Richland County Children Services Board heard a presentation Monday from the agency's clinical director about child maltreatment assessment and intake referrals.

Clinical director Marsha Coleman discussed the data that she presented at a workshop at the Public Children Services Association of Ohio conference in October.
  

Coleman said the data focused on the number of families that have repeat maltreatment and intake referrals to the agency. 

"We created a team to provide family systems consultations. The team also looked at family dynamics, roles, boundaries and how families function rather than the intake referral itself," Coleman said.

Coleman said over the past two years the team has had an increase in the number of referrals and a decrease in the number of investigations with each family which is good news.
  

She said she wants to expand the concept to different teams within the agency in 2013.