The information age is upon us and, with it, a new era of human services has emerged. The terms 'Evidence-Based,' 'evidence-informed,' 'best practice', and 'effective' have become ubiquitous in scholarly and professional publications, government documents, funding applications, and training institutions across the world. Yet despite this avalanche of words, there is substantial disagreement with respect to the definition of evidence and how it should be used to improve the lives of children and youth. This book builds on the burgeoning evidence-informed practice movement in social welfare that evolved from evidence-based medicine some twenty years ago. Key insights from an internationally recognized group of scholars representing several child welfare systems promotes a nuanced understanding of evidence in all its forms; makes a strong case for understanding the role of context in generating, interpreting, and employing evidence; and provides guidance for integrating evidence and context in the provision of child welfare services. The book begins with an introduction to evidence-informed practice and a broad overview of the different types of evidence that can be useful in guiding difficult decisions under uncertain conditions. This is followed by a decision-making framework that incorporates the use of evidence within the context of a complex child protection system. Next, empirically supported programs and treatments are evaluated with respect to their transportability across contexts, with sometimes surprising results. Two revolutionary approaches to the delivery of effective services, common factors and common elements, are then introduced and followed by a treatise on the importance of implementation in child welfare settings. Embracing different types of evidence used for different questions, the role of randomized controlled trials, epidemiology, administrative and survey data are then explored. Finally, the context of service provision within an agency is explored through an overview of the structure, function, and culture of human services organizations; the role of universities in training staff and conducting relevant practice and policy research; and an applied example involving a partnership between a major university and a large child welfare agency.

This book examines a participatory approach in child protection practices in both Norway and the United States, despite key organizational differences. Kriz explores ways that children can be empowered to participate in child protection investigations and decisions after removal from home. The author shows how children can be encouraged to develop and express their own opinions and explores tools for child protection workers to negotiate complex boundaries around the inclusion of children in decision-making. She presents valuable insights from front-line child protection professionals' unique perspectives and experiences within two very different systems, and evaluates the impacts of different organizational practices in promoting children's participation.

In this book we considered new territory for educational leadership by looking to music for lessons and inspiration that may inform the next generation of schools leaders. Each chapter focuses on an artist or group whose work serves to refine, extend, and challenge our thinking in regards to educational leadership. You will find a vast array of musical forms of expression analyzed and described by an equally diverse collection of educational leadership scholars and practitioners. There may be some who question the academic appropriateness or relevance of a text such as this one. Our response is that part of our ongoing mission should be to break ourselves out of academic silos and forge meaningful connections between seemingly disparate disciplines. Furthermore, educational leadership stands to gain more by drawing from the arts and specifically musical influences. Finally, music is an obvious part of most of our lives; why not explore the ways in which it impacts us on an academic level and not just a personal level? In sum, we ask that as you read the chapters of this book, you reflect on your own musical tastes and favorite artists.

Using international perspectives and case studies, this book discusses the relationships between community development and populism in the context of today's widespread crisis of democracy. It investigates the development, meanings and manifestations of contemporary forms of populism and explores the synergies and contradictions between the values and practices of populism and community development. Contributors examine the ways that the ascendancy of right-wing populist politics is influencing the landscapes within which community development is located and they offer new insights on how the field can understand and respond to the challenges of populism.

Prior to the implementation of the Equal Opportunity program in the 1960s, most New Brunswickers, many of them Francophone, lived with limited access to welfare, education, and health services. New Brunswick's social services framework was similar to that of nineteenth-century England, and many people experienced the patronizing attitudes inherent in these laws. New Brunswick before the Equal Opportunity Program examines the observations and experiences of New Brunswick's early social workers, who operated under this system, and illuminates how Premier Louis J. Robichaud's Equal Opportunity program transformed the province's social services. Authors Laurel Lewey, Louis J. Richard, and Linda Turner, describe more than a century of social work history, including the work of the earliest Acadian social workers. They also address the fact that the federal government did not take responsibility for social welfare of the Mi'kmaq and Maliseet people, planning for assimilation instead. Clan structures continued to be relied on while subsisting upon inadequate relief provisions.

This book examines bullying and victimization at different points across the lifespan, from childhood through old age. It examines bullying at disparate ecological levels, such as within the family, in school, on the internet, at the work place, and between countries. This volume explores the connections between variations of bullying that manifests in multiple forms of violence and victimization. It also describes how bullying dynamics can affect individuals, families, and communities. Using a universal definition of bullying dynamics, chapters discuss bullying roles during different developmental periods across the lifespan. In addition, chapters review each role in the bullying dynamic and discuss behavioral health consequences, prevention strategies, and ways to promote restorative justice to decrease the impact of toxic bullying behaviors on society. The book concludes with recommendations for possible solutions and prevention suggestions. Topics featured in this book include: Mental health and the neurobiological impacts of bullying. The prevalence of bystanders and their behavior in bullying dynamics. The relationship between traditional bullying and cyberbullying. How bullying causes trauma. Sibling violence and bullying. Bullying in intimate partner relationships. Elder abuse as a form of bullying. Why bullying is a global public health concern. Bullying and Victimization Across the Lifespan is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, clinicians, and related professionals as well as graduate students in clinical child, school, and developmental psychology, social work, public health, and family studies as well as anthropology, social psychology, sociology, and criminology.

Addressing questions about the cultural specificity of childhood, the complementary value of psychological, biological and social understandings of children, and the impact of policy and law on how children are dealt with and perceived, this will be a core text for many courses related to childhood studies.

In this seminal book, Krumer-Nevo introduces the Poverty-Aware Paradigm: a radical new framework for social workers and professionals working with and for people in poverty. The author defines the core components of the Poverty-Aware Paradigm, explicates its embeddedness in key theories in poverty, critical social work and psychoanalysis, and links it to diverse facets of social work practice. Providing a revolutionary new way to think about how social work can address poverty, she draws on the extensive application of the paradigm by social workers in Israel and across diverse poverty contexts to provide evidence for the practical advantages of integrating the Poverty-Aware Paradigm into social work practices across the globe.

Every year, millions of women across the world turn to the law to help them live free from intimate partner violence. They engage with child protection services and police and apply for civil protection orders. They seek family court orders to keep their children safe from violent fathers, and take special visa pathways to avoid deportation following their separation from an abuser. Women are often driven to interact with the law to counteract their abuser's myriad legal applications against them. While separation may seem like a solution, often the abuse just gets worse. Countless women who have experienced intimate partner violence are enmeshed in overlapping, complex, and often inconsistent legal processes. They have both fleeting and longer-term connections with the legal system. Women, Intimate Partner Violence, and the Law explores how women from many different backgrounds interact with the law in response to intimate partner violence, over time. Drawing on their experiences of seeking help from the law, this book highlights the many failures of the legal system to provide safety for women and their children. The women's stories show how abusers often harness aspects of the legal process to continue their abuse. Heather Douglas reveals women's complex experiences of using law as a response to intimate partner violence. Douglas interviewed women three times over three years to reveal their journey through the legal process. On occasion, the legal system allowed some women closure. However, circular and unexpected outcomes were a common experience. The resulting book showcases the level of endurance, tenacity, and patience it takes women to seek help and receive protection through law. This book shows how the legal system is failing too often to keep women and their children safe and how it might do better.

More so than in any other form of forensic evaluation, mental health professionals who conduct parenting plan evaluations must have an understanding of the most current evidence in the areas of child development, optimal parenting plans across various populations, behavioral psychology, family violence, and legal issues to inform their opinions. In addition, family law judges and legal professionals require the best available evidence to support their decisions and positions. Parenting Plan Evaluations has become the go-to source for the most current empirical evidence in the field of child custody disputes. Fully updated in this Second Edition, the volume continues its focus on translating and implementing research associated with the most important topics within the family court. It presents an organized and in-depth analysis of the latest research and offers specific recommendations for applying these findings to the issues in child custody disputes. Written by international experts in the field, chapters cover the most important and complex issues that arise in family court, such as attachment and overnight timesharing with very young children, co-parenting children with chronic medical conditions and developmental disorders, domestic violence during separation and divorce, alienation, gay and lesbian co-parents, and relocation, among others. This volume assists forensic mental health professionals to proffer empirically based opinions, conclusions, and recommendations and assists family law judges and attorneys in evaluating the reliability of the information provided to the courts by mental health professionals in their reports and testimony. Not just for forensic evaluators, Parenting Plan Evaluations is a must-read for legal practitioners, family law judges and attorneys, and other professionals seeking to understand more about the science behind parenting plan evaluations.

This edited text explores immigration detention through a global and transnational lens. Immigration detention is frequently transnational; the complex dynamics of apprehending, detaining, and deporting undocumented immigrants involve multiple organizations that coordinate and often act across nation state boundaries. The lives of undocumented immigrants are also transnational in nature; the detention of immigrants in one country (often without due process and without providing the opportunity to contact those in their country of origin) has profound economic and emotional consequences for their families. The authors explore immigration detention in countries that have not often been previously explored in the literature. Some of these chapters include analyses of detention in countries such as Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey and Indonesia. They also present chapters that are comparative in nature and deal with larger, macro issues about immigration detention in general. The authors' frequent usage of lived experience in conjunction with a broad scholarly knowledge base is what sets this volume apart from others, making it useful and practical for scholars in the social sciences and anybody interested in the global phenomenon of immigration detention.

Social workers play a crucial part in contemporary society by ensuring that individuals are able to address, overcome, and manage obstacles in their daily lives. In an effort to better serve their clients, many practitioners have turned to evidence-based practice. Evidence Discovery and Assessment in Social Work Practice provides practitioners with the tools necessary to locate, analyze, and apply the latest empirical research findings in the field to their individual practice. This premier reference work provides insights and support to professionals and researchers working in the fields of social work, counseling, psychotherapy, case management, and psychology.

Pardeck and his contributors approach the topic of family health from a macro perspective. Family health is a holistic approach to treatment embracing aspects of family functioning not typically considered in other more traditional approaches to assessment and treatment. They place particular emphasis on the ecological context in which the family functions, including the neighborhood, community, and other larger social systems. Family health is defined as the development of, and continuous interaction among, the physical, mental, emotional, social, economic, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of the family, that result in the holistic well-being of the family and its members. The chapters in the book are guided by a number of key premises, including (a) Family health social work practice is grounded in a biopsychosocial approach to assessment and treatment; (b) Family health is based in a systems-ecological approach to assessment and intervention because of the role that various systems play in the well-being of the family; (c) Family health views the family system as the most important system for promoting the growth and development of the person; (d) Family health social work practice requires close collaboration between social work practitioners and other professionals. Based on these basic premises, Pardeck focuses on the macro level issues of family health practice that include community intervention, policy and program development, and program administration. The book is an important resource for social work professionals, scholars, students, and other researchers involved with social work practice and human services.