"...safety plans must define exactly how families and their naturally-occurring support system will live differently on a day-to-day basis to ensure the children are safe."

The Power of Partnership Workbook, p. 88

Partner Exercise:

Below is a list of some safety planning questions Alice asked.

Alice's Questions to the family and network

1. What have people seen Richard and/or Yvonne doing to stay calm even when Amy was crying for long periods of time?
   
2. When you have seen Richard start to lose his cool with the kids in the past, what were the first things you noticed?
   
3. Richard and Yvonne, what are the things that have made it harder for you to be patient and calm with the kids?
   
4. What have you noticed about Yvonne in the past when she was managing through really hard times well enough to deal with the kids calmly?
   
5. Richard and Yvonne, what would you want people in your network to do to keep the kids safe if they noticed you were starting to lose your cool?
   
6. When the pressures of life have been really high before, what has helped you manage through so that you could continue to be the kind of parent you wanted to be?
   
7. What's been done in the past to keep the kids safe when Richard was feeling too frustrated or impatient with them?

For each question in the list:

1. Identify the column in which it lands:
   • What are we worried about?
   • What's working well?
   • What needs to happen?
2. Identify the category of safety planning to which it relates:
   • Signs things are going well
   • Triggers
   • Prevention plan rules
   • Red flags
   • Response plan rules

Enter your responses in the comment box below. Enter your responses in this format: question #/column/safety planning category.

Individual Exercise:

• Draft 3 more safety planning questions Alice could ask in the:
  
  1. "Worries" column
  2. "What's working well" column
  3. "What needs to happen" column
• Identify the safety planning category to which each question relates.

Enter your questions below, beginning with the safety planning category, by replying to you and your partner's previous comment (i.e. Triggers:...). You may need to refresh your screen.

Group Discussion:

• Refresh your screen so you can see all the comments from your group.
• Which questions do you like the best?
• What makes the ones you chose good questions?