Defining Child Exposure to Domestic Violence: Lessons from a Historical Review of the Literature

Child witnesses of domestic violence policies and practices have been fraught with conceptual challenges that limit their implementation. Such limitations are evident in the case of Minnesota, which amended their definition of child neglect to include a child’s exposure to family violence, only to later repeal this amendment in response to pressure from child welfare administrators and domestic violence advocates (Edleson, Gassman-Pines, & Hill, 2006; Kantor & Little, 2003). The conceptual flaws are also evident in disparities across state statutes for definitions of child witnesses of domestic violence and the legal penalties it carries (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2021). To enhance the integrity of child witnesses of domestic violence policies and practices, critical attention is needed to clarify and refine the central construct. Pursuant to this goal, this conceptual paper analyzes and synthesizes the history of child welfare. It demonstrates how child witnesses of domestic violence became a social and legal problem. The author traces the evolution of child welfare as a concept and provides new insights. The author also sheds light on the driving forces of child welfare policies and practices. The paper begins in the colonial ages, which gave roots to the contemporary child welfare system. The author describes the early development of child welfare leading to contemporary practice. The paper ends by making evidence-based recommendations for constructing child welfare policies that enhance the safety of children exposed to domestic violence using least restrictive interventions.

Problematising Young Male Victims in Twenty-First Century English Child Sexual Exploitation Policy: a Critical Discourse Analysis

Since 2000, English child sexual exploitation (CSE) policy has expanded, both in its understanding and response, to the increasing recognition and scale of the problem. Since 2011, with the move from statutory guidance to a government action plan, there was, for the first time, a substantial increase in CSE responses across English local authorities. Within English CSE policy, male victims are often referenced as a minority population in the ‘dance’ between gender-neutral and gender-specific guidance. For an observable eight-year period, specific CSE guidance was issued on ‘Boys and Young Men’ between 2009 and 2017. Using a qualitative case study methodology with 18 professionals in England, a critical discourse analysis, inspired by Foucauldian and liminality theories, was undertaken to understand the ‘ethics’ within professional perceptions of male victims in contemporary CSE policy. The key findings highlight an incongruity of existing CSE vocabulary with male victims due to overtly gynocentric connotations. This article identifies how male victims have been perceived in the ‘shadows’ of their female peers, perhaps, as a policy ‘afterthought’, with consequential professional practice. Essentially, male victims have been implicated through this gendered conceptualisation and are assembled awkwardly on the surface of mainstream CSE discourse in England.

Child Neglect: Statutes, Rates, and a Neglect Diversion Model

Introduction: Poverty is a correlate if not a cause of child neglect in the US and worldwide (Slack, 2017; WHO & UNICEF,2021,UN 2021). Definitions of child neglect vary widely and include parental omissions and commissions. The purpose of this manuscript is to examine the extent to which poverty exemptions in state statutes (N=15) actually are correlated with “screened out” neglect cases. We then undertake a case study of Vermont, the state in the U.S. with the lowest rate of screened in neglect cases, to explore the extent that the state of Vermont can be seen as a “positive outlier.” Methods: Using a multi-phase analysis, this article examines US state statutes (2019). Focusing on the 14 states that use poverty and service access qualifiers in their neglect statutes, we compare their neglect rates with states that do not include such qualifiers. We hypothesized that states with poverty exemptions in their statutes would have proportionately fewer neglect cases. The second phase of analysis built off of key informant interviews to help explain findings from phase 1. Findings: The findings expose the wide variation in neglect percentages across the nation, ranging from 92.2% to 1.5%. Using Vermont as a case study, with the lowest reported neglect rate and only 18 cases screened in for investigation in 2019, we examine explanations for the wide discrepancies nationally. These include the use of an economic firewall with poverty related cases in Vermont being referred to economic support services instead of a CPS investigation, Family Resource Centers, and Differential Response Systems. Implications and Conclusions: Differentiating child neglect from poverty, creating a national if not a globally standardized definition of neglect could help to better contextualize neglect rates, create poverty related diversion programs, and address race equity agendas. Finally, we offer recommendations to create more innovative practices to address and divert neglect cases to other systems and services that can more appropriately aid children, parents, and whole families.

Child Protection Vocabulary in the Children Act 1989: Power, Ambiguity and Heterogeneity

Regardless the few decades that an established legislative framework in Child Protection has been in effect, the responsibility of the Law and the Child Protection System is to continuously explore social needs, as they change, transform or new ones are introduced to adapt to the circumstances in the attempts to safeguard and protect children. This paper is not focusing on those adaptations; it draws on this responsibility to argue that in an ever-changing world, wherein needs and demands are shifting, Child Protection Vocabulary needs to be more explicit and adaptive to those changes. Vocabulary like ‘best interest’, ‘resilience’, ‘power’, and ‘vulnerability’ are commonplace in child protection legislation, regulation, policy and practice. That said, the question of interpretation is always of concern; how are the varied agencies, stakeholders, authorities, groups, and individuals approaching safeguarding and child protection when the heterogeneity of the language used is ever-increasing? This paper provides a conceptual content analysis of Child Protection Vocabulary found in the Children Act 1989. The analysis will be drawing on the amendments in Children Act 2004, as well as the Children and Social Work Act 2017, but will preserve its focus on the Children Act 1989 as the foundation for the contemporary Child Protection System. Implications of the findings are provided at the end.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF BLACK ASIAN MINORITY ETHNIC (BAME) GROUPS FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN THE UK: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Background: There are numerous reports from government publications, mental health charities, the World Health Organisation and array of journal articles all writing about mental health issues in relation to Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME). It appears to have become common knowledge that there are disparities in the treatment received by BAME individuals from mental health services. It also commonly reported that BAME individuals are more likely to access mental services via adverse routes, this prognosis is said to worsen in the case of Black males. Aims: This review aims to explore what factors influence BAME individuals’ help-seeking behaviour for mental health services in the UK. It also explores why BAME individuals access mental health services at certain entry points. Methodology: This is a systematic literature review of 16 peer-reviewed journal articles reporting on data from UK-based studies, with a critical analysis in a thematic style. Findings: The help-seeking behaviours of participants in the studies are strongly determined by the values and beliefs they hold, which are deeply steeped in their culture. BAME individuals report that mental health professionals do not understand nor seek to understand their religious and cultural views on mental illnesses. Also, the impact of internalised and external stigma instigates secrecy whereby individuals hide their symptoms from professional mental health services and even from their extended family members. Conclusion: Culture plays a major role and impacts directly on peoples’ help-seeking behaviours. Individuals from BAME background tend to seek support from extended family members for physical illnesses but often hide their mental symptoms.

WHAT HAS COVID-19 PAVED THE WAY FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE TEACHING?

The future is undoubtedly unpredictable which is vividly proved by the 2020 pandemic. Educators primarily focused for the well-being of the students in this time of crisis, panic and ambivalence. In present milieu, social work practice teaching has been made online. This is high time which calls for the retrofitting of the previous discussions where the emphasis should now be laid upon a better quality of teaching, curriculum restructuring, and capacity building of clinical practice educators. Yet, there are multitudes of underlying predicaments, i.e. e-teaching versus e-learning, synchronous versus asynchronous modalities, and educator versus youtuber, which need to be analyzed and evaluated before stepping in and getting lost in the new era.

CULTIVATING CULTURAL HUMILITY IN SOCIAL WORK TEACHING: WHAT CAN BE DONE DIFFERENTLY?

As an Indian social work instructor in the United States, I came across cultural differences between my students and me. This reflection paper aims to share culturally humble teaching practices that I utilized while teaching and how they aided me in overcoming and understanding those cultural differences in the classroom. I believe the shared experience will help international instructors who experience similar cultural differences in their academic careers.

Gads Hill Center: Revisiting the Function and Cause of Social Settlements in a Time of COVID

The Covid-19 pandemic has extended across the globe and has made visible the hyper vulnerability of socially marginalized groups, the inadequacy of public health systems, and the fragility of national and global economic systems. Inflection points, such as the pandemic, often signal that the affected sectors, in this case nation states and their social institutions, regional bodies, and international organizations, must make a fundamental examine and consider the actions needed to strengthen their institutions and footing. In this case study we present how this historical moment has lead a 122 year old American social settlement to reexamine their role and model of practice in an effort to continue to contribute to meaningful changes that diminish human suffering and vulnerability, while advancing the rights and flourishing of the communities of color that they accompany.

The potential impact of COVID 19 on poor and conflict-ridden communities in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA): A conceptual paper

The first cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), previously known as 2019-nCoV, were reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China (Wu, Zhao, Yu B, et al 2020). The virus then spread to Malaysia and Thailand and eventually to the Americas, Europe, Australia and Africa. On the 11thof March 2020 the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 a global pandemic. This concept paper explores the potential impact of COVID-19 on poverty stricken and conflict-ridden communities in Sub-Sahara Africa. In doing so, the paper also explored the implications for public health professionals working with these communities, including recommendation for future policy development.