To ensure the child’s readiness to return to the foster or adoptive home following a mental health crisis (for example, a suicide attempt or psychiatric hospitalization), the FAD caseworker must meet with the child within 24 hours of the child’s arrival to the home to discuss protocols that would help to ease the child’s transition into the home after hospitalization, ensure the child’s safety, and reduce any risk of suicide. The protocols must include all of the following:

• Conducting weekly suicide risk screenings for the first 30 days or until the child is no longer reporting suicidal thoughts, whichever is longer. These must be documented in the child’s case record.
• Creating, or reviewing and updating, the child’s suicide prevention and intervention plan. The plan must be documented in the child’s case record.  
• Removing any harmful objects, chemicals, or substances that the child could use to carry out a suicide attempt or self-harm. The child’s treatment team determines for how long these items will be removed, but the time period must be at least 30 days.
• Alerting anyone responsible for the child’s care or supervision of the new protocols and the new or updated suicide prevention and intervention plan. The FAD caseworker alerts these people of this.