scholarly journals The Use and Usability of Decision-Making Theory in Child Welfare Policy and Practice

Author(s):  
Cora Bartelink ◽  
Tom A. van Yperen ◽  
Ingrid J. Ten Berge ◽  
Erik J. Knorth

The aim of this chapter is to clarify how decision-making processes within the context of child welfare and child protection could be improved by decision-making theories (i.e., Decision-Making Ecology [DME] and decisional conflict model), with specific interest in methods intended to support practitioners based on these theories, in particular methods of structured decision-making and actuarial methods. Existing studies indicate that structured decision-making methods have a limited effect on the decision-making process, as well as on the reliability and validity of the judgments and choices made by professionals in cases of suspected child abuse and neglect. Actuarial methods may be more precise in making valid judgments but may ignore factors relevant to decisions concerning treatment and intervention. The DME framework reveals that other factors—in addition to rationally weighing information and arguing—influence the decision-making process and outcomes. Especially the influence of decision-maker factors seems to be ignored in structured decision-making methods. Although systematic methods and instruments do have some value, several additional options are available that take decision-maker factors more into account. This chapter discusses the potentials of critical thinking, team decision-making, systematic feedback, and shared decision-making.

Author(s):  
Alan J. Dettlaff ◽  
Dana Hollinshead ◽  
Donald J. Baumann ◽  
John D. Fluke

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.


Author(s):  
Jill Duerr Berrick ◽  
Jaclyn Chambers

This chapter demonstrates how concerns about avoiding errors and mistakes have been at the centre of child protection policy and practice in the US for many years. In particular the chapter focuses on providing a summary of the state of the art relating to risk assessment tools and predictive analytics as strategies to reduce error in child welfare decision making. It also examines whether our understanding of ‘error’ needs to shift to account for the unknowns. When social workers make decisions based upon fundamental principles, and when they determine that it is in the interests of a child to privilege one principle over another, the result may appear in hindsight as an “error”, but when made as a decision guided by one widely-held principle which was in direct conflict with another. Examining child welfare decision making as a process of selecting and then privileging one principle over another narrows what we might otherwise think of as an ‘error’ and instead recasts some decisions as exceedingly difficult to get ‘right’.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104973152098484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karmen Toros

This article explores child welfare workers’ experiences of children’s participation in decision making in the child protection system. The systematic review follows the principles of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement and includes 12 peer-reviewed articles published in academic journals from 2009 to 2019. Findings indicate that children’s participation in decision making is generally limited or nonexistent. The age of the child is an important determining factor concerning whether the child is given the opportunity to participate in decision making. Potential harm for children that may result from participation is considered when deciding on whether to include a child in the decision-making process.


Author(s):  
Clive Diaz

This book presents new research on the extent to which parents and children participate in decision making when childcare social workers are involved and it considers two key meetings in depth: child protection conferences and child in care reviews. There is currently a great deal of interest in how social workers can work more effectively with families and in particular give children a voice. There is also considerable public and media interest in the child protection system, in particular relating to how children are safeguarded by social workers. This book will argue that unless we listen to (and act upon whenever possible) the views of children it is very difficult to safeguard and offer them an effective service. The unique selling point of the book will be that it is based on original solid empirical research following interviews with multiple stakeholders across two local authorities in England including children (n=75), parents (n=52), social workers (n=11, independent reviewing officers (n=8) and senior managers (n=7). This book will consider how 10 years of austerity has impacted on the child protection system and it will have a particular focus on how current practice leads to children and parents often feeling oppressed and excluded in decision making about their lives. The book promises to be authoritative and informed on issues on the ground and very relevant to both policy and practice.


Author(s):  
Andrzej Łodziński

The paper presents the decision support under risk by the risk averse decision maker. Decision making under risk occurs when the result of the decision is not unequivocal and depends on the state of the environment. The decision making process is modeled with the use of multi-criteria optimization. The decision is made by solving the problem with the control parameters that determine the decision maker's aspirations and the evaluation of the solutions received. The decision maker asks the parameter for which the solution is determined. Then, evaluate the solution received accepting or rejecting it. In the second case, the decision maker gives a new parameter value and the problem is solved again for the new parameter. The work includes an simple discrete problem of decision support under risk


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Nuraini Arifianti ◽  
Nunuk Adiarni

The social media is currently not only used for social friendship but also for business purpose.The people use line, whatshapp, instagram and facebook. Related to business goals, the content is made possible by availability of the applications to convey marketing messages to customers. This requires creative message and content creators, which work in team with decision maker and administrator. However, it’s need  to continuously manage it. This study was aimed to find out how the management of social media in XYZ businesses using descriptive qualitative. Instagram management implemented by XYZ starts from setting target customers to the content evaluation process. However, it has not comprehensively been managed unless it responds to negative comments from followers. The results of the study prove that using the social media such as Instagram in marketing requires management by planning, organizing and decision making process for creative content and followed by an evaluation and handling follower responses.


2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-43
Author(s):  
Cynthia Chernecky ◽  
Katherine Nugent ◽  
Jennifer L. Waller ◽  
Denise Macklin

Abstract The purposes of this study were to describe who should be involved in the vascular access device (VAD) decision-making process, according to patients and caregivers, and to describe if there were differences associated with persons involved in the selection of VADs according to race and gender. Convenience sample included 32 oncology out-patients and 10 caregivers from the southern United States. There were differences by race and sex in decision-making priorities of patients with vascular access devices indwelling; however, these were not statistically significant. Patients, physicians, and oncology nurses were viewed by both patients and caregivers as significant to the decision-making process. In contrast, caregivers were ranked as the least significant by both patients and caregivers. Females chose the physician as the primary decision-maker while males chose the patient as the primary decision-maker.


2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 13-23
Author(s):  
Emin Qerim Neziraj ◽  
Aferdita Berisha Shaqiri

Before the decision makers set much higher requirements in the decision-making than ever before due to the environment of decision-makers subject to change under the influence of progress and development of new technologies, networking individual or organization inside and the outside environment, and modern means of communication enabling continuous inflow, flow and sharing of data and information. In these modern conditions the process of collecting, analyzing, selecting data and information to make informed decisions in the context of possible restrictions and the available options, and ultimately making decisions as the basis for future business or behavior, is not simplified. The use of new technologies in the decision-making process provided numerous opportunities to facilitate decisions selection. However, the decision maker should still be able to differentiate which knowledge should be used to serve in decision making, and which models, methods, tools, systems, and procedures to be used in certain situations, with the purpose of successful decision selection. In this paper, we will examine the decision making process during the business process of the companies in Kosovo.


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