scholarly journals Child Protective Services and University-Based Partnerships: A Participatory Action-Based Model for Creating and Sharing Knowledge

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall L. Waechter ◽  
Christine Wekerle ◽  
Bruce Leslie ◽  
Deborah Goodman ◽  
Nadine Wathen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Research Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
University Partnerships ◽  
Key Factor

This paper presents one model for building and sustaining a research partnership between researchers and professional staff in child protection (CPS) agencies. The Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathways (MAP) study was designed to assess the health and well-being of the population of adolescents involved in the child welfare system of a major urban area. The study involved the collaboration between university based researchers and a range of child welfare staff, from administration to front-line workers. A key factor supporting collaboration was reciprocity with expertise, with CPS practitioner knowledge yielding intervention-relevant study queries and constructs, and researcher knowledge on health content and best practices yielding tailored training opportunities and increased climate for knowledge uptake. The MAP study combined a Participatory Action Research (PAR) model with a traditional, scientific positivist model, including the scientific elements of standardized measures, explicit evaluation of the participatory process, and research impact on the community members. This study: 1) provides information on the process of creating effective researcher-CPC agency partnerships, 2) considers key ethics issues, such as the participant’s reactivity to research of child welfare- involved clients, and 3) examines the implications of implanting a PAR approach in research with Aboriginal CPS agencies, as per the required use of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Guidelines for Health Research Involving Aboriginal People for future community- university partnerships.

Instrumentation to Understand the Child Protective Services Decision-Making Processes

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-108
Author(s):  
Alan J. Dettlaff ◽  
Dana Hollinshead ◽  
Donald J. Baumann ◽  
John D. Fluke
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Protective Services ◽  
Improved Outcomes ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Child Welfare Outcomes

When children come to the attention of the child welfare system, they become involved in a decision-making process in which decisions are made that have a significant effect on their future and well-being. The decision to remove children from their families is particularly complex, yet surprisingly little is understood about this decision-making process. As a result, instrumentation has been developed and adapted over the past 20 years to further understand variations in child welfare outcomes that are decision-based and, in particular concerning the removal decision, in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the intersecting factors that influence caseworker decisions. This chapter presents research and the development and use of this instrument, drawing from the decision-making ecology as the underlying rationale for obtaining the measures. The instrument was based on the development of decision-making scales used in multiple studies and administered to child protection caseworkers in several states. This effort is part of a larger program of research that seeks to better understand decision-making processes in child welfare systems in order to promote fairness, accuracy, and improved outcomes among children and families.

“We Don’t Want to Live Like This”: The Lived Experience of Dislocation, Poor Health, and Homelessness for Western Australian Aboriginal People

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Martin ◽  
Christina Fernandes ◽  
Cheryl Taylor ◽  
Amanda Crow ◽  
Desmond Headland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Personal Safety ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Aboriginal Australians ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Action Research Approach

Many policy interventions have attempted to address the entrenched disadvantage of Aboriginal Australians1; however, sustained improvement in social, cultural, physical, and emotional well-being is not evident. This disadvantage is compounded by paternalistic practices which do not promote Aboriginal self-determination or empowerment. This article presents the lived experience and voice of Aboriginal Australians spending time in parks in Perth, Western Australia. A community-based participatory action research approach informed by critical Indigenous methodologies involving collaboration between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal service providers was used. Participants experienced disconnection from kin and country, serious risk to personal safety, homelessness, and problematic health; all related to, and intersecting with, time spent in the parks. The participants’ narratives highlight the enduring impacts of colonization, dispossession, and racism. These lived experiences are situated within contexts of rising moral panic from politicians, residents and mass media, and siloed policy and service delivery responses.

scholarly journals Analysis of School Conflicts Involving Parents: Experiences and Resolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-91
Author(s):  
Delio B Sannadan ◽  
Claribeth B. San Pedro ◽  
Lourdes Myla T. Velchez ◽  
Ariel C. Venida
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Education Department ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Common ◽  
Parents Involvement

Stakeholders� partnership in schools is a key factor in delivering a relevant, enabling, and responsible education to the learners. However, in the course of establishing this partnership, conflicts arise inevitably. The main objective of the study was to examine the prevalence of conflicts in schools that involve parents through a document analysis. A total of ten online cases were analyzed and served as the primary sources of data in this study. Coding was done to determine the emerging themes in each case. The analysis revealed that sexual and physical violence committed by a teacher or school official towards the learner; and negligence of duty which resulted in damage to the learner were the common sources of conflict. This suggests that parents� involvement in the issues is something favorable as apparently parents are expected to be the protectors and defenders of their children especially in times when children�s rights and welfare are at stake or violated. The findings further revealed that in most conflicts, the learners were mostly offended while teachers and school authorities were mostly offenders. This finding suggests that children, even in school or under the custody of the teachers and school authorities, are still vulnerable to any form of violence and danger; and sometimes become helpless and defenseless especially when the persons who they expect to protect them become the aggressors. The finding also revealed that the learners mostly favored the court�s decision. This conveys that in every court ruling, it is still the best interest of the children which is being given the foremost considerations. The implications from the findings of the study may inform the higher authorities in the Department of Education on how such conflicts will be prevented from happening. Also, based on the findings, it is recommended that the education department should take further actions in strengthening the implementation of the Child Protection Policy to keep every learner well-informed of their rights and make every stakeholder aware of their duties and responsibilities in promoting the well-being and education of the learners.

scholarly journals With Laura: Attachment and the Healing Potential of Substitute Caregivers within Cross-Cultural Child Welfare Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Denise Brend ◽  
Kara Fletcher ◽  
Jennifer Nutton
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Attachment Theory ◽  
Attachment Styles ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Secure Attachment ◽  
Treatment Needs ◽  
Aboriginal Children

Secure attachment has been consistently associated with positive outcomes for children. The complex and intergenerational trauma resulting from colonialism that Aboriginal people in Canada have suffered may threaten the development of secure attachment. Using a case example drawn from social work practice, this paper proposes that Aboriginal children who are insecurely attached and traumatized present particular treatment needs. There is little prior research addressing the treatment needs of insecurely attached Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. Further, in provincial and territorial child welfare agencies Aboriginal children are overwhelmingly in the substitute care of non-Aboriginal caregivers. This paper looks to attachment theory for a treatment approach within these cross-cultural relationships. Attachment theory has shown that the attachment styles of children can be reliably predicted at a rate of 75 percent by looking to those of their caregivers. Additionally, children have been shown to be capable of developing multiple attachment styles in response to the attachment styles of the adults with whom they are in caregiving relationships. Thus, given the stronginfluence of caregiver attachment on the attachment styles of children, it is compelling to look at the potential impact of the attachment styles of substitute caregivers on the children in their care. This paper proposes that in provincial or territorial child welfare it may be necessary to promote substitute caregivers who are securely attached and to acknowledge the context of trauma within which these children and caregivers are striving for well-being.

scholarly journals Narrative Child Protection in Hungary. The Importance of Knowing the History of the Families in Need in the Social Work with Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Andrea Rácz ◽  
Ernő Bogács
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Hungarian Academy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Professional Attitude ◽  
The Family ◽  
Research Scholarship ◽  
Families With Children

AbstractThe study is reflecting on the nature and features of social work with families with children, attempting to discuss social work as assistance and apprehension and to detect whether there is any causal link between the efficiency of social work and the narrative approach and the “unstoried”, “faceless” condition of the families. We argue that professional attitude aimed at providing child protection support is not possible without knowing the story of families with children. Without a helping attitude, no real social work is possible, and thus the client remains invisible and faceless in the process of child welfare or child protection interventions. Besides the actual situations of story-based intervention in social work (micro level), narrativity is also important for the transparent and adequate functioning of the system (mezzo level); moreover, it can become a factor of paradigm shift in social and political discourse on social work and its target groups (macro level). The study is based on the research entitled Child Protection Trends Supporting Children’s Well-Being carried out within the Research Scholarship granted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2017–2020). The research focused on the family concept of child protection professionals and their views of the clients that can be deducted from this concept. The research also examines the notion and functions of the family from the viewpoint of children, young people and their parents as well as the professional attitudes and interventions determined by these perceptions. Research results show that due to the diversity and complexity of the problems of families in the purview of the child protection system one cannot reflect on professional solutions along types of problems. Successful functioning and efficient child protection rely rather on revealing individual and specific needs. All this indicates that child welfare and child protection work is possible only if built on personal stories.

scholarly journals Title IV-E Child Welfare Training and University Partnerships: Transforming State Child Protection Services into a Trauma-Informed System

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-249
Author(s):  
Robin Hernandez-Mekonnen ◽  
Dawn Konrady
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Child Welfare Workers ◽  
University Partnerships ◽  
Children In Foster Care ◽  
Title Iv ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
State Child ◽  
Welfare Workers

Children who are involved in the child welfare system have experienced trauma, and research indicates that parents of those children also frequently grapple with their own unresolved trauma. In addition, child welfare workers face high rates of secondary traumatic stress. Federal legislation from 2011 requires states to conduct universal trauma screening on children in foster care. The Administration on Children and Families (ACF) urges state Child Protection agencies (CPS) to become trauma-informed, however, many states still struggle to integrate a trauma focused practice model. This article describes the outcomes of a national, empirically driven, Core Concepts in Child Trauma for Child Welfare curriculum utilized in a Title IV-E university partnership program to teach graduate level child welfare agency supervisors. Findings suggest that the graduate trauma course demonstrates statistically significant gains in confidence, and also has a profound impact on the agency’s transformation into a trauma-informed system

scholarly journals Foreword

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy D. Polikoff ◽  
Jane M. Spinak
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Current System ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Regulation System ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Transformative Change

The 2001 book, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, by Dorothy Roberts, called out the racism of the child welfare system and the harms that system perpetrates on families and communities. Twenty years later, despite numerous reform efforts, the racism and profound harms endure. It is time for transformative change. In this foreword to the symposium Strengthened Bonds: Abolishing the Child Welfare System and Re-Envisioning Child Well-Being, honoring the 20th anniversary of Shattered Bonds, we highlight Professor Roberts’ articulation of her development as a family policing abolitionist and summarize the articles and comments contributed from scholars in numerous disciplines and well as impacted parents, family defense advocates and systemchange activists. These contributions help us learn from history and political theory; focus on the unique and shared circumstances of Native American families; critique, and call for repeal of, much of current law; condemn the punitive, and racially disproportionate, surveillance of families; and demand a new approach that diverts the massive funding of the foster-care industrial complex into support, services, and healing for families, tribes, and communities. We call for abolition of the family regulation system, the term we use as a more accurate description of what is commonly called the child welfare or child protection system. We situate this call in the context of the more developed movement for prison abolition. The current system is predicated on seeing individual parents as a risk to their children. It fails to see the strengths and resilience of parents and families; the harms of surveillance and removal; and the structural forces that harm children by failing to invest in adequate housing, income, child care, health and mental health services, and educational opportunities for all families. Abolition provides the transformative mind-set that will enable loving and strengthened families to raise happy, healthy, safe, educated, and imaginative children.

COVID, Its Impact on the Mental Health of Caregivers in Childcare Institutions of South Asian Countries and Their Coping Techniques: Analysis of the Caregivers in Childcare Institutions Using Data from Seven South Asian Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-248
Author(s):  
Kiran Modi ◽  
Gurneet Kalra ◽  
Leena Prasad ◽  
Najeebullah Babrakzai
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Residential Care ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Using Data

Widely across the globe, COVID has placed massive strain on various parameters of life, including child protection, health, education and economic systems. Apart from these visible threats, this situation has an ongoing devastating impact on the mental health and psychological well-being of people. The word of the law enforces care and support for children with disadvantages, disabilities and vulnerabilities on caregivers, Managers and Staff, managing Alternative Care programmes, but the spirit of such child protection laws also underlines the importance of caring for caregivers, especially in childcare institutions (CCIs). The well-being of the caregivers is the cornerstone of every well-functioning childcare institution and other residential care spaces. This article is designed to document the mental health status of caregivers (residential staff staying with children), in residential care spaces in the COVID times and to determine how the new stresses impacted them and the coping patterns they acquired in current situation; across different countries of South Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This exploratory rapid assessment project aimed to reach out to the registered childcare homes/ institutions, across the South Asian region, with the help of different NGOs, as well as Government mechanisms. The data was collected through purposive sampling and analysed quantitatively where the sample included the selected caregivers of participating CCIs across these nations. This study aimed to synthesize the responses of caregivers across the region; develop an analysis, which may help authorities to rethink, reform and strengthen the current practices, in order to develop approach-centred strategies for improving the well-being of caregivers as this has a direct bearing on the well-being of children in their care. Since the start of the COVID pandemic, for the residential caregivers, the access to external resources, including physical support from professional staff, has become restricted to bare minimum, due to lockdown and quarantine measures. Any interventions to prevent, treat and mitigate the effects of COVID among caregivers needed to be taken at the ground level by the care team management.

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