we can decide what path to go down.”
There will be a Community Forum to discuss this new response and the agency’s efforts on April 24 from 8 to 10 a.m. in the Guthery Room in Maynard Hall on the campus of The Ohio State University at Marion.