Through innovative fieldwork and ethnographic writing, Hecht lays bare the received truths about the lives of Brazilian street children. This book changes the terms of the debate, asking not why there are so many homeless children in Brazil but why - given the oppressive alternative of home life in the shantytowns - there are in fact so few. Speaking in recorded sessions that participants called "radio workshops," street children asked one another questions that even the most experienced researchers would be unlikely to pose. At the center of this study are children who play, steal, sleep, dance, and die in the streets of a Brazilian city. But all around them figure activists, politicians, researchers, "home" children, and a global crisis of childhood.

Parental mental health problems and substance misuse affect a significant number of families. This handbook provides practitioners with early intervention techniques and effective support strategies for ensuring the best outcomes for these vulnerable families. Featuring pointers, models and practice examples, A Practical Guide to Early Intervention and Family Support considers the concept of resilience and effective family support. Assessing the policy context and possible barriers to support, it looks at assessment of need, safeguarding children, minimising negative impact, and most importantly, keeping families together where possible. Drawing on key research on the risks and impacts, this book demonstrates the need for a unified approach from a range of adult and children's services. This third edition has been fully updated to reflect developments in policy and services. Essential reading for all professionals who are involved in providing services to families, it will also be of interest to service commissioners and those with an academic interest in what helps to support children and families in these circumstances.

Assessing risk is a key challenge in child protection work. Martin C. Calder presents a clear and accessible guide to understanding risk and the part it plays. This book considers what risk means and how risk assessments should be defined, it outlines the key challenges practitioners face day-to-day, and offers a helpful evidence-based assessment framework for use by frontline staff. Calder argues that risk now has to be reconceived as a multi-disciplinary activity which stretches beyond social work. As such, he highlights a need for a clearer shared terminology among professionals and encourages the social work profession to look to related disciplines, such as criminal justice, for ideas to improve practice. Demystifying the complex debates around risk and showing how to deliver effective risk assessment, this is an essential reference for social workers and social work students, as well as lecturers.

Recess can be stressful for children on the autism spectrum. Since most of these children tend to function better in structured environments, the usual chaos of the schoolyard is not only overwhelming from a sensory standpoint, but from a social one as well. In this book, Carol Gray offers teachers and parents helpful tips and strategies for structuring playtime so that children can get through this part of the day.

Why do parents stop having contact with their children after separation and divorce? How does this falling out of touch affect them and their children, and what can noncustodial parents do to maintain contact? This book offers a new perspective for parents who are "out of touch" by exploring what the loss of contact means in their lives as well as the lives of their children. Greif presents the portraits of parents pushed away by the other parent or by their children after painful and emotional divorces. He discusses the emotional, legal and public policy issues involved for divorced parents and their children.

Identifying the most serious challenges faced in child protection work, this practical guide offers helpful solutions for frontline professionals working with children and adults. Informed by her many years on the frontline and subsequent experience writing serious case reviews, Joanna Nicolas has identified the most common pitfalls in child protection cases. The book focuses on understanding the impact of neglect, information sharing between professionals, communication with children, working with non-compliance/disguised compliance, and the impact of multiple risk factors. It offers tips for overcoming the challenges of everyday practice, such as home visits, as well as enhancing understanding of the key issues in this complex field. The evidence-informed chapters are packed with case examples and include useful reminders of the underlying principles at play. This is essential reading for social workers, health care workers, mental health workers, education professionals and related professions, such as housing and probation.

This important text analyzes the relationship between child development research and the design and implementation of social policy concerning children and families. The editors have compiled contributions from leading experts in the fields of developmental psychology, psychiatry, public health, business, political science, and education. By so doing, they present a multidisciplinary account of the controversies and challenges that have emerged in the field of child development and social policy, and an analysis of recent changes in our national ethos toward children and families.

Children and young people in care rarely match the academic achievements of their peers and policy and procedures to address this inequality have not yet remedied the problem. Drawing on ideas from social pedagogy, the authors present a new approach - learning placements and caring schools. They show that education and care must be considered integral to both out of home placements and schools. Packed with practice examples, it includes chapters on early childhood education and care, as well as alternatives to school and higher education, covering everything from birth up to the age of 25. It highlights the potential benefits of a range of learning opportunities, from drama and outdoor activities, to bedtime stories and mentoring as well as providing support for teachers in their role as carer. Chapters include key points, case studies, practice points and useful resources. This is a unique evidence-informed practical guide for students and professionals in the fields of social work, social care, psychology and education.

This practical resource provides a wealth of activities and photocopiable worksheets to use with children and young people affected by parental substance misuse. Children living in substance abusing homes are at risk of many different negative outcomes, such as behavioral problems, low academic achievement, depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, as well as self-blame for their parent's substance abuse. The activities and worksheets in this book have been designed to assist counselors, therapists and other professionals to facilitate group sessions for children of addicted parents. Each chapter reviews a different issue related to children living in substance abusing homes, and gives step-by-step instructions for leading a group session, accompanied by the latest research and suggestions for discussions based on best practices. Children will learn to reduce feelings of shame and isolation, better understand the nature of addiction, increase self-care and create healthy interactions. This is an essential resource for professionals working with children affected by parental substance misuse, including counselors, child psychologists, therapists, and youth workers.

Disabled children who are unable to live at home are doubly needy: in addition to their disability, they are deprived of normal family life. Children who do not grow up in a stable, nurturing environment are unlikely to achieve their potential. Moreover, disabled children often have complex medical problems. Disabled children living away from home are often involved with many different professionals: although individually these professionals may provide appropriate support, the sum of their efforts rarely adds up to the actions of a 'good' parent. The book considers the key issues that must be addressed when disabled children move from the family home to new accommodation. It provides insights into the difficulties that these children face and looks at how the standards of care that they receive might be improved. It also makes suggestions about how professionals might work more effectively with each other and with the children's care-givers.

More than any other challenging behaviour, the sexual abuse of one child by another generates anxiety, puzzlement and confusion. Adults confident in dealing with a defiant or delinquent child find their confidence leaves them when confronted with sexual misbehaviour in a child who they expect to be asexual. In this book, Jackie Bateman and Judith Milner provide an accessible overview of the evidence relating to such problem behaviours, from inappropriate behaviour to sexual abuse. They go on to propose research-based effective and creative methods that professionals can use to develop responsibility-taking and safety in the child, and outline a strengths-based model for practice. Using the model, the authors show how behaviour can be managed through the development of safe care plans for the home and/or school - addressing communication, supervision, and supportive networks. They also provide guidance for working across a range of settings - whether directly with families, in schools or with children with learning difficulties. This practical guide will be an essential tool for social workers, counsellors, teachers, nurses and any professional with responsibility for child protection.

Therapeutic Residential Care For Children and Youth takes a fresh look at therapeutic residential care as a powerful intervention in working with the most troubled children who need intensive support. Featuring contributions from distinguished international contributors, it critically examines current research and innovative practice and addresses the key questions: how does it work, what are its critical "active ingredients" and does it represent value for money? The book covers a broad spectrum of established and emerging approaches pioneered around with world, with contributors from the USA, Canada, Scandinavia, Spain, Australia, Israel and the UK offering a mix of practice and research exemplars. The book also looks at the research relating to critical issues for child welfare service providers: the best time to refer children to residential care, how children can be helped to make the transition into care, the characteristics of children entering and exiting care, strategies for engaging families as partners, how the substantial cost of providing intensive is best measured against outcomes, and what research and development challenges will allow therapeutic residential care to be rigorously compared with its evidence-based community-centered alternatives. Importantly, the volume also outlines how to set up and implement intensive child welfare services, considering how transferable they are, how to measure success and value for money, and the training protocols and staffing needed to ensure that a programme is effective. This comprehensive volume will enable child welfare professionals, researchers and policymakers to develop a refined understanding of the potential of therapeutic residential care, and to identify the highest and best uses of this intensive and specialized intervention.

This comprehensive resource is designed for training those who work with, parent and care for children and young people who have experienced the damaging effects of abuse, neglect and disruption to the primary caregiver relationship. Presented as an 11-session group programme, the pack offers an accessible overview of the core concepts of developmental trauma, trauma-informed therapeutic care, and self-care for carers. Reading materials, video clips and skills exercises support and reinforce each area covered. The underpinning model is Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), an approach which allows carers to get beyond the defences and blocked trust of children in their care using Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy (pACE). By helping participants understand and respond to the impact of developmental trauma on children, the resource aims to help reduce the spiral of failed relationships suffered by many young people who have been removed from their birth families.

Kinship care - the care of children by grandparents, other relatives or friends - is a major part of foster care, yet there are distinct issues that arise in care involving family rather than 'stranger' foster carers. This book takes an in-depth look at what goes on 'inside' kinship care. It explores the dynamics and relationships between family members that are involved in kinship care, including mothers, grandparents, siblings and the wider family. Chapters also discuss issues such as safeguarding, assessment, therapy, encouraging permanence, placement breakdown, support groups, and cultural issues. The final part of the book looks at kinship care from an international perspective, with examples from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the United States. Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives and with contributions from different branches of kinship care, this book provides an invaluable overview of the issues involved and how to provide effective support. It will be essential reading for all those working in the kinship care field, including social workers, therapists, counsellors, psychologists and family lawyers.

In this incisive examination of lead poisoning during the past half century, Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner focus on one of the most contentious and bitter battles in the history of public health. "Lead Wars" details how the nature of the epidemic has changed and highlights the dilemmas public health agencies face today in terms of prevention strategies and chronic illness linked to low levels of toxic exposure. The authors use the opinion by Maryland's Court of Appeals--which considered whether researchers at Johns Hopkins University's prestigious Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) engaged in unethical research on 108 African-American children--as a springboard to ask fundamental questions about the practice and future of public health. "Lead Wars" chronicles the obstacles faced by public health workers in the conservative, pro-business, anti-regulatory climate that took off in the Reagan years and that stymied efforts to eliminate lead from the environments and the bodies of American children.

It is more important than ever to share best practices with emerging leaders in the social services and education fields, as leaders and students need to understand the practical application of policies and theories. This book will address the recurring theme of leadership development, collaboration with communities and the importance of diverse teams to bring about systemic change and large scale reforms. Leadership Reflections can be used as a guide to provide important insights and tools that can be used by a diverse group of leaders and students in the social services and education fields. Recent events in this country are exposing more people to the disparities and inequities that exist for black and brown people. These disparities have to be addressed with a variety of different strategies. This book addresses one such area; the urgent need to reduce these disparities and dismantle the systemic obstacles that continue to stand in the way of families, children and communities thriving.

Mindful Therapeutic Care for Children is an accessible guide to using mindfulness and reflection to improve the quality of care for vulnerable children. Drawing on ideas from attachment theory and neuroscience, Mindful Therapeutic Care for Children explains terms like mindfulness and reflective practice, their importance in the therapeutic care of children and how the theory behind them can provide a key to understanding children's behaviour. This book discusses how the mental and emotional environment around children affects them, and how practising mindfulness can help us generate more supportive environments. The author also features an 'Awareness Pentagon' model for reflective practice, an original tool developed through her training designed to help you to approach cases critically and to focus more effectively on the child's needs. This practical book provides psychologists, therapists, social workers and other professionals working with children, as well as foster carers and adoptive parents with useful tools to develop their capacity for mindful care.

A gripping memoir and revelatory investigation into the history of the Foundling Hospital and one girl who grew up in its care - the author's own mother.

Growing up in a wealthy enclave outside San Francisco, Justine Cowan's life seems idyllic. But her mother's unpredictable temper drives Justine from home the moment she is old enough to escape. It is only after her mother dies that she finds herself pulling at the threads of a story half-told - her mother's upbringing in London's Foundling Hospital. Haunted by this secret history, Justine travels across the sea and deep into the past to discover the girl her mother once was.

Here, with the vividness of a true storyteller, she pieces together her mother's childhood alongside the history of the Foundling Hospital: from its idealistic beginnings in the eighteenth century, how it influenced some of England's greatest creative minds - from Handel to Dickens, its shocking approach to childcare and how it survived the Blitz only to close after the Second World War.

This was the environment that shaped a young girl then known as Dorothy Soames, who was left behind by a mother forced by stigma and shame to give up her child; who withstood years of physical and emotional abuse, dreaming of escape as German bombers circled the skies, unaware all along that her own mother was fighting to get her back.

Becky Murray is someone who sees needs and responds. Whether it's street children in Pakistan, orphans in Kenya or girls at risk of human trafficking across the world, she is there, when these kids need someone the most; someone who is an extension of Christ at work. Her charity, OneByOne has grown into such an incredible organisation that is reaching thousands of lives. As you read this book you will quickly discover there is more to it than what we so easily call destiny. You will feel the providence of God in each word and story. Becky's life was changed by a preposition, by the word 'INTO'. . . she dared to go (into) the world and today children by the thousands are benefitting from her obedience. People of providence have a window of opportunity that they must step through and this is exactly what has taken place in Becky Murray's life. She has crawled into the eyes of Jesus and seen the abandoned, the broken and the defenceless as He would see them. She is an answer to prayer for many and her boldness takes her into places others would never dare to go. Her life is a challenge to those who feel the call to mission on their life.

"I'd die without my Blackberry" - one young person's comment sums up a generation of young people who are increasingly living their daily lives through their phones and the internet. Cyberbullying is rife, affecting one in five 10-19 year olds. It causes anxiety, unhappiness and mental health problems; in extreme cases even leading to suicide. This book provides a compelling and up to date account of the constantly evolving problem of cyberbullying: the different forms it can take, how the impact differs on boys and girls of different ages, and which children are most vulnerable. Drawing on the findings of the author's survey of over 9,000 children and teenagers, Cyberbullying and E-safety provides a revealing account of the direct experiences and views of children. It describes how a new world where emerging technologies such as smartphones have transformed online social behaviour requires a new, more relevant approach to e-safety and the problem of cyberbullying. The author provides this in the form of a youth-led, age- and gender-appropriate model for cyber-education in the modern world; a 3-tier model comprising universal e-safety education accompanied by targeted and intensive support and advice for children at most risk. She also outlines a school-wide model for preventing and responding to cyberbullying in children, young people and teachers, and provides a wealth of guidance and tools for individuals and schools including templates and lesson plans. Cyberbullying and E-safety is required reading for teachers, counsellors, youth workers, social workers, and other professionals working with children and young people.

Freedoms Flowers is a book about the effects of domestic abuse on children. It is composed of firsthand accounts from these children and their mothers. Some of the children write as adults from memory and some are male. The youngest contributor is eight years old. Their stories describe not only the abuse from the perpetrators but the dreadful collusion from the so called professionals who should have been protecting the victims instead of worsening the effects of the abuse. This book should be read by every teacher, social worker, solicitor, judge and member of the medical profession who comes in to contact with any aspect of domestic abuse. It should be read by every woman who is staying with an abuser for the sake of the children. Every woman whose children wet the bed, throw tantrums and attack other children should read this. Every woman whose children have been taken into care should also read this. The book also sends a strong message about hope. The contributors describe how their lives were saved when they attended the Freedom Programme. They did not need therapy or threats to save their children from abuse. They only needed information to enable them to make informed decisions. Knowledge is power

Child Health Services Research offers a practical introduction to the foundations, primary methods, and applications of children's health services research. This valuable resource describes various approaches to children's health services research, shows how these approaches differ from methods used in relation to adult health, and demonstrates the value that can be added by outcomes research. In doing so, Child Health Services Research also examines various aspects of child health in the context of the household, hospital, health system, community, and policy arenas.

Global support for improving child welfare and upholding the rights of children is strong, but in practice often fails to recognise the emerging gap between traditional child welfare practices and the evolving nature of child vulnerability. This book takes an international perspective on child welfare, examining how global and national frameworks can be adapted to address the rights and best interests of children. Synthesising the latest international research, experts redefine the concept of a 'child in need' in a world where global movement is common and children are frequently involved in the law. The book considers children as citizens, as refugees, victims of trafficking, soldiers, or members of indigenous groups and identifies the political and cultural changes that need to take place in order to deliver rights for these children. Focusing in particular on child protection systems across nations, it identifies areas of child welfare and family law which systematically fail to look after the best interests of children, often through prejudice, outdated practice, or even the failure of agencies to work together. Exploring the nexus between children's rights and the law across the globe, this book makes essential reading for policymakers, social workers, lawyers, researchers and professionals involved in protecting vulnerable children.

In Narrating Practice with Children and Adolescents, social workers, sociologists, researchers, and helping professionals share engaging and evocative stories of practice that aim to center the young client's story. Drawing on work with a variety of disadvantaged populations in New York City and around the world, they seek to raise awareness of the diversity of the individual experiences of youth. They make use of a variety of narrative approaches to offer new perspectives on a range of critical health care, mental health, and social issues that shape the lives of children and adolescents. The book considers the narratives we tell about the lives and experiences of children and adolescents and proposes counternarratives that challenge dominant ideas about childhood. Contributors examine the environments and structures that shape the lives of children and youth from an ecological lens. From their stories emerge questions about how those working with young clients might respond to a changing landscape: How do we define and construct childhood? How do poverty and inequality impact children's health and welfare? How is childhood lived at the intersection of race, class, and gender? How can practitioners engage children and adolescents through culturally responsive and democratic processes? Offering new frameworks for reflecting on social work practice, the essays in Narrating Practice with Children and Adolescents also serve as a vehicle for exploration of children's agency and voice.

Reclaiming Social Work (RSW) is a radical new system for delivering child and family social work in the UK. The system was first piloted in the London Borough of Hackney and the model has gained national recognition. At the heart of this innovative system is the endeavour to keep children together with their families. This book sets out what the Reclaiming Social Work model is, how it was implemented, and how it works. It explains the RSW system of social work 'units' made up of clinicians and therapists and headed by a consultant social worker, and demonstrates how it has worked in practice. The evidence base and theories underlying the model are also explained. Several chapters are written by consultant social workers with extensive experience of working within RSW, which outline the methodological approaches used. This book on a pioneering new social work model will be of great interest to social work managers, policymakers and academics.