Child Welfare and Placement Stabilization - Essay Example

Robert Moore Email: robert.moore876@gmail.com Citation Style: APA 19th of March 2009 Order 281006 Topic: "Project Keep" Placement Stabilization This intervention addresses the problem of child abuse due to prenatal exposure to alcohol which put the child at risk. It is not taken lightly when it comes to the issue of child abuse and neglect and at every level it is considered as a serious social issue. In the year 2002, daily average of children found to be victims of child abuse and neglect were found to be around 2,454 in number. Another discovery was made that same year that 532,000 children lived in foster homes. This was due to the fact that could not find comfort in their homes. This is one major social problem the child encounter as a result of abuse or neglect from drug addicted parents. Due to the nature of this intervention, statistical collection of data and facts associated with child abuse and neglect becomes difficult. To determine how much it could cost to resolve it through the various stages of model that could be required. The well-being of the child is important. Although when parents usually the women take in alcohol and seems not to be abusive and not dependent or addicted to drinking. It is still possible the conditions under which she drink may still put the child welfare at risk. A child welfare worker should be concerned about the nature of parent exposure to alcohol and drug use. As noted by The American Psychological Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV/DSM-IV-TR) that a woman should not take in more than seven drinks within a week or three drinks at a time. Child safety is an important issue in our society and factors that may bring about polluting or exposing the child welfare at risk are not lightly taken. Children are meant to be around adult so as to caution and comfort them in their growing years. Children are good observers and adult should be more caution what they do in their presence. This is part of protecting the child welfare. But more often than not, parents or adults under the influence of alcohol and drug might not be able to control their misbehavior triggered from substance use and this usually have a lifespan effects on children. Significantly, the child welfare worker should be more concerned with the case of child neglect and abuse by identifying the factors of drug abuse and alcohol exposure. Child welfare worker should be able to support parent influenced by these factors to obtain adequate treatment in understanding of the recovery concept in the view of child safety. With the child welfare worker understanding the connection between the impact of alcohol and the effect of drug services can be a very good advantage for the child welfare worker and the Adoption and Safe families Act in fulfilling the safety of the child as well as the child wellness. When a child who have been in a foster care in fifteen months out of twenty-two recent months enters foster care and actions to terminate parental rights over the child is initiated, it is then the Adoption and Safe Families Act will require a permanency plan of twelve months. Considering the fact that twelve to fifteen months can seem to be a long period of time to a child, it's not enough time to consider in the process of recovery with parents who have been exposed to alcohol and drug. In a critical case involving substance abuse demands that adequate alcohol and drug services should be established with immediate effect in processing the parent's treatment. Effectiveness in doing this can be achieved by child welfare worker in asking questions on a routine basis regarding the nature of substance use relative to its abuse, treatment required and recovery time expected. His understanding of dependence and abuse of alcohol and drugs is also an advantage. It is alarming to know that out of the many people treated for only alcohol issues amounts to the same level of population of people that were treated for all drugs cases combined. The child welfare worker should understand the need to identify dependence in a low alcohol intake as an indicator in preventing parental alcohol use as a risk to child safety. The inclusion criteria required for participating is the introduction of the Adoption and Safe families Act to achieve the child welfare permanency and safety. The commonly known participation to treatment is the 12-stpes or Self-Help groups. The following are found under this group namely The Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA). Others are Crystal Meth Anonymous as well as Cocaine Anonymous. AA develops the 12-steps in which most other alcohol or drug under self-help are based. Self-help enhances treatment but is not in the treatment itself. The intervention comprises of six components derived from the acronym FRAMES. The child welfare workers needs these techniques offered here when involved with issues of parents substance abuse. Below is how the component connects. F - Feedback of the patient's injury of risk behavior R - Responsibility for change rely on the patient A - Advice on possibilities of change M - Menu of treatment and self-help alternatives given to patient E - Emphatic and non-blaming style is used by social worker S - Self-efficiency or positive empowerment is facilitated in parent Powerful factors that can help motivate women to seek treatment and maintain recovery is when concentration is laid on parenting and custody of their children. Identifying a parent with an in-home or a positive screen investigation that shows alcohol and drug related issues of abuse and neglect should be treated with the level of the degree present. The child welfare worker needs to educate the parent the time required to comply with the Adoption and Safe Families Act given reasons why it is essential to know that in a case of an alcohol and drug assessment and treatment should be done in a timely manner. The safety of the child should be clearly emphasize by the child welfare worker stressing the importance of parent to know that the child deserves a safe and loving stable home on which child welfare system is believed to be built. Motivation is a key that can help improve the personality or status of the parent involve. Child welfare worker can improve their performance in applying the philosophy stated that "lack of motivation to change is a challenge to therapeutic skills, not a fault for which to blame the parent" 46. The child welfare worker should be systematic and straight to the point when addressing the issues of parent. The need to protect the child safety and permanence should not be taken lightly. Parent can improve readiness to change substance use and reduce high risk behavior with the help of child welfare worker in partnership with other alcohol and drug service providers. The importance of problem behavior being recognized by parent during change process should be recognized. Parent is encouraged when applied change seems to work. Sometimes they are undecided as things seem to be normal in their own point of view and sometimes make it difficult to effect the change required. Factors of readiness to change required by the parent, like the point of view need to change, understanding that change is possible and can be positive. Power to effect the change and a decided ability to change. There are several Readiness-to-change formatted questionnaire materials out there that one can get. Ambivalence concerning change gives opportunity to exploration of costs. Motivational interventions combined with the motivation to change yields the readiness to change and the change process. There is a defined process known as model of series a person must experience in order to be able to resolve a problem as illustrated by Prochaska and DiClemente. One of the major reasons why this model of change is found to help parents of alcohol and drug abuse victims is that the process of degeneration is sets in and not as a failure from treatment. The child welfare worker, the counselor responsible for substance abuse and any other responsible party involve in the welfare of the parent abusive substance support and promote motivation to change. The components for the intervention designed for the child welfare worker to be able to identify the relationship between alcohol and drug related issues to child welfare. They should understand that parental addiction to alcohol and drug is a prime element in eliminating the dangers of abuse and neglect. Understanding the enhancement of treatment and recovery and also consider the improvement of children whose parents are exposed to alcohol and drug. The treatment dose is measured by identifying with the element of use, abuse and dependence nature of the addicted person. Although not everyone that consume the substances is considered to be an addicted person. Such report is delivered by child welfare worker who determines the situation of a reported abuse and neglect cases. When the reported case turn out to be a substance of abuse or neglect which pose a risk to the child wellbeing, effective assessment of the parent is carried out to verify the use, abuse and dependency degree of the case. The intervention evolved from an earlier one and it is an adaptation of a common practice which was created by an existing policy to provide continued safety for child welfare. Evidence from statistical data shows that women that are highly accessible to treatment of substance of abuse have encountered sexual or physical abuse in their childhood. Many came of different background and have experienced different levels of victimization as adults. Due to their exposure to such mental disorderliness in their growing years and even as grown up adult, their experiences may make them to suffer from what is known as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is defined as an anxiety disorder which occurs from the exposure of traumatic situation that characterize the presence of (1.) When an individual experiences fear, anxiety or helplessness. (2) When the person involved has encountered, or witnessed or experienced events that expose them to serious injuries, or threat to physical integrity of other people. The American Psychological Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (4th Edition, Text Revision) Over the decades till date, it has been proved that the solutions provided with the treatment works. The cost of each invested dollar in treatment in other costs from the society indicates a $7 savings or more derived from studies of public supported treatment programs. Studies have also proved that dependency on drugs has also reduced in use between forty percent to sixty percent and has interestingly as a result reduces criminal cases. The availability of treatment is very important. The right conditions that serve as the framework of treatment program which includes treatment duration, intensity and content must be aligned with the requirements of parent. System effectiveness and completion is essential and parent is required to complete most or all treatment. There's no such treatment that is suitable for all individual. Treatment are based on the status of parent involve. Recovery is an important part in this process. The treatment of addiction alone might not give the recovery result expected because it's important to note that there's a psychological role to play in the process. The child welfare and other service providers should be able to identify and treat psychological, social and physical problems that are accompanied with parent substance use or drug addiction. Aggression and victimization of effects from the impact of substance use and should be treated with concern as they are readily a threat to parent and the child assigned to the child welfare system. When a parent finds it difficult to achieve total abstinence from substance use, it will be observed that criminal activities is drastically reduced and other related behavioral problems like disturbed mental health and poor sensitivity to make sound judgment. Therefore, the child welfare worker is expected to provide support to parent and help dissolve the barriers to the treatment involve thereby improving the wellbeing of the individual and family. At anytime there is an encounter between the child welfare worker and parent is usually a good time available for intervention. A parent may be exposed to drug and not clinically diagnosed as dependent. In the case of alcohol drug use without dependence, it is possible that parenting and child safety can still bring about serious concern. At all times within an intervention, the child welfare worker should acknowledge that substance abuse is critical and conversation about its reality as connected to child safety should be established regularly. The child welfare worker should avoid creating a situation that will be uncomfortable to the parent and also avoid embarrassing questions that may lead to discouragement. This might lead to treatment ineffectiveness and recovery will be at the expense of inability to regulate the process of change. Though the child welfare worker should not shy away from questioning the parent about substance abuse. He should note that in every intervention initiated, motivation should be established to enhance the process of change. Research has estimated that in every given year, the issues arising from drug abuse and neglect to substance dependency resulting in mental disorderliness in adult is estimated to affect more than ten million. Despite this alarming figure, victims of disorderliness cases usually sometimes may be difficult to be identified. The need to make them available to treatment becomes a difficult feat as they can't really identify their problem and the chance of knowing that they could be treated is slim. If they make themselves available to the services, the problem of symptoms identification becomes a problem. Service providers may not understand that disorderliness in the patient is a combination of substance abuse exposed to by the individual and not as it's presented as a mental health disorder. It might be much more complicated than that. The involvement of alcohol or drug in any reported mental health case resulting in disorderly state of mind of the individual, the child welfare worker should treat the issues as child protective services investigation. A case plan should be made up if substance use or drug abuse is indicated in the findings. The child welfare workforce should invent and apply processes that will enable them document useful information that will help them apply appropriate decision making in protecting the child welfare against any immediate or future possible threat. The following activities should be applied during investigation stage as well as when visiting the family involve. First and foremost, a cross examination of the family household should be properly inspected of alcohol or involvement of drug use. Secondly, proper interviewing of parents, guardian against exposure to drug and alcohol should be thoroughly screened. In household inspection, when this happens, usually, the indicators applied in the process would reveal the existence of abuse or drug use. The exposure of alcohol and drug is not always regarded as a threat to child safety. Research has it that most studies has shown that about one-third to two-thirds confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect arises from substance abuse and that about fifty percent of the same cases results from substance abuse by parents. Child welfare personnel should pay close attention to details applying careful observations. Diagnosing substance abuse will not yield result but screening will indicate what level of assessment should be carried out be it evaluation or comprehensive. Screen should be straight to the point and brief. Every grown up in a given home should be make themselves available for screening. This might sound incredible but it's true. Unbelievable as it is, the welfare worker should understand the necessity. Every other relations or adult connected to the report should be screened. The reason being that substance abuse is fast becoming a threat and should be treated like a disease. It acts within the social background of any race and which in turn has great adverse effects on the community. Let's say for instance that a child is residing with relatives or nephew. The entire adult in the house should be screened for the safety and wellbeing of the child. Any extended family connected to the family that is physically present should be screened. Conversely, older children who are yet to be teenagers should be examined by asking them questions and if the feedback given indicates that the child has encounter with any form of use, then a comprehensive assessment should be given to the child and should be carried out by a qualified professional. During this test, it will be surprising to discover that youths who have been abused or neglected are more exposed to risk than naturally expected. In the studies of Quasi-experimental there have been quite some useful discoveries. Children may be more likely to be exposed when abused (Finkel, Asdigian & Dziuba-Leatherman, 1995). A replacement for victimization prevention is perpetration prevention which aim at the potential issues of sexual abusers. The Stop It Now Program (Henry, 2002) is regarded as a potential example for this type of program. The program effectiveness in preventing future sexual abuse is unavailable therefore outcome evaluation data becomes a difficult task. At this point, data for victimization or perpetration prevention is unavailable. When relapse occur, it may be as a result of the treatment plan applied without considering ethnic, culture or language issues. The child welfare and the drug service programs should understand that if they can recruit staffs that have a working knowledge with background related to those parents involve in a service plan, there will be much better result at the end. Training of staff should be concentrated on cultural issues as this will help the qualified staffs to fully understand the discrimination and barriers that are associated with cultural issues. Services of specialized counselors in areas of bilingual and programming are of utmost importance. These services should be provided to improve service plan performance. Sensitivity to spiritual beliefs and values should not be overlooked. This go a long way in enhancing the service plan to facilitate recovery with the parent culture applied as a roadmap. Relapse occur less in women than it does in men. As it is known that the physiology of addiction of a man is different from that of a woman, so is their differences in recovery. For instance, in the event of drug use say cocaine, women are found to be more likely to than men to give negative feedback or their internal reactions before the relapse. Men are found to be able to control their drug use before a relapse and usually develop positive emotions. This shows men can at least manage their situation more likely before a relapse than women. For this reason, it is advisable to use holistic approach when dealing with women in treatment. There are many barriers that women are exposed to that alter the rate at which treatment is expected to perform. An applied psychotherapy may be required to enhance the welfare of women and also manage their issues in eliminating or resolving relapse cases. The absence of basic amenities like childcare, transportation, healthcare and can lead to program failure. With the support from the child welfare worker to identify the barriers that can pose a problem and coordinate the requirement of service, the possibilities of parent achieving treatment success becomes more practical. The impact of family member collaboration can enhance treatment success in the same way it can interrupt it depending on the system plan and the level of management used. Parent can be too sensitive to ethnic matters and their cultural differences. The child welfare worker should be able to make sure that treatment is applied as related to the issues diagnosed. In a family where a continual consumption of alcohol by one partner becomes an issue, it will be difficult to establish the process of change in achieving recovery. This is as a result of cravings that could be derived from the presence of use. It is not advisable and it's not encouraging as this will retard or even worsen the process. The presence of children in the midst of an abusive partner is very discouraging. Research has it that an estimated 30% - 60% of men who are found to humiliate their female partners are found to also abuse their children as well. With family violence as an issue in the home, a woman is considered to be more exposed to risk when trying to stay away from an abusive partner. It is important that the child welfare worker pays frequent visits to homes that have high level of alcohol and drug substance use. Understanding the strength and weakness in partners is very important and the child welfare worker should endeavor to know any misunderstanding that both partners might not be ready to disclose at any such visit. The child welfare worker can smooth the progress of sustaining treatment recovery. He should understand that for change to complete it circle, the treatment dose applied should be taken seriously at all levels. A supportive plan to initiate an effective treatment recovery is appreciated from the child welfare worker. Children can be used to influence treatment recovery speedily by establishing complete abstinence from substance use by parents. This could occur when the children are taken away from home which most parents are not comfortable with especially the women. Motivation will be derived from regular visitations and frequent calls with plan to have the children back home. So both parties will ensure that everything is going well with treatment plan and satisfaction from recovery is noted so that they can have their children back into the house. Restricted visitation between a mother and her children can be a very serious issue. The mother can do all that is required to ensure that such restrictions are not laid. Child welfare worker should address the issue of visitation. The benefits of recovery derived from freedom and stability identified by a person is important as it enhances and influences other persons to do the same. Many individuals who have recovered share their positive experience as new appreciation in their everyday tasks. Families becomes happy when parent reading a story with their child. Interestingly, having meal together as a family or going to park and having fun with the family. Logic Model of Child Welfare against Substance Abuse that Communicates Outcome Objective: To develop and disseminate a communication protocol between substance abuse child welfare, and judicial system partners that addresses families and children from levels 1 to 3, at different points on the continuum from substance abuse screening and assessment to treatment monitoring. Inputs Outputs Activities Participation Short Term Outcomes - Impact Short Term Medium Term Long Term What we invest: What we do: Who we reach: What the short term results are: What the medium term results are: That the ultimate results are: Development and implementation of evaluation plan 1.Participated in PCITGSS training. 2. Develop policies & procedures to implement. 1. Local communities substance abuse receive training & TA on PCITGSS. 1. Trained community partners implement PCITGSS as demonstrated in case records. 1. Services to children and families improved as demonstrated by PCITGSS Assumptions Indicators 1. Substance use by families involved in the child welfare system is a serious issue in Texas. 2. Vulnerable children and families will be better served through collaboration between the Courts, the Family Independence Agency, the Office of Drug Control Policy and substance abuse providers. Short term: Medium term: Long Term: Assumptions Indicators 1. Substance use by families involved in the child welfare system is a serious issue in Texas. 2. Vulnerable children and families will be better served through collaboration between the Courts, the Family Independence Agency, the Office of Drug Control Policy and substance abuse providers. Short term: Medium term: Long Term: Work Cited Breshears, E.M., Yeh, S. & Young, N.K. Understanding Substance Abuse and Facilitating Recovery: A Guide for Child Welfare Workers. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Brief Interventions and Brief Therapies for Substance Abuse. National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information www.ncadi.samhsa.gov (Finkel, Asdigian & Dziuba-Leatherman, 1995). Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2004. Stop It Now (Henry, 2002) The American Psychological Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV/DSM-IV-TR) Read More