State and Local Implementation of Plans of Safe Care

Objectives:

1. Learn different state and local approaches to implementing plans of safe care and connecting families to appropriate services
2. Discuss interdisciplinary approaches to optimize plan of safe care implementation
3. Highlight tools for implementing plans of safe care

About the Presenters

Alissa Copeland is the statewide Early Childhood Program Manager for the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) in Washington State. Alissa’s current focus is early childhood in child welfare, with hopes to implement ways to support parenting youth/young people in the Juvenile Rehabilitation division of DCYF as well. Alissa has worked for children and families involved with child welfare for over twenty years; in community-based, public service, and academic settings. With several projects centered around families with young children, Alissa’s current portfolio includes; statewide implementation of the Plan of Safe Care; early learning connections in child welfare; and Safe Baby Courts currently standing up across Washington. She and her husband are both Washington natives and enjoy spending time outdoors with their dog Mila.

Sarah Holdener, M.P.A. serves as the Help Me Grow Lead at the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families. In this role, she focuses on strategic planning and implementation of a statewide Help Me Grow system, and partnering to promote cross-sector integration to improve the health and development of WA children and families. Sarah liaises with state agencies, and coordinates the Preschool Development Grant funding to the HMG state affiliate to improve system outcomes for children and families. With 15 years of cross-sector experience in project management and program implementation, Sarah nurtures an environment of teamwork and ensures that strategy is clearly defined while overseeing performance and maintaining morale.

Heather Briscoe, MD is a pediatric hospitalist and Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at UCSF.  She completed medical school and residency at UCSF, where she remains involved with medical education, and her clinical time is spent at San Francisco General Hospital. She has dedicated her scholarly pursuits to understanding the racially disparate composition of Child Welfare, and how to move maltreatment prevention efforts upstream, especially in relation to substance exposed newborns. As co-founder of the Plans of Safe Care Community Collaborative in San Francisco, she believes early support and resource alignment can potentially mitigate the need to engage child welfare or to separate newborns from their parents.   She has recently joined Team Lily as Pediatric Clinical Lead, to co-design person-centered, accessible pediatric care as part of the multi-disciplinary postpartum care of families with significant barriers to accessing care.

Marcy Spaulding, RN, MS, PHN, is a Registered Nurse and Public Health Nurse with the Family & Children’s Services Nursing Unit which is part of the Maternal, Child & Adolescent Health (MCAH) division of the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the SF Human Services Agency. She is the Charge Nurse for the Birth to Five Program which provides home visits, parenting and health education, care coordination, consultation and other support for families of children age birth to five years in the child welfare system. She co-founded and co-leads the Plan of Safe Care Collaborative in San Francisco which was established in 2019, and works closely with the SF Family Treatment Court and partners at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital to improve care for substance exposed newborns and their families. She has a background in maternal-newborn nursing and is a graduate of the Napa Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship Program.

Bethanie (“Beth”) Van Horne, DrPH, is an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and the director of research for the Division of Public Health Pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Van Horne has over twenty years working in the maternal-child health field, with experiences in both academic and community settings. Current projects and areas of interest include: early childhood caregiver support, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, perinatal substance use, child abuse and neglect, and services and programs for foster and at-risk families.