Quick Tips for Comfort Calls

Designed for Child Welfare Agencies and Professionals

These quick tips are designed for child welfare caseworkers supporting comfort calls. The understanding and implementation of your agency's Comfort Call policy should be the foundation of your practice.

Name the Goals

• A place to discuss vital information needed to meet the child’s needs from the beginning of placement with the relative.
• A first step in establishing the coparenting relationship between the resource parent and birth parent.

Discuss Logistics

Explain how comfort calls are conducted in your agency. Jurisdictions may expect the case worker to participate in the call as a facilitator or listener, while in other jurisdictions this decision will be made by the parent, resource parent and caseworker together.

Safety Considerations

The expectation is comfort calls are made unless there is an outstanding circumstance for it to not occur. It is the caseworkers role to help the resource family find a safe way for the call. For example, setting up a Google Voice number could be done by the resource parent or the placing worker makes the call from their phone being in the same place with either the birth or resource parent.

During the Call

• Gather information about the child so the resource parent can be ready to care for them from the start.
• Encourage the resource parent to share about themselves, to the extent they feel comfortable. This could be who lives in their home, activities or hobbies they have, and daily routines.
• Set the stage for shared responsibility of parenting, not replacement parenting.
• Confirm the best mode of communication by exchanging contact information for future communications, which can include routine phone calls, text messages, shared photos or video calls.

Addressing Hesitance or Resistance

• Explain the call is to obtain information about the child that may only be known by the parent(s) or family to ensure they can provide the best care possible.
• Provide examples of what topics don’t need to be discussed and how you as the caseworker will step in and support the call, or help it end respectfully.

• Ask them to identify 2-3 things they need to know about the child to help them transition in the next few days and make that the focus of the call.
• Normalize their hesitance/resistance and their situation. Listen to the resource parents' reasons for fostering to see if this can be used as a way to increase their willingness to try with the parent.

After the Call

• Ask the resource parent to write down resources or supports they have and what they will need to to care for the child.
• Schedule an icebreaker meeting/family group meeting/first face-to-face between parents.