Child Welfare In Canada

Canadian Child Welfare Law: Children, Families, and the State (2nd edition) provides students in social work and law with an introduction to child welfare law. This complex, demanding and important area of law and social work practice receives relatively little attention in professional schools and academic journals. For practicing lawyers and social workers who have not had the opportunity to study child welfare law, this book provides a useful overview of a complex area, as well as serving as a reference work for busy practitioners in the child welfare field. This second edition substantially updates material in the 1991 edition, including consideration of the impact of new legislation and the Charter of Rights. It also includes new chapters on liability issues for child welfare workers and agencies, and on the perspectives of social workers with respect to the legal process. The final chapter offers the personal views of four judges on the challenges that they face in dealing with child welfare cases.

Imagining Child Welfare in the Spirit of Reconciliation is a most crucial look at child welfare practices in Canada, social work as a tool for advocacy, and the need to address the historical legacy of the Sixties Scoop.

In 1994 a group of researchers and decision makers met to discuss the state of child welfare. Also present were a few practitioners and two youth in care. Six years later, when they met again, the number of practitioners and youth had grown considerably and were joined by a strong contingent of foster parents. Thus the findings and insights presented were affirmed or challenged by those most affected -- those on the front line. It was an exciting event, worth capturing in book form. Kathleen Kufeldt and Brad McKenzie have gathered the papers presented at the 2000 Symposium and have organised them under four themes: incidence and characteristics of child maltreatment; the continuum of care; policy and practice; and future directions. An analysis and synthesis of the work informs each of these themes, while an eight-point research agenda developed in an earlier symposium is used to assess developments to date and provide guidance for the future.

Faced with rapidly changing social and economic conditions, service professionals, policy developers, and researchers have raised significant concerns about the Canadian child welfare system. This book draws inspiration from experiences with three broad, international child welfare paradigms—child protection, family service, and community healing/caring (First Nations)—to look at how specific practices in other countries, as well as alternative experiments in Canada, might foster positive innovations in the Canadian child welfare approach. Foundational values and purposes, systems design and policy, and organization and management are discussed, as are front-line service delivery, service provider work environments, and the realities of daily living for families. Informed by recent research, the contributors provide clear directions for policy, administration, and service-delivery reforms. Informing policy debates addressing child maltreatment and family welfare, this book will serve as a vital resource for managers, service providers, professionals, and students in the fields of social work, child and youth care, family studies, psychology, and special education.

'I think this book, in assembling the views of a distinguished group of professionals, can have a profound effect on child welfare theory and practice. These practitioners, critics and academics have much to say. I for one am grateful that their views are now conveniently available to all of us in this book.' -- from the foreword by Thomas R. Berger, Chairman, the British Columbia Royal Commission on Family and Children's Law The first Canadian text on child welfare, this work examines a number of issues which represent the state of the art of child welfare in Canada. Among the contributors are practitioners as well as academics from the fields of social work, child care, law and medicine. Important government studies and reports in the 1970's did much to define existing problems in child welfare and to provide directions for their solutions. The developments and research reported in this book add to their findings. Several main themes emerge in the book -- one being the lack of standardization of child welfare policy and practice in Canada since each province has its own regulations and policies. Other concerns common to many of the authors are the dismantling of social service programmes as a result of the current recession and the need for greater cooperation with the native Indian leadership in regard to the provision of child welfare services to the Indian community. Another important theme touched on by several authors concerns children in the care of welfare agencies. They discuss how adequate the range and quality of services are and how the effect of these services can be measured. The final theme centers on prevention and the early identification of families whose children may be at risk without certain support services. The point of view which transcends all the contributions supports an institutional approach, where a range of services is available to families to choose from, as opposed to the residual approach which regards government services as the last resort. While it is the latter view that is prevalent in Canda today, the authors argue that this represents a penny wise but pound foolish approach not only to child welfare but also to the broader field of social welfare.

The chapters in this book represent ... PCWC's 3rd bi-annual Symposium held in Edmonton, Alberta, November 23-25, 2005."

Launched by healthcare providers in January 2018, the #aHand2Hold campaign confronted the Quebec government's practice of separating children from their families during medical evacuation airlifts, which disproportionately affected remote and northern Indigenous communities. Pediatric emergency physician Samir Shaheen-Hussain's captivating narrative of this successful campaign, which garnered unprecedented public attention and media coverage, seeks to answer lingering questions about why such a cruel practice remained in place for so long. In doing so it serves as an indispensable case study of contemporary medical colonialism in Quebec. Fighting for a Hand to Hold exposes the medical establishment's role in the displacement, colonization, and genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Through meticulously gathered government documentation, historical scholarship, media reports, public inquiries, and personal testimonies, Shaheen-Hussain connects the draconian medevac practice with often-disregarded crimes and medical violence inflicted specifically on Indigenous children. This devastating history and ongoing medical colonialism prevent Indigenous communities from attaining internationally recognized measures of health and social well-being because of the pervasive, systemic anti-Indigenous racism that persists in the Canadian public health care system - and in settler society at large. Shaheen-Hussain's unique perspective combines his experience as a frontline pediatrician with his long-standing involvement in anti-authoritarian social justice movements. Sparked by the indifference and callousness of those in power, this book draws on the innovative work of Indigenous scholars and activists to conclude that a broader decolonization struggle calling for reparations, land reclamation, and self-determination for Indigenous peoples is critical to achieve reconciliation in Canada.