Organizational Service Provision in Child Welfare and Client Levels of Satisfaction - Research Paper Example

Relationship between Elements of Organizational Service Provision in Child Welfare and Client Levels of Satisfaction Aunalatice Moore Barry PUB310/TL Ms. Melinda Piller July 20, 2015 ROUGH DRAFT Cover page Research topic Names of the student The name of the school Course and date Introduction paragraph Definition of ethical issues and codes and rights of children Demand for the service and the challenges of the problem as well as the agencies involved. The court cases involving the participants and the court’s judgment in reference to such children. Purpose of the research Research question Hypotheses The hypothesis was null and was disapproved by the research. Methodology Survey technique used and the reason for choosing it. How questionnaires were used. Type of data relied on and participants and the lawyers Data analysis How the data collected was analyzed and the age brackets of the participants Research findings All that was found from the research process. This included the major concerns of the client parents as well as the major contention. Discussion A discussion of the major findings which were majorly ethnic and economic status bias, as well as possible solutions to the problems. Tables of the findings Abstract Child welfare case agencies and their representatives have received criticism from their clients lately. This especially arise from the fact that there has not been a truly developed trust from both parties. This research investigated the relationship between how child welfare service organizations provide services and levels of client satisfaction derived from the services. This research was carried out in United States of America in Leon and Gadsden counties of Florida. The study focussed on black, Hispanic and white parents with children between 6-12 years with prior or ongoing cases. The research interviewed 30 individuals distributed equally among the ethnic groups. Random sampling was done to select thirty respondents, ten from each ethnic group. It found out that issues of contention ranged from mistrust, ethical issues and failure to consider the inputs of the clients when making decisions regarding the children they care about. Income factors are alleged to be a motivating factor with the low income clients claiming victimisation. However, it was clear that taking into consideration the concerns of such parents would go into improving the relationship between the agencies and the clients. This may include considering age of the clients so as to assign a worker almost in the same age set with the client as well as doing public education on the same to increase awareness. Research Topic Working with children and their families requires humility, patience, understanding and care. Child welfare case workers are, however, often in the role of managing clients’ feelings and making difficult decisions that significantly affect the lives of the clients they serve. Due to this, they are supposed to stick to the standard practices which can always help to develop and maintain trust between them. This however may include developing trust with the clients, considering their opinions on critical decisions to be made and trying as much as possible to minimize the apprehension rate by exploring any available options. This however, is disputed by these clients citing reasons that range betrayal of their trust and workers who are inexperienced in the child raising. Some of the clients generally cite poor counselor with clients as another contributing factor to their mistrust of these agencies. Child welfare case workers are required to act ethically to resolve whatever problem they will encounter. Ethical issues or codes refer to the basic idealistic thinking and practiced norms about the morality of human conduct (Koocher, 1990). Normally these codes get promulgated by professional organizations like the National Association of Social Workers or the American Psychological Association. Such issues include respect for the right of children, disclosure of information that requires confidentiality, being trustworthy and treating people fair and equally in his or her line of duty (Koocher, 1990). Some organizations insist on getting client’s satisfaction data from their clients to investigate how their services are perceived by potential and current customers (Tilbury, 2010).Clients can provide a wealth of information regarding the functioning of child welfare programs and organizations can use the data they provide for improving services. Weissman (1988) describes the process of obtaining client satisfaction data is “a systematic attempt by agencies to get reliable and valid data from clients regarding their perceptions of both how services were given, and the benefits they derived. Client satisfaction, however, in child welfare services can be an elusive measure. For example, a client who is admitted involuntarily to correctional facilities, court mandated alcohol or drug rehabilitation services may not give an honest answer with regards to the satisfaction he/she received from such facilities (Harris, 1998).Compounding the issue is the fact that clients can be varied; for example satisfaction measures gathered from parents or children are likely to have different results (Tillbury, 2010). Protecting children is the main objective of any child welfare interventions as noted by the Ontario reforms (Martin, 2006). However, currently it is not known whether there is a relationship between child welfare case workers’ ethical behavior and client’s dissatisfaction. This research investigated the relationship between children welfare case workers ethical behavior and client levels of satisfaction. Research purpose Children apprehension had been an issue that had been contested for a while both in Canada and USA. Agencies have been criticized for not being ethical in delivering their services to clients yet they too defend themselves from the allegations. It had not been known whether there was a relationship between the workers ethics and the perception of their clients. For this reason, the research purposed to investigate if there was a relationship between how child welfare service organizations provide services and levels of client satisfaction. Research Question Is there a relationship between how child welfare service organizations provide services and levels of client satisfaction? Hypothesis There is no relationship between how child welfare service organizations provide services and levels of client satisfaction. Methodology This research for this paper consisted of reviewing professional journal articles and other relevant publications to seek answers to the research question and hypothesis posed above. It was found that client satisfaction measures are most often constructed through a set of (usually Likert-type) satisfaction rating response items for each of the service elements relevant to their settings and administered via surveys (Hsieh, 2008). Surveys provide a reflection of the condition as it exists at a particular time, normally with an aim of analysing patterns and trends applicable to the whole organization or individuals. Surveys are the preferred method because they are based only on the sample of the target population thereby not forcing the researcher to administer the survey to the whole population (Wood, 2004). The secondary data was gathered from through interviews with women with prior experience with child welfare agencies in Leon and Gadsden counties of Florida. The research study evaluated a sample population of Africa-American, Hispanic and Anglo parents with children between 6-12 years with prior or ongoing cases. The respondents were just a representative of the many women with such cases. Since they were many, random sampling was done to remain with the total of thirty respondents, ten from each ethnic group. To verify the claims, the research also took into consideration the views of the experts as well as members of the agencies whose identities will be kept secret. I also got the chance to get the side of lawyers who had an experience representing parents within the court (I need to document how and what random sample was chosen for research) system in an attempt to also get all sided information pertaining the matter. Participants were compensated for their time. Data Analysis Data for the research was analysed according to the three ethnic groups indicated above to ascertain whether there was a difference in the way the agency’s services were perceived by the ethnic groups. Then the total data was analysed in a pool for the overall results. Notes from the interview process were made to allow for the follow-up procedures. Most of the respondents were female with only five out of the thirty being male. This is why, in most parts of the research, the respondents are referred to as mothers. Of the 25 women interviewed, fifteen of them were single mothers, while ten were divorced. Most of the parents were facing some kind of economic hardships. Their ages ranged from 27-55 years with most of them, except two, living with conditions that were categorised as disabilities. The research took a period of five months due to financial constraint of the researcher. Research Findings The table below shows the number according to races interviewed and the responses they gave. For example, in the second row, it shows that 6 female African Americans interviewed quoted economic status bias as what they were concerned about from the process that led to apprehension of their children. Three were females were worried about the procedures used. On the other hand, only one male African-American quoted mistrust as the contentious issue. Races Gender Economic status bias Lack of Trust/broken trust Procedural issues Insensitivity to the Parent’s circumstance African Americans Males 1 - 1 - - Females 9 6 3 - Whites Males 2 1 - 1 - Females 8 3 3 - 2 Hispanics Males 2 - - - 2 Females 8 - - - 8 Figure 1: Table of the result of the perspectives of the parents affected by the program Research found out that even though sometimes cases end up in the child being apprehended, taken custody, this is not always the only available option. There were always some options that were not considered by the agency which would have been appreciated by the parents as well like supporting them while at home but making sure everything that is needed is provided. Low income parents were normally the target by the agencies that deal with these problems. This did not go alongside the right procedure that were to be followed which defines framework for determining the individuals who deserve the treatment. Most parents didn’t have access to knowledge about the court proceedings which may be due to the complexity of court procedures or many backlog of cases of related nature. Most client’s lawyers were not open with their clients and didn’t give them enough time to share their opinions than they give the agencies. Securing visitation permission was often difficult or was made so by the agencies to reduce the amount of contact time. The impact of child welfare cases that led to apprehension had far reaching impacts on these parents and their generations. The social workers of the agencies or the agency itself proved very difficult to hold liable to discrimination by the families of the victims due lack of knowledge or the complexity of such cases. The social workers who were assigned to develop trust with the families often doubled as investigators and soon to be apprehenders without prior information of such families something that they perceived as unethical. Discussion Most parents complained about child welfare case workers being insensitive to their circumstances or could not understand altogether their circumstances. Many clients did indicate their appreciation for the agency’s efforts although they recommend being allowed to be in touch with their children whenever they wanted provided they posed no harm to them. In fact, they appreciated explorations of other alternatives before apprehending their children. Following these request would not only build a positive image of the agency but will also enhance the broken trust. Considering the age of the worker and the client would also go well in the client developing trust with the worker since he/she will be seeing the worker as experienced with children and knows the best Ethnic and economic status bias Most of the interviewees pointed out that they were targeted because they were poor and not because they were deserving the treatments. This raises a concern of the economic status of an individual being the deciding factor rather than the present guidelines for doing such operations. This unethical behaviour only contribute to mistrust and dissatisfaction by the clients. What was funny was that ethically, the Hispanics seemed to suggest that whites were not as targeted as the rest of them. This was echoed by black respondents who only suspected they were targeted for reasons that don’t benefit the described guidelines. Unbiased and unsafe social workers. Most often, the respondents cited that the social workers could not be trusted due to the fact that most of them spied on these families rather than developing trust with them. Most individuals were sceptical about ever coming close with such workers as they feel their privacy was intruded by social workers who ended up apprehending their children instead of helping them overcome their financial problems which they saw as the major problem. Social workers should therefore major their focus on developing ways of helping these families rather than apprehending their children. This should be the last resort after exploring other avenues. The other issue was the risk assessment procedures and tools that the parents complained of as not easy to understand. They were specifically concerned about the way the social workers became so much sure that they qualified for the government project and not a mistake. There should be more public education so that the public can very well know whatever if they did then they will make their children to be apprehended and this should also take into consideration the different cultural backgrounds of the Florida residents. Conclusion Most of the ethical issues that impact satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the client may be narrowed down to the way the social workers and the agencies conduct every process that result into the apprehension of their children. However, it should also be noted that they are not always on the wrong. Some of the social workers were so much praised by the respondents in the way they conducted themselves while with the family and the efforts they make to ensure family reunions are made aware to the concerned parties in time. The issues of lawyers not giving much time to the clients during court hearings and the complexities of the court procedures should be acted on so that all parties may appreciate the judgments that may be arrived at. From the evidence gathered from different individuals interviewed, one can say that it was overwhelming. Something, however, stood out; the relationship between child-welfare case worker’s ethical behavior and client’s dissatisfaction. Even though this might not be absolutely true in all cases, it appeared as true most of the time. These families would appreciate their children being apprehended only if due procedures were followed, got educated and introduced appropriately to the intentions of social workers in the beginning. The way things are done today presents a picture of caregivers as spies, not social workers as expected of them. References Dr.Clare Tilbury, J. O. (2010). Measuring clients satisfaction with child welfare services. Journal of Public child welfare , 21. Gerald P. Koocher, P. C.-s. (1990). Children, Ethics, and the law: Professional Issues and cases. Lincoln Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. Harris, J. (1998). Scientific Management, Bureau-professionalism:The labor process of state social work. British Journal of Social work , 3-4. Martin, K. (2006). A child protection handbook to assist in the use of collaborative intervention strategies with Children, families and communities. Ontario. Meyer v Nebraska, 262 US 390 (US 1923). Wood, M. (2004, January). Notes on research Methods. Retrieved June 11th, 2015, from Portsmouth University Bsiness School: http://userweb.port.ac.uk~woodm/rm/norm.doc l. "Notes on research Methods." January 2004. Portsmouth University Bsiness School. 11th June 2015 . Read More