The Role of the Occupational Therapist or Social Worker in the Child Protection Process - Coursework Example

The Role of the Occupational Therapist/Social Worker in the Child Protection Process Introduction The issue ofchild protection is a very challenging one. While under care of the Occupational Therapist (OT) or Social Workers (SW), the children undergo both physical and psychological trauma regardless of their current situation (Marjorie and Margaret 2008). Incase the lives of children are considered to be in danger; they may be offered with support services by social workers or even separated from their birth families. This creates a gap and which needs careful articulation. Child nurturing is a very sensitive exercise and requires careful attention to ensure that they grow to be responsible people with good manners in the society (Friedlander 1976). The occupational therapists have therefore a big responsibility in ensuring that the children are brought up in a responsible way. This study sets out to explore the social worker’s views in regards to meeting the needs of children looked after. The focal point of discussion will be the views of the social workers as practitioners entrusted with the role of facilitators in respect of meeting the needs of children looked after, through contact with their birth families. Wenger (2000) stated that positive professional interventions combined with good quality contact between family members and children looked after is likely to lead to positive outcomes such as successful reunions and or stable relationship with family members. The influence social workers have in regard to arranging and managing contact for families is central in determining whether successful patterns of good quality contact for children looked after would be achievable. The Role of the OT/SW in Child protection Emotional Stability Looked after children feelings and emotions, play an important role in their present and future life. There is need for these children to understand and have knowledge on how to deal with emotions and feelings thus keeping them in focus. When there is no control, one looses focus hence may end up unstable and affect performance and achievement of ones mission and vision all together (Cleaver 2000). Therefore, effective communication with the children becomes a factor in ascertaining their feelings and wishes. This therefore means that the social worker needs to play a major role in effecting this. Behavioural Stability In ensuring stable behavioural characteristics within looked after children, the Cognitive Behavioural Treatment Theory (CBT) is commonly utilised by the social workers. Cognitive theory is a learning theory of psychology which focuses on trying to explaining the behaviour of humans by understanding the thought processes one is involved in. The theory assumes that humans are logical beings who make their choices according to how much sense they make to them (Fratter et al 1991). It crosses cuts the adults and children, poor and rich, across all social and cultural backgrounds; something that enables the social worker to articulate the problems facing the alleged families. For instant, social worker cannot understand the behaviour of children unless she/he first understands their perceptions, how they reason and attempt to solve their problem. In the basis of research behavioural observation helps in treating severe depression for many looked after children. Cognitive behavioural observation has been known to help prevent future suicide attempts in many children known to be having history in suicide behaviour as well as to adults with symptoms of major depression (Quinton et al 1997) thus the social worker is carefully supposed to incorporate this knowledge when dealing with different cases of child protection. Children and family Stability During child development process, there is an essential ingredient which is recognised as placement stability. It is important in the development of strong and life time attachments in early childhood stages (Fratter et al 1991). Moreover, early development of secure attachments with social workers or families creates a strong foundation in relation to past and present experiences and relationships. Strong foundation enables them to develop psychological defense mechanisms to cope with distress and anxiety feelings (Held 2005). The social workers are therefore mandated to ensure such development is achieved accordingly. It is important for social workers to identify strengths and difficulties in sibling and parents relationships. They should ascertain the perceptions and wishes of children and other people related to them. This enables them to assess experiences of siblings and the child’s individual permanence needs and wants (Schofield et al. 2000). It’s the responsibility of social workers to ensure child protection process meet the desired short term and long term needs to all children. More over, the impacts of long term placements to the child and birth family ought to be considered (Macaskill 2002). The Legal Framework and Guidance Regulations Based on previous research, it is argued that the needs for child protection process should be addressed through government regulation so as to ensure equity among different classes of people. It is the responsibility of the government to draw guidance rules and regulations, ensuring they are followed to the latter through both public and private laws (Bandura 1986). The Public law is concerned with human rights and family rights group and children rights. During the last few decades reviews have been made to effect changes made in the child care system through recommendations available for child protection practitioners. Through the establishment of adoption support agencies, underpinning legislation on child protection process has been in force. According to the guide lines, contact with birth parents, siblings, and family members and significant others is developed and sustained when it is of benefit to the children. Initial contacts are usually focused on the child’s needs with the views of present carers and birth families taken into account. These guidelines help in understanding the children better in terms of needs and wants, feelings, emotions and social networks (Bandura 1986). In addition, there are those guidelines concerned with promoting positive behaviour and relationships thus children enjoy sound relationships with their families, carers and others, interact positively and behave appropriately. With this, children carers and social workers are able to manage their responses, emotions and feelings arising from the contact and attachment with the children. Challenging behaviours and previous experiences of the children gives carer a chance to work in respect to this. The process of child protection Child protection process involves child protection services under the department of social and health services (Marjorie and Margaret 2008). The process begins when someone reports child abuse or neglect. In this case, the law requires child protection services to investigate. In situations where the child may be reported to be in danger, the child protection services must begin investigations within 24 hours. If the child is not in immediate danger, the child protection services have to start investigations within 90 days. During the investigations, the occupational therapist or the social worker may interview the child and anyone else with relevant information regarding the child abuse or neglect (Marjorie and Margaret 2008). The social worker can interview the child at convenient places like school, home or day care. The social worker needs not to seek permission from the parents or caregivers regardless of whether the accusations are true or not. The interview may be done in presence of a third party or not. It is also within the law for a social worker to photograph the child. The social worker must also notify the parents of the child. The parents have also the right to disclosure of information related to their case. However, not all information can be disclosed especially in situations where the person who reported the allegations wants to remain anonymous (Bryant 1989). The child protection services are also not required to disclose witness statements. Child protection services have up to 90 days to report its investigations. After 90 days, it must either, end the investigation and close the file, file a dependency petition or enter into a voluntary contact with the parents (Marjorie and Margaret 2008). If the CPS decides to have a voluntary contact with the parents, case worker or social worker usually offers a voluntary contract for services to the family. In this regard, the social worker participates in drug or alcohol treatment, counseling, and other services. All in all, the social worker must ensure that the services provided keep the family together. The role of social workers plays a major role in the development of children and their relationship with their families and peers. According to Cleaver (2000) children need a secure base regardless of their social, environmental, economical or political nature. The most important thing is the balance between the inner and outside security of their daily lives for the rest of their lives. It is the responsibility of Children carers to manage the children’s’ feelings in a better way without affecting them. Major effects of earlier traumas in children may lead to them to loose direction and ability to manage strong feelings related to them. Therefore, children carers’ guidance on the managing and coping with all these is emphasized (Hess 1982). A child who has experienced trauma as result of neglect or abuse in early childhood and did not resolve, experiences difficulties trying to cope and regulate his or her emotions. This might result to violence and stress, and eventually feelings of insecurity may arise (Bryant 1989). In response to inadequate or inappropriate care from parents, significant others and carers, children may end up developing and adopting psychological defenses so as to cope with distress and anxiety. This in one way or other may affect their future relationships with others hence attachment instability (Butler and Gwenda 2005). The early development of secure relationship with carers, parents and significant others is an important foundation for children’s present and future relationships and experiences related to contact. Importance of Anti- Discriminatory Practice During the child protection process, it is important that both children and their families feel comfortable and not threatened by the process or people involved in the process (Frost and Parton 2009). The occupational therapist should ensure that they maintain high levels of ethics when dealing with these families. Respect and integrity of these families must be maintained all along (Frost and Parton 2009). Like in any other professional, occupational therapists must have leadership qualities. They must have excellent communication skills, ability to listen, reason, question and advice positively. During this process, they must build a positive relationship between the parents and other family members as well as the children looked after. This means that during the time allocated to take care of the family, one should be in a position to support the family through out. In most occasions, different social workers may be allocated different families to attend to. It is therefore important to note that as a professional, one can be assigned a family different from his or her own cultural or ethnic background (Frost and Parton 2009). In this regard, it is important to ensure that one is conversant with different cultures and their practices in order to ensure that one does not create a discriminatory aspect during the protection process. It is equally important to communicate effectively taking in to account the age and culture dealing with. It is crucial to show a genuine interest in the children’s families and to accept differences and share similarities among all members of the family. For example, it is important to encourage children to accept and recognize themselves as individuals (Frost and Parton 2009). One can achieve this by listening, interacting and discussing their experiences. However, it is always important to respect their view but to encourage them to focus on positive things that can impact their lives. Conclusion Although the most acknowledged intervention remains good effective parenting for children previously abused or neglected and is mostly addressed with skilled care giving, many other factors may contribute to the success of child protection process outcomes including good support networks for the parents or caregivers from friends, family, school, social workers, as well as maintaining contact. In situations where abused children are separated from their families, some children may have self blame and family contact may help them disconfirm their internal working models (mental representations). Through contact they may in due course start to believe that they can be lovable, loved and loving. It is worth mentioning that the Assessment Framework for Children in Need, which is built on the ecological model, is the assessment tool utilised by practitioners in order to gain a holistic view of children’s needs, presenting problems and possible risks to inform intervention and decision making in determining the level of contact for an individual child. In undertaking assessments and care plans, social workers may develop relationships with the child using effective communication skills through direct work combined with knowledge of theories of child development. The central point of focus of this study was the role of the social workers as professional entrusted with the role of facilitators in respect of protecting the needs of children looked after, through contact with their birth families. The findings of the current study indicated that social workers play a significant role in this regard. Positive professional interventions combined with good quality contact between family members and children looked after is likely to lead to positive outcomes such as successful reunions and or stable relationships among the family members. In this regard, the influence social workers in regard to arranging and managing contact for family’s plays a major role in determining the quality of relationship between the looked after children and their birth families. Bibliography: Bandura, A. 1986. Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Bryant, B. 1989 In Sibling interaction across cultures: Theoretical and Methodological Issues P.G. Zukow (Ed) New York: Springer-Verlag Butler, I and Gwenda, R 2005. Social work with children and families. London u.a.: Kingsley. Cleaver, H. 1998 Contact: the social worker’s experience. Adoption and Fostering, volume 21 (4), pp.34-40. Fratter, J et al 1991 Permanent Family Placement. British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering: London Friedlander, W. 1976. Concepts and methods of social work. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice – Hall Frost, N and Parton, N 2009. Understanding childrens social care: politics, policy and practice. Los Angeles: SAGE Hess, P. 1982. Parent-child attachment concept: Crucial for permanency planning. Social Casework, 63, 46-53. Macaskill, C 2002 Safe contact: Children in permanent placement and contact with their Birth Relatives. Russell House Publishing. Marjorie, E and Margaret, G 2008. Careers in child care. New York: McGraw-Hills Quinton, D et al 1997 Contacts between children placed away from home and their birth parents: Research issues and evidence. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol 2 (3), pp. 393-413. Schofield, G et al. 2000 Growing up in foster care. London: BAAF Wenger, E.C. 2000 “Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems” Organisation, 7(2), pp. 224-246 Read More