Using both historical and contemporary contexts, The Child Welfare Challenge examines major policy practice and research issues as they jointly shape child welfare practice and its future. This text focuses on families and children whose primary recourse to services has been through publicly funded child welfare agencies, and considers historical areas of service—foster care and adoptions, in-home family-centered services, child-protective services, and residential treatment services—where social work has an important role. This fourth edition features new content on child maltreatment and prevention that is informed by key conceptual frameworks informed by brain science, public health, and other research. This edition uses cross-sector data and more sophisticated predictive and other analytical processes to enhance planning and practice design. The authors have streamlined content on child protective services (CPS) to allow for new chapters on juvenile justice/cross-over youth, and international innovations, as well as more content on biology and brain science. The fourth edition includes a glossary of terms as well as instructor and student resource papers available online.
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 also address how child welfare programs interface with 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 fundamental introduction for new practitioners, as well as summary of recent developments for experienced policymakers. administrators and practitioners. Peter J. Pecora is managing director of research services for the Casey Family Programs and professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. He is the author of numerous professional articles and books. James K. Whittaker is Charles O. Cressey endowed professor in the School of Social Work, University of Washington. He is a frequent consultant on family support and group care interventions. He is the series editor of Modern Applications of Social Work for Transaction Publishers. Anthony N. Maluccio is Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Social Work, University of Connecticut. Richard P. Barth is Professor and Dean, School of Social Work, University of Maryland. Diane DePanfilis is Professor and Associate Dean, School of Work, University of Maryland. Robert D. Plotnick is Professor, Daniel Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington.
On any given day, nearly half a million children are served by foster care services in the U.S. at an annual cost of over $25 billion. Growing demand and shrinking funds have so greatly stressed the child welfare system that calls for orphanages have re-entered the public debate for the first time in nearly half a century. New ideas are desperately needed to transform a system in crisis, guarantee better outcomes for children in foster care, and reduce the need for out-of-home care in the first place. Yet little is known about what works in foster care. Very few studies have examined how alumni have fared as adults or tracked long-term health effects, and even fewer have directly compared different foster care services. In one of the most comprehensive studies of adults formerly in foster care ever conducted, the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study found that quality foster care services for children pay big dividends when they grow into adults. Key investments in highly trained staff, low caseloads, and robust supplementary services can dramatically reduce the rates of mental disorders and substance abuse later in life and increase the likelihood of completing education beyond high school and remaining employed. The results of this unparalleled study document not only the more favorable outcomes for youth who receive better services but the overall return when an investment is made in high quality foster care: every dollar invested in a child generates $1.50 in benefits to society. These findings form the core of this book's blueprint for reform. By keeping more children with their families and investing additional funds in enhanced foster care services, child welfare agencies have the opportunity to greatly improve the health, well being, and economic prospects for foster care alumni. What Works in Foster Care? presents a model foster care program that promises to revolutionize the way policymakers, administrators, case workers, and researchers think about protecting our most vulnerable youth.
In this highly-regarded work, Whittaker forcefully advocates the need for residential treatment as part of a larger continuum of treatment, and explores the context of the setting itself as a dynamic therapeutic factor. Now available in paperback, this book remains among the most notable attempts in the field to utilize an ecological perspective.
The primary audience for Person-Environment Practice is the great majority of social workers whose helping efforts extend to individuals, families, groups, and neighborhoods. Its primary aim is to examine each of these levels critically, through the prism of "environment," and to offer practical suggestions for both assessment and intervention.
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