Episode 60: What Did Child Welfare Learn From 2020

"When something doesn't go the way we expected, rather than trying to find someone who is responsible, it's really that sense of curiosity of what we can learn and what we can do better."
—Dr. Kathryn Wells, MD

This episode continues a series looking into the lessons the child welfare field learned during 2020. The coronavirus pandemic forced agencies to approach their work and interactions with children and families differently. Agencies adopted precautions to maintain the safety of their staff and clients and began to build information-sharing and teaming partnerships. One such partnership is between child welfare and the public health field.

Dr. Kathryn Wells, section head for child abuse and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the director of the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, joined the podcast to discuss the impact child welfare can have within a jurisdiction's overarching public health approach.

The following individuals are featured in this episode:

• Dr. Kathryn Wells, section head for child abuse and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and executive director of the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect

Topics discussed include the following:

• How the child welfare field initially reacted to the “stay-at-home” orders
• The benefits and challenges in working with families via videoconferencing
• The connections between child welfare and public health outcomes
• Examples of successful efforts to bring human service systems together to share information and develop strategies