Assessing Parenting Capacity Guidelines

Child welfare professionals, legal counsel, and judges will find this manual to be an indispensable reference with which to inform and structure their effort to advance what is in the best interest of a child at risk. Dr. Alexander T. Polgar created this remarkably comprehensive, user-friendly manual. It includes, in a single source, a clearly articulated rationale for a systematic methodology with which to conduct Parenting Capacity Assessments. Mental health professionals new to this area of practice regardless of jurisdiction will be able with the use of this manual, to conduct assessments of a quality that usually comes with practice wisdom derived from years of experience. Seasoned practitioners again, regardless of the jurisdiction in which they work, will welcome the benefits of this initiative to achieve standardization that is rationally based and empirically supported by a wealth of previously unsynthesized research. Child welfare professionals, legal counsel, and judges will find this manual to be an indispensable reference with which to inform and structure their effort to advance what is in the best interest of a child at risk. This manual includes two separate but related sections.

This book addresses evaluations for child protection, one of the most delicate legal arenas in which forensic mental examiners play a part. The evaluations are highly specialized, requiring child clinical specialization, a knowledge of the legal and social context, and a thorough understanding of the professional and ethical guidelines for child protection evaluations. This volume provides that context, and presents established empirical foundations from the behavioral, social, and medical sciences. Finally, the book provides a detailed "how-to" for practitioners, including information on data collection, interpretation, report writing and expert testimony.

Perry Pezzot-Pearce and John Pearce guide practitioners through the steps of assessment, from negotiating the initial referral, through data collection and report writing to court testimony.

A Practitioner’s Guide to Enhancing Parenting Skills: Assessment, Analysis and Intervention offers a detailed and stepwise approach to problem behaviour analysis and management, based on the successful and evidence-based Enhancing Parenting Skills Programme (EPaS). This unique programme, based on 40 years of Professor Hutchings’ clinical work, draws on social learning theory (SLT) principles designed to support families of young children with behavioural challenges. In this book, Hutchings and Williams combine clear practical guidance with case examples and useful checklists to deliver SLT-based interventions tailored to the unique needs of individual families. The case analysis identifies the assets and skills in the home situation and the functions of problem behaviours before creating a set of achievable goals. The latter part of the manual includes examples of intervention strategies to address several common problems, including toileting, eating and night-time problems. This book is an invaluable tool for all practitioners working in Early Years including CAMHS primary care staff, social workers, clinical psychologists, health visitors and school nurses.

In this book Steinhauer brings together the fragmented research that has been done in a number of different disciplines. From this body of work he develops a model of intervention based on an understanding of attachment theory, development theory, and the practice of mental health consultation.

Offers a review of the latest literature but moreover a practical guide essential to professionals who give their expert opinions to courts in child care cases.