CASA Delaware Live!

Episode #37 Celebrating Child Abuse Prevention Month

April 08, 2021 CASA Delaware Live! Episode 37
CASA Delaware Live!
Episode #37 Celebrating Child Abuse Prevention Month
Show Notes

In Episode #37, we interview 6 amazing advocates in honor of Child Abuse Prevention Month. We start off with Prevent Child Abuse Delaware's Director Kellie Turner along with her colleague Tricia Ewing, the Director of Advancement. Tricia also recently became a CASA Volunteer!  

We have Sharon Fallen - Family Crisis Therapist, who works in the Little Kid Treatment unit, her role is case planning with families, for kids in foster care she plans with parents to get them reunified with their families and for intact families she links families with services to help support them and prevent future involvement with our agency. Then, we speak to Amanda Gorr - Family Crisis Therapist, who works in the Urgent Investigation unit (P1/P2 unit requires a 24 or 3 day response time), and she is a specialized SEI worker, Substance Exposed Infants, she responds to cases with newborns that have been exposed and plans with the family to ensure safety upon discharge from the hospital through our Plans of Safe Care. 

 Amanda "Mandy" McFarland - Family Crisis Therapist supervisor, who is a supervisor in one of the DFS FAIR units (Family Assessment & Intervention Response), a differential response to the investigation units.  She joined our team after having worked in Florida's child welfare system.  We are planning to expand our FAIR units in the near future, which is very exciting for us.  Her staff take a family centered FAIR approach when working with families, they respond to cases deemed by our hotline as lower risk (P3 units require a 10 day response time), and the staff coordinate family team meetings to discuss the worries that exist and then link the family with services in the community, as opposed to traditional investigation workers where a family would be substantiated for child abuse/neglect.

 Christy Diffendall is the Assistant Regional Administrator for Region II in New Castle County. She has enjoyed a 15 year career with DFS, and she currently manages and supervises 10 Family Crisis Therapist Supervisors; in various functions of Treatment, FAIR, and Investigation.  She works closely with DFS senior leadership team and with our Regional Administrator to support our staff, ensure policies are being followed and often complete administrative reviews of cases that may need additional direction & oversight.