In May of 2013, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) kicked off the Transformation Project. The Transformation Project, championed by DCF Executive Director Alan Abramowitz, was implemented to cut the waste from the child welfare program. Child Protection Investigators Supervisor for Broward County, in southern Florida, Deborah O’Flaherty-Lewis, says that resources are being wasted on high rates of re-abuse in some cases, repeat investigations, and excessive staff turnover. Abramowitz and O’Flaherty-Lewis believe that a focus on robust engagement with families will help the state reduce these unnecessary costs and allow more families to get the help they need.
At the core of this relatively new focus are better abuse and neglect assessment practices. As a supervisor of child protection investigators, Deborah O’Flaherty-Lewis says that comprehensive assessments of every situation are crucial in helping families and children in even the most difficult situations. By gathering more complete information on not only what happened, but why it happened in every case, investigators give their superiors more options when deciding how to handle cases.
Too often in the years before this new focus was proclaimed there were misinformed case workers coming to hasty conclusions based on incomplete information. The resulting decisions resulted in sometimes devastating consequences and wasted effort. Abramowitz’s emphasis on better assessments led to reduced instances of re-abuse and revisited investigations. Instead of getting caught up in wasted effort and redo work, case workers and other child welfare professionals needed to focus on getting the job done right the first time.
Deborah O'Flaherty-Lewis 