Enhancing The Well Being Of Children And Families Through Effective Interventions

This reader compares up-to-date policy and research evidence from the UK and USA on the effectiveness of core child welfare interventions. The text shows how knowledge of effective interventions can be used to improve assessment of needs, and planning and reviewing services to children and their families.

Services for families and children are rightfully the focus of intense scrutiny and debate, and there is a clear need to establish a knowledge of which services work well. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of research evidence from the UK and USA on the effectiveness of selected child welfare interventions. It addresses the challenges of measuring effectiveness in child welfare and explains the policy context for child welfare service delivery. Leading international contributors summarize the evidence of effectiveness in each core area, and consider the impact on children's development, parenting capacity and the wider community. Critically, the book also draws out the implications of the evidence for policy, practice and service delivery as well as for future research. This book is essential reading for policy makers, practitioners and commissioners of services in child welfare as well as students and researchers.

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

This book provides a model which offers guidance on effective and appropriate therapeutic interventions and services for vulnerable children and young people (commonly children who have experienced trauma, abuse, domestic violence or neglect). By addressing practice, theory and policy, the book enables professionals working with vulnerable children to choose the right intervention for each individual child. Contributors examine best practice across the UK, the US and Europe and compile the findings in a way that can be incorporated into everyday practice. Mental Health Interventions and Services for Vulnerable Children and Young People will be an invaluable tool for those working with vulnerable children and young people including child mental health and welfare professionals and agencies, as well as social workers, policy makers and academics teaching or studying child mental health.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Written for professionals spanning children's services, this must-read guide provides an authoritative overview of what shapes the psychological wellbeing of children and young people - from perinatal care and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) through to their socioeconomic circumstances, schools and the wider community. Contributors provide a concise overview of the evidence base, identifying current barriers to good mental health in policy and service provision, and highlighting examples of initiatives proven to be successful. Examples are drawn from health, social care, youth justice and education settings with a focus on preventative and early intervention measures. This book is a rich resource for all professionals concerned with child wellbeing, including service providers, commissioners, professionals and students. It should serve as essential reading for students on mental health training courses.

This edited collection offers an international perspective on the challenges of designing and undertaking outcome-based evaluation of child and family services. It introduces the key ideas and issues currently being debated in the evaluation of these services and provides examples of evaluation from policy and practice.

Significant amounts of money and resources are spent on child and family services, so successful evaluation of whether or not they are achieving the best outcomes is therefore essential. This edited collection offers an international perspective on the challenges of designing and undertaking outcome-based evaluation of child and family services. With contributions from leading international experts, it introduces the key ideas and issues currently being debated in the evaluation of these services; discusses relevant approaches to designing and using evaluation methods; and provides examples of evaluation from the real world of policy and practice. Issues covered include setting appropriate indicators for service effectiveness, cross-cultural evaluation of service interventions, service user involvement in evaluation, and evaluations of family and community-based services. This invaluable book will be essential reading for policy makers, planners, commissioners and managers across child and family welfare services, as well as researchers and other academics in the field.