scholarly journals Ten Answers Every Child Welfare Agency Should Provide

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-44
Author(s):  
Barbara Fallon ◽  
Mark Kartusch ◽  
Joanne Filippelli ◽  
Nico Trocmé ◽  
Tara Black ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Child Welfare Agency ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Relevant Field ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The University ◽  
Key Questions

A university-child welfare agency partnership between the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto and Highland Shores Children’s Aid (Highland Shores), a child welfare agency in Ontario, allowed for the identification and examination of ten questions to which every child welfare organization should know the answers. Using data primarily from the Ontario Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (OCANDS), members of the partnership were able to answer these key questions about the children and families served by Highland Shores and the services provided to children and families. The Ontario child welfare sector has experienced challenges in utilizing existing data sources to inform practice and policy. The results of this partnership illustrate how administrative data can be used to answer relevant, field-driven questions. Ultimately, the answers to these questions are valuable to the broader child welfare sector and can help to enhance agency accountability and improve services provided to vulnerable children and their families.

Research to Consider While Effectively Re-Designing Child Welfare Services

2021 ◽  
pp. 104973152110500
Author(s):  
Richard P. Barth ◽  
Jill Duerr Berrick ◽  
Antonio R. Garcia ◽  
Brett Drake ◽  
Melissa Jonson-Reid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Child Welfare Services ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
New Policies

An intense appetite for reforming and transforming child welfare services in the United States is yielding many new initiatives. Vulnerable children and families who become involved with child welfare clearly deserve higher quality and more effective services. New policies, programs, and practices should be built on sound evidence. Reforms based on misunderstandings about what the current data show may ultimately harm families. This review highlights 10 commonly held misconceptions which we assert are inconsistent with the best available contemporary evidence. Implications for better alignment of evidence and reform are discussed.

Medical Child Abuse

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Roesler ◽  
Carole Jenny
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Comprehensive Description ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Medical Environment ◽  
Bioethics Education ◽  
Medical Child Abuse ◽  
The University ◽  
Important Form ◽  
Sydney Australia

Powerful new detailed and comprehensive resource for diagnosing and treating medical child abuse. Thomas A. Roesler, MD and Carole Jenny, MD, MBA, FAAP make the case that the term Munchausen syndrome by proxy should be retired permanently and replaced with a commonsense appreciation that children can be abused by their parents in the medical environment. Physicians who find themselves providing unnecessary and harmful medical care can see the abuse for what it is, another way parents can harm children. The book offers the first detailed and comprehensive description of treatment for this form of child maltreatment. “At last. A clear, logical, and immensely practical book, showing that this is not a syndrome at all, but rather another important form of child abuse…and one which is completely preventable.” Kim Oates, Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, The University of Sydney, Australia. “A fantastic book that will revolutionize, in a much needed way, the way we think about this disorder.” Alex V. Levin, MD, MHSc, FAAP, FAAO, FRCSC, Professor, Department of Paediatrics, Genetics, and Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences Director, Postgraduate Bioethics Education University of Toronto. “Drs. Roesler and Jenny have finally mapped the terrain of child abuse showing where medical child abuse stands in the overall landscape.” Thomas L. Dwyer, Director of Foster Care, Department of Children and Families, State of Connecticut.

scholarly journals Shifting power relations in New Zealand child welfare policy: The process and implications of the 2014 amendment to s13 of the CYP&tF Act

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-50
Author(s):  
Sarah Martin
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Child Welfare Policy

INTRODUCTION: The Vulnerable Children (VC) Act 2014 amended section 13 (s13) of the Children, Young Persons and their Families (CYPtF) Act 1989 to re-emphasise the principle that the welfare and interests of the child should be the paramount consideration in child protection proceedings. This study examines the policy process behind the amendment, and investigates its possible implications, in particular its impact on the power relationship between the state and family/whanau.METHOD: Data was collected from semi-structured, confidential interviews with 10 key informants. Key themes were identified using thematic analysis. This was supplemented by document analysis of published and unpublished government papers, consultation papers and local and international research.FINDINGS: The policy process that preceded the decision to amend s13 of the CYPtF Act was controlled by a small policy elite that failed to consult broadly on either the need for the amendment, or its impact on vulnerable children and families. Government gave little consideration to the implications of the policy change, and the policy process used to develop the amendment lacked the characteristics of rational, comprehensive, policy development. No evaluation or monitoring of the policy change has been put in place, despite the known risk that it may result in an increase in unnecessary removals of children from their families/whanau.CONCLUSION: The s13 amendment, while appearing minor, has significant implications for vulnerable children and families and is part of a fundamental re-balancing of power relations in New Zealand’s child welfare policy.

scholarly journals Storytelling among child welfare social workers: Constructing professional role and resilience through team talk

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 968-986
Author(s):  
Laura L Cook
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Professional Role ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Child Welfare Social Workers ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
Cautionary Tales

Child welfare social work is emotive and demanding work, requiring highly skilled and resilient practitioners. In a context of austerity, increased public scrutiny and accountability, defensive practice has been identified as a feature of professional practice. However, little is known about the processes through which social workers develop resilience or come to adopt a defensive stance in managing the demands of their work. This article focuses on professional storytelling among child welfare social workers. It examines how social workers construct their professional role through team talk and the implications of this for our understanding of professional resilience and defensiveness. Drawing on an in-depth narrative analysis of focus groups with social work teams, eight story types are identified in social workers’ talk about their work: emotional container stories, solidarity stories, professional epiphanies, professional affirmation stories, partnership stories, parables of persistence, tales of courageous practice and cautionary tales. Each story type foregrounds a particular aspect of child welfare practice, containing a moral about social work with vulnerable children and families. The article concludes with the implications of these stories for our understanding of both resilience and the pull towards defensiveness in child welfare social work.

scholarly journals Promoting Protective Factors in Environments of Risk for Young Children: An Organizing Framework for Practice, Policy, and Research

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 96-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Fallon ◽  
Joanne Filippelli ◽  
Nicolette Joh-Carnella ◽  
Elizabeth Milne ◽  
Jessica Carradine
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Vulnerable Children ◽  
Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Key Indicators

Early childhood is an important developmental period, which lays the foundation for future learning, behaviour, physical and mental health and gene expression. The most vulnerable children in society are often referred to and receive services from the child welfare system because of a concern of abuse and neglect and/or a poor developmental trajectory. This paper presents an organizing framework for how the child welfare system, in concert with allied partners, can support interventions for young children and families by acknowledging its crucial role in improving their development and well-being. The framework is informed by research amassed from numerous disciplines, including child welfare, development, neuroscience, neurobiology and epigenetics. Although the notions of protection and well-being are central considerations in child welfare legislation in Ontario, Canada, the operationalization of wellbeing has proven challenging in child welfare practice, policy and research. The framework proposes ten key indicators and priorities for identifying and promoting optimal child development. Findings from the 2013 cycle of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS-2013), the only provincial source of aggregated child welfare investigation data, are presented to articulate the divide between the environmental context of a population of at-risk children and the conditions that both protect children and increase the likelihood that they will thrive in adulthood. This paper argues there are different points of entry and intervention across sectors and provides a foundation for further discussion on how to promote well-being for society's most vulnerable children.

Examining Child Welfare Decisions and Services for Asian-Canadian Versus White-Canadian Children and Families in the Child Welfare System

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Lee ◽  
Esme Fuller-Thomson ◽  
Barbara Fallon ◽  
Tara Black ◽  
Nico Trocmé
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Odds Ratio ◽  
Child Welfare System ◽  
Protection System ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Child Protection Services ◽  
Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Case Closure ◽  
Case Characteristics

Using administrative child welfare data from the Ontario Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (OCANDS), this study compared the profiles of Asian-Canadian and White-Canadian children and families that experienced a case closure after an investigation instead of being transferred to ongoing child protection services (CPS). Child protection investigations involving Asian-Canadian and White-Canadian children and families that were transferred to ongoing CPS presented a different profile of case characteristics and caregiver and child clinical needs. Asian-Canadian children and families received ongoing CPS for over a month longer than White-Canadian children and families and were less likely (odds ratio [ OR] = 0.39) to be reinvestigated for any form of maltreatment-related concerns within 1 year after case closure. It appears that child protection investigations involving Asian-Canadian children and families are less likely to be closed prematurely than White-Canadian children and families, and the child protection system may be meeting the needs of Asian-Canadian communities. Alternatively, it is possible there is unaccounted biases that may be reflective of systemic problem of discriminative practices in the child protection system. Further research is needed to explore this phenomenon.

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