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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social welfare & social services > Child welfare
The situation of children abandoned by adults, in foundling homes, sleeping rough in the streets, in refugee camps, and in other circumstances, attracts much political and journalistic attention, but surprisingly little from social scientists. As the editors of this volume point out, there is therefore not enough said about the varieties of experiences summarized as "abandonment." Nor has enough effort been put into studying the perspectives of children themselves on their situation. Situating the discourse on child abandonment in the more general field of debate on children, both historical and ethnographic, this book attempts to show that the presentations of "abandoned" children tend to take for granted ethnocentric ideas about what children can and should do, and about what their relationship should be with adults.
Child Protection and Parents with a Learning Disability provides the practical knowledge that professionals need in order to understand common intellectual disabilities and how they might affect parenting capability. It presents clear guidance on how to carry out effective assessments and explains how interventions might differ when working with parents who have a learning disability. It covers a broad spectrum of disabilities, including borderline conditions and Autism Spectrum Disorder. The book also explores a number of emotional and mental health issues that can occur alongside learning disabilities, such as ADHD, anxiety, depression, and attachment disorders, to show how they should be understood in the context of cognitive abilities and the parenting role. Empowering practitioners to make informed decisions about children's welfare, this is a must-have guide for all professionals working with families where a parent is affected by a learning disability.
Combining contemporary research with practice findings, this book shows how we can improve the mental health of children in care. Expert contributors highlight the challenges that children face and propose innovative models of practice which have been proven to improve outcomes. The book describes the difficulties children in care commonly encounter, such as vulnerability to self-harm, substance misuse or inappropriate sexual behaviour. It goes on to explore therapeutic interventions, such as art therapy or integrative therapy, which can be used to address the root of these behaviours. With a range of clinical and practical perspectives, it also makes recommendations for further training for foster carers, for reinforcing professional support networks and for all agencies to have a developed understanding of cultural considerations when working with children in care. Those committed to improving the mental health of children and young people in care, such as psychologists, psychiatrists, CAMHS professionals and social workers, will find this book an invaluable source of evidence and inspiration.
AN ESQUIRE AND NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR An award-winning journalist’s exploration of the domestic violence epidemic, and how to combat it. An average of 137 women are killed by familial violence across the globe every day. In the UK alone, two women die each week at the hands of their partners, and in the US domestic violence homicides have risen by 32 percent since 2017. The WHO deems it a ‘global epidemic’. Yet public understanding of this urgent problem remains catastrophically low. Journalist Rachel Louise Snyder was no exception. Despite years of experience reporting on international conflicts, when it came to violence in the domestic sphere, she believed all the common assumptions: that it was a fate for the unlucky few, a matter of bad choices and cruel environments. That if things were dire enough, victims would leave. That violence inside the home was private. And, perhaps most of all, that unless you stand at the receiving end of a punch, it has nothing to do with you. All this changed when Snyder began talking to the victims and perpetrators whose stories she tells in this book. Fearlessly reporting from the front lines of the epidemic, in No Visible Bruises she interviews men who have murdered their families, women who have nearly been murdered, and people who have grown up besieged by familial aggression, painting a vivid and nuanced picture of its reality. She talks to experts in violence prevention and law enforcement, revealing how domestic abuse has its roots in our education, economic, health, and justice systems, and how by tackling these origins we can render it preventable.
Helping vulnerable children and young people to build protective behaviours is the key to keeping them safe. Full of creative ideas and activities, this guide provides the tools to help children develop these key skills. Topics include work around: building resilience and problem solving skills; identifying a 'safety network'; developing emotional literacy; awareness of grooming strategies and safe/unsafe touch; and cyber safety. The range of tried and tested techniques will be sure to engage any child in thinking about their personal safety, allowing adult carers to have confidence that their child will be empowered to better identify and avoid harmful situations and behaviours. Practical and easy to use, this is a valuable resource for professionals working with vulnerable children and young people, such as adopted or fostered children and those in residential care, as well as the parents and carers of these children.
'One of the non-fiction books of the year.' Andrew O' Hagan A powerful, evocative and deeply personal journey into the world of missing people When Francisco Garcia was just seven years old, his father, Christobal, left his family. Unemployed, addicted to drink and drugs, and adrift in life, Christobal decided he would rather disappear altogether than carry on dealing with the problems in front of him. So that's what he did, leaving his young wife and child in the dead of night. He has been missing ever since. Twenty years on, Francisco is ready to take up the search for answers. Why did this happen and how could it be possible? Where might his father have gone? And is there any reason to hope for a happy reunion? During his journey, which takes him all across Britain and back to his father's homeland of Spain, Francisco tells the stories of those he meets along the way: the police investigators; the charity employees and volunteers; the once missing and those perilously at risk around us; the families, friends and all those left behind. If You Were There is the moving and affecting story of one man's search for his lost family, an urgent document of where we are now and a powerful, timeless reminder of our responsibility to others.
The figure of the lost child has haunted the Australian imagination. Peter Pierce's original and sometimes shocking study The Country of Lost Children traces this ambivalent and disturbing history. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from poetry, fiction and newspaper reports to paintings and films, The Country of Lost Children analyzes the cultural and moral implications of the lost child in Australian history and illuminates a crucial aspect of our present condition. At its core are confronting, often troubling, questions about childhood itself.
With contributions from internationally recognized experts, this edited volume presents original thinking on the theory, research and practice surrounding child neglect. Comprehensive and current, the book takes an expansive look at how we can better address this prevalent issue. It explores the effects of neglect on the developing child and makes recommendations on how to identify neglect at the earliest opportunity. It considers common causal and contributing factors in neglect cases and the impact of these on children. The book details effective intervention techniques alongside case vignettes and shows how change can be achieved. It highlights the importance of supporting parental care and developing parental responsibility in families where children are neglected. Chapters provide in-depth descriptive examples and include a summary of learning points. Including practical suggestions for combating child neglect, this is an essential guide to best practice for students and practitioners working with children and families. The book also contains useful insights relevant to researchers and policy makers.
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.
Understanding Family Support provides a definition of family support and a clear perspective on the role that it has in promoting the welfare of children and their families. Family support is a concept that has been used in a range of ways to describe various aspects of child welfare policy and practice. The authors argue that this weakens family support as an overarching child welfare paradigm. They present a unifying definition of family support along with ten principles and a series of reflective practice questions applicable to: legislation and policy; organisation, management and planning; direct work with children and families; and research and evaluation. This is an important resource for any professional engaged in policy development, service design, delivering or evaluation of family support, including social workers, residential care staff, community development workers, teachers, community police, human services managers, evaluators and policy makers.
The transition to adulthood is a longer and more complex process than it was just a few decades ago, and a growing number of youth and young adults experience significant challenges in the establishment of an autonomous and independent lifestyle when compared to previous generations. Successful high school graduation followed by employment is no longer the inevitable trajectory for young people, especially in the current socio-economic context where jobs are less accessible and more demanding in terms of specialized skills and higher academic qualifications. Unable to rely on family for emotional and financial support, vulnerable youth, who grow up in substitute care, are especially effected by the lengthening of this transition to adulthood. The dismal outcomes for youth growing up in care are by now well-documented, and more recently, a range of models have been proposed to help advance our understanding of these outcomes and how to forestall them. However, the literature on leaving care has long suffered from the absence of theory that could guide meaningful intervention. In response to this gap, Leaving Care and the Transition to Adulthood offers a comprehensive overview of the newest contributions to this area in relation to theory, in addition to the Theory of Emerging Adulthood, while also featuring cutting-edge research and best practices that support adjustment across a range of domains for this population. International in scope, this book focuses on bringing together major advances that span the literature on transitioning to adulthood within the care system, offering a unique and important contribution to the field.
Group Counselling and Psychotherapy with Adolescents offers an overview of group dynamic theory and the essentials for adolescent group work in a variety of locations, including schools, clinics, and family violence and substance abuse programmes - and in criminal justice counselling and youth employment and recreational settings.
Working with Young People offers a new outlook on social, cultural, and educational work with young people. It utlizes the perspective of social pedagogy-a theoretical and practical perspective that has been developing in continental Europe over the last 150 years-in placing young people at the center of socio-educational work and giving value to their decisions and actions. The text supports youths' process of personal construction within the framework of the community in which they live. The book is organized into three large blocks of chapters. The introduction aims to prepare readers for the social pedagogy approach to work with young people. It briefly outlines its current situation in the world and, relate it to the main professions in which it is embodied in different socio-cultural contexts: social pedagogy, social education, and social work. The first block presents the framework and socio-pedagogical, theoretical, and practical parameters in which work with young people takes place in Europe and Latin America. The second block of chapters deals with youth policies and the training and professionalization of educators and those who work with young people. The last block focuses on some socio-educational practices with young people that include youth justice, social inclusion process, youth participation in digital life or transition to adult life. The book is based on a wide perspective of young people from cultural diversity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Child Victims explores the range and extent of crimes committed against children and assesses their impact. The testimony of over two hundred children gives voice, for the first time, to their experiences, their views, and their needs. It examines how children attain the status of `victims' in the criminal justice system. Drawing on recent research findings, the authors examine each stage of the legal process that a child encounters, from the initial reporting of the offence, through police investigation, to the trial itself. They contrast the specialist response to victims of child sexual abuse with the experience of children who are victims of other crimes, thrust into an adult system which takes little account of their needs. Child Victims concludes by examining the role of support services and agencies dealing with child victims, and makes a number of key recommendations for future policy.
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.
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. |
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