Rose Wentz
Rose Marie Wentz has worked in the field of public welfare and child welfare for 43 years. Experienced in providing services to public and private human service agencies, Rose has worked in over 85 counties and states agencies and in one foreign country.
Rose has an undergraduate degree in Social Work and a graduate degree in Public Administration. She was on the board of the National Staff Development and Training Association and was a Senior Consultant for the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections for 13 years. – View Rose’s Biography
Parent Child visits in time of Coronavirus
In these extraordinary times it is important to find ways to help children and parents in contact when face-to-face is not possible. From old fashion letters to the many apps and internet websites there are options that can support the families. Here is a list of suggestions on types of activities and how to make video chats more successful. Most of this paper is written in as a handout professionals can give to parents and caregivers. The last page contains some advice for the child abuse professional. Long Distance Activity suggestions for parents.
Virtual Visits
Parent/child visits (Family Time) can be done using apps and internet based tools that allow visual and audio interaction. This type of visit is referred to as Virtual Visits. Virtual visits cannot replace in-person visits. They are normally used to supplement in-person visits. In the time of COVID19 Virtual visits are a critical Reasonable Effort service to temporarily replace in-person visits. Virtual Visits: Recommendations and Resources provides information for the professional on how to support virtual visits. In this document there are specific recommendations for each age group; frequency of visits, length and types of activities. Also a list of resources includes on how to locate smart phones, computers, data plans, internet access and some child friendly webpages.
Webinar:
Maintaining A Child’s Connections During the time of COVID19. Presented April 24, 2020 for California.
Face to Face Visits must occur
Children, parents and siblings have the right to have face to face visits even in the time of COVID19. Virtual visits are a supplement to these visits and only in extraordinary circumstances should there only be virtual visits. It is likely that the use of only virtual visits will increase the time is in care and reduce the opportunity for successful family reunification.
Overview of Visitation: Planned, Purposeful and Progressive
View Rose presenting two lectures on the laws, research and best practice of Parent/Child Visits:
Click here to watch part II
ARTICLES
Maintaining Family Relationships for Children in the Child Welfare System ABA Child Law Practice, Vol. 31 No. 7 July 2012, Rose Marie Wentz and Kelly Lynn Beck
The Coaching Toolkit for Child Welfare Practice Going Beyond Classroom training to improve individual employee’s competencies and to implement practice to improve agency outcomes. University of California Davis, Northern California Training Academy is the lead on this book. Their coaching website contains some of the materials from the toolkit.
CONFERENCES
West Coast Child Welfare Trainers Conference –
2020 conference will not occur due to the pandemic.