Field Guide To Child Welfare Foundations Of Child Protective Services

Provides the foundation for supervisory practice in Child Protective Services (CPS). It describes the roles & responsibilities of the CPS supervisor, & provides practice-oriented advice on how to carry out supervisory responsibilities. Designed for CPS supervisors & administrators, but it also may be helpful to child welfare agency staff who provide training for supervisory personnel & to schools of social work as they prepare new social workers for the child welfare field. Also includes a glossary of terms & a bibliography.

Within a historical and contemporary context, this book examines major policy practice and research issues as they jointly shape child welfare practice and its future. In addition to describing the major problems facing the field, the book highlights service innovations that have been developed in recent years. The resulting picture is encouraging, especially if certain major program reforms I are implemented and agencies are able to concentrate resources in a focused manner. The volume emphasizes families and children whose primary recourse to services has been through publicly funded child welfare agencies. The book considers historical areas of service—foster care and adoptions, in-home family-centered services, child-protective services, and residential services—where social work has an important role. Authors address the many fields of practice in which child and family services are provided or that involve substantial numbers of social work programs, such as services to adolescent parents, child mental health, education, and juvenile justice agencies. This new edition will continue to serve as a fundamen-tal introduction for new practitioners, as well as summary of recent developments for experienced practitioners.

This second edition of Helping in Child Protective Services: A Competency-Based Casework Handbook is a comprehensive desk reference that serves as both a daily guide for workers and a training tool for supervisors and administrators. This invaluable resource provides CPS workers with the knowledge and skills necessary to assist vulnerable families, covering such key issues as assessment, decision making, intervention, child development, medical evaluation, accountability, and the legal framework of culturally responsive practice. This handbook equips CPS professionals and students to follow the casework process from intake through case closure with step-by-step instructions and examples. Chapters cover child development, key developmental milestones, and the importance of intervention; medical evaluation of child abuse and neglect; how to structure interviews and phrase questions to obtain information from families and guide the casework process; and the importance of accountable practice to families, their agencies, and the public. This latest edition of Helping in Child Protective Services compiles the most up-to-date research and practice information to help professionals provide the highest quality and most innovative services to children and families.

An enduring and relevant resource that anchors and guides professionals through the ongoing system and social changes that characterize everyday child welfare practice. More than 1,100 pages in a four-volume set, it is the first comprehensive source to give practitioners easy and immediate access to "best practice" standards - combined with hands-on, step-by-step application guidelines.

"The timing of the publication with the revised Working Together guidelines could not be more advantageous. This book is a unique and important contribution to child care literature. No agency should be without." - Child Abuse Review Professionals concerned with the protection of children face many challenges. This work demands knowledge from several disciplines, a wide variety of skills, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The editors, Howard Dubowitz, a pediatrician, and Diane DePanfilis, a social worker, together with over 70 experts in this field offer what is known about how best to work with maltreated children and their families, in a very practical, concise, and user-friendly way. Structured to follow the life of a case from the time a report of child maltreatment is made through the various pathways in the child protection system, this edited volume synthesizes the best practice principles for responding to reports of child abuse and neglect; engaging children and other family members in intervention; developing cross-cultural practice competencies; assessing risk, evaluating safety, and conducting family assessments; defining outcomes and planning intervention; evaluating risk reduction; and making permanency decisions; and discusses the unique legal, medical, ethical, and other practice issues that work in the child protection field involves. Professionals facing tough dilemmas in practice should find valuable guidance in these pages.