Child and Family Welfare - Annotated Bibliography Example

 Group Work Related To The Elderly Name ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Schmidt, J. (2006). The business of engaging fathers and other male relatives in the FGC process. Protecting Children, 21(1), 20-29. This article argues for increase of fathers, male family members and paternal relatives’ involvement and engagement in child welfare decision making process such as family group conferences (FGC). Child welfare practitioners often overlooks fathers and male relatives due to biases, misgivings and variety of practices, thus leaving fathers invisible and substantially limiting their involvement in case planning. The author also notes that fathers especially those from minority groups are always viewed as irrelevant and are pigeonholed as a liability or even a threat. This article depicts that children are pleased of being connected to their fathers and other male family members and similar wishes can be tapped and used to contribute to the children’s lives and developments. He stresses that the males incution in decision making will not be at the expense of female involvement. Cultural family norms and safety issues must be dealt with comprehensively when preparing participants for a family group conference. He also purposes the importance of more male conference coordinators in order to approach and involve men in a more diverse fashion. Connolly, M. (2006). Up front and personal: The confronting dynamics in the family group conferences. Family Process, 45(3), 345-357. This article attends to the issue of power dynamics that regularly occur during the process of a family group conference. The author talks about how the family and workers can challenge one another, how challenges between family members can occur; particularly during private family time, and how the other professionals can challenge the action of family group conference. He goes further to portray the findings of a study entailing focus groups with family group conference coordinators. The coordinators were guided to discuss their expertise with family group coordination and how they carry out has changed over time; what exerted and what did not during atypical conference; and the impact to the family members after the overall practice. The findings of this study embrace the following themes: workers need to communicate honestly and clearly with the family regarding of child protective services. Discussion during private family time can often be influenced by more powerful members or professional input. The process can be truly family driven by facilitation of skilled manpower. Difference in professional ethics and levels may create tension between professionals and the workers. Family secretes can regularly throw in existing power imbalance and mistrust but may also be hidden support for children. And, paradigm shifts are also vital for strengthen families and family focused work. The author also underscores the latent for family group conferences to empower family resilience by widening family work collaboratively to work out and address problems. By Joan Pennell, M. E. (2010). Expedited family group engagement and child permanency. Children and Youth Services Review , 1012-1019. This article talks about Family group Engagements were by child welfare involves in a family, extended family, and the community at large for the care of the children. Such commitment can enlarge children support to assist children to stay with their biologocal parents or as needed, identify relevant relative care takers. It, however, would appear mostly challenging when the children are moved on emergency basis, without the parents’ consent, and from Afro-American neighborhoods having longstanding tension with child public welfare. The challenges become more complicated when the meeting has to be rapid so as to undercut the parent’s right to due process. The study in Washington District of Columbia examines the impact of family team meeting organized in a 72 hour period before the hearing children who were to live. The study compared the permanency outcome of children who had FTM and those who did not have using AFCARS cards. The meetings considerably increased the probability of children being placed in kin foster homes, exit care faster, having a family –group-type permanency goals and being discharged to family or relatives. Family team meetings help in re-conceptualizing client involvement from a worker parent relationship of a family, community and general public agencies. By Fiona Gallagher, M. J. (2003). Health Visitors' experiences in Family Group Conferences relating to child protection planning: a phenomenological study. Journal of Nursing Management , 377-386. The purpose of the study was to see the sights of Health Visitors’ experiments of Family Groups Conferences as an element of child protection planning in Hampshire, Britain. The objective was to recognize the approach challenges, identify appropriate practices and enabling recommendations for improved alliance to be framed. The Family Group conferences model is based on decision making, partnership and family involvement and presents an alternative to case conferences. The results identified procedural issues and training that need to be addressed if Family Group conferences are to be implemented successfully within conventional child protection guidelines. The four key categories related to receive appropriate training and education was; professional issues, organizational issues, and the need for visitors to receive appropriate education. Health visitors believed that Family group Conference model especially visitations could empower them. Insights from the study have led to involvement of Family Group conferences in the local child protection practice, with weight applied to interdisciplinary working, empowering and educating workers and families. Roberts, D. (2007). A community-based approach to racial improportionality. Protecting Children, 22(1), 4-9. This article surveys the vital role of communities in the development and wellbeing of youth in child welfare and defines the relationship between racial improportonality and the community based approaches in the child welfare system. The author claims that the existing racial discrepancies in the foster care placement rates accelerates the probability that these children will be brought up in up in neighborhoods with a high scale of state custody, which will eventually disserve them and their overall community. Substitutes to adversarial approach are needed for minority and poor families by stressing their strengths. While competent cultural practice is principal in addressing racial impropotionality, it have to be associated with changes in child welfare decision making systems and upgrade results for poor and minority families and communities. Family involvement interventions in children protection: Learning from contextual integrated strategies. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfares, 31(1), 175-198. This book chapter talks about family involvement interventions in child protective services are escalating U.S and all over the world. The author clarifies some of the major ideas from J. Braithwaite’s writings and using evaluation research of family involvement strategies, he discusses their applicability (including team decision making and family group decision making). The author argues that J. Braithwaite’s contextual integrated strategy may help to identify strategies to build effective family involvement intervention and better practices for these interventions. Some of the examined practices for family decision making include private family time, preparation time and prescribing outcomes. Family involvement interventions may also help bringing additional community resources to the aid of children protective services. Hamer, J., and K. Marchioro. 2002. “Becoming Custodial Dads: Exploring Parenting among Low-Income and Working-Class African American Fathers.” Journal of Marriage and Family 64(1): 116-129. This article tackles the transition of the working class and low income fathers from fulltime to part time, and their role in support networks in enabling or hindering these men’s parenthood. Verdicts imply that these men generally become parents by default and are regularly reluctant to do full time, single parenting duty. Actually some father takes responsibilities for the child after child welfare contact due to dismissal of the child from the mother’s home. Some were wanted as an alternative custody pact for the child by social service worker. Use of extended family kin supports shared living and network arrangement was found to be enhancing in adaptation to this role. Their fathering is inhibited by low wages, informal custody arrangements and insufficient assistance from public assistance programs. Bloch, J. S., & Seitz, M.(1989). Parents as assessors of children: A collaborative approach to helping. Social Work in Education, 11(4), 226-244. This article introduces an approach that promotes school-home collaboration. The approach need to involve parents in their education programs and start by preparing them to assess their child behavior. This will initiate a method that recognizes the importance value of parent’s data in devising the child’s educational plans. The five assessment tools used (parent professional performance profile and preschool), are designed such that ratings can be observed by both the teacher and parent. The scales include both interfering and developmental skills; they also serve as tools in parental education, and the behavior tool on the scales becomes the goal for implementing at school and home. The evaluation process, therefore, sets the stage for a collaboration that can outdo trends and perception of powerless of parents in special education. Read More