‘What can I do’? Child welfare workers’ perceptions of what they can do to address poverty

Within the field of child welfare, critical questions have been posed about the intersecting issues of child maltreatment and poverty. The study of the quality and nature of this intersection has continued relevance in light of evidence showing the increased likelihood of maltreatment of children living in poverty. Although child welfare workers interact directly with families involved with the child welfare system, the study of workers’ perceptions of whether or not they address families’ poverty and, if so, how they go about it has not yet been conducted. The study presented begins to address this gap. Analysis from individual interviews with 30 child welfare workers revealed that they differed in their perception of whether or not poverty should be addressed by child welfare and how. Findings suggest workers do what they can despite various barriers, including families’ limitations and the fragile US social welfare safety net. Based on the findings, current practice models and policies that impact poverty and child maltreatment reduction are discussed.     

Familial and Social Dimensions of Welfare Receipt

Abstract

In this study we categorize welfare duration determinants into those associated with family traits and the social macro environment outside the family. Monthly AFDC-Basic data for Texas from mid-1989 through April 1993 are analyzed using an event history analysis to examine the length of time families receive AFDC benefits and to estimate the effects of the two latent traits that influence the pace of quitting welfare. Results suggest a need for reformulating welfare policies to address the disadvantages stemming from the social structural context of poverty such as urban residence and race membership.     

Shadow Welfare

Abstract

Corporate tax expenditures are a growing problem, although most contemporary analysts of traditional welfare programs ignore this policy area. The publicity surrounding Enron highlights this expanding segment of our welfare system. Corporate tax expenditures constitute a shadow welfare state that hides behind the complexities of our tax laws. This paper describes this often-neglected segment of the American welfare state.     

Perceptions and Use of a Web-Based Referral System in Child Welfare: Differences by Caseworker Tenure

In the child welfare system, technology may help caseworkers make service referrals efficiently. However, acceptance and use of new technology does not occur equally for all caseworkers. Influenced by the Technology Acceptance Model, we investigate differences in perceived ease of use and usefulness of a web-based referral system by caseworker tenure, and how these perceptions relate to use of the system. Results from 31 interviews with newer and more tenured caseworkers suggest important similarities and differences in how these groups perceive the technology, and suggest that differences in perception are related to differences in actual use.     

Reducing turnover is not enough: The need for proficient organizational cultures to support positive youth outcomes in child welfare

Objective

High caseworker turnover has been identified as a factor in the poor outcomes of child welfare services. However, almost no empirical research has examined the relationship between caseworker turnover and youth outcomes in child welfare systems and there is an important knowledge gap regarding whether, and how, caseworker turnover relates to outcomes for youth. We hypothesized that the effects of caseworker turnover are moderated by organizational culture such that reduced caseworker turnover is only associated with improved youth outcomes in organizations with proficient cultures.

Methods

The study applied hierarchical linear models (HLM) analysis to the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW II) with a U.S. nationwide sample of 2346 youth aged 1.5- to 18-years-old and 1544 caseworkers in 73 child welfare agencies. Proficient organizational culture was measured by caseworkers' responses to the Organizational Social Context (OSC) measure; staff turnover was reported by the agencies' directors; and youth outcomes were measured as total problems in psychosocial functioning with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) completed by the youths' caregivers at intake and at 18-month follow-up.

Results

The association between caseworker turnover and youth outcomes was moderated by organizational culture. Youth outcomes were improved with lower staff turnover in proficient organizational cultures and the best outcomes occurred in organizations with low turnover and high proficiency.

Conclusions

To be successful, efforts to improve child welfare services by lowering staff turnover must also create proficient cultures that expect caseworkers to be competent and responsive to the needs of the youth and families they serve.     

Early African American Social Welfare Pioneer Women

Abstract

This article uses selective aspects of the careers of Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, Lugenia Burns Hope, Elizabeth Ross Haynes and Janie Porter Barrett to provide a critical overview of the ways that African American women addressed the needs of their communities through social welfare services during the early part of the twentieth century. Furthermore, the article also shows how individual and collective forms of empowerment helped to build private social institutions to address the community's needs.     

Challenging implicit bias: preparing students to practice with African American families

ABSTRACT

The disparity of African American families in the foster care system is a concern in the field of child welfare services and the social work profession. African American families experience unique challenges related to discriminatory practices and implicit biases in the child welfare system and by mandated reporters. To address these inequalities, state and local agencies have implemented prevention and intervention services to support minority families. Additionally, child welfare agencies have invested in professional development training for their workers to alleviate possible intolerant practices. This article describes implicit biases and considers how they could contribute to the disparity of African American families involved in the child welfare system. Furthermore, the article presents approaches to help social work students to identify and challenge their implicit biases to support culturally sensitive practices while working with African American families. It concludes with implications for social work education.     

Introducing Technology in Child Welfare Referrals: A Case Study

Access to social services is important for the safety of children and ultimately for reunification of families involved in the child welfare system. The process of linking families to services, however, varies by caseworker and can be cumbersome and time consuming. The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Needs Portal is an Internet-based intervention to improve the timing and quality of social service referrals in Los Angeles County We used a case study approach including in-depth interviews, direct observations, and user feedback obtained from the Needs Portal to (a) determine perceived benefits and barriers to adopting the Needs Portal, and (b) report how the flow of information between users and developers was used to adapt to user needs. Our analyses revealed four major barriers: (a) caseworker apprehension regarding new technology, (b) variation in communication styles by user type, (c) lack of technological infrastructure, and (d) competing workplace demands. Information sharing between developers and users has the potential to better meet the needs of users and ultimately maximize utilization of new technology. Although Internet-based interventions are designed to inexpensively and effectively coordinate services, emerging interventions may require in-person assistance and modifications in order to succeed.     

A Survey of Problematic Sexualized Behaviors of Children in the New York City Child Welfare System: Estimates of Problem,Impact on Services,and Need for Training

ABSTRACT

Forty-eight of 52 (92%) agencies contracted with the New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS) responded to a survey about problematic sexualized behaviors (PSB) of children in different levels of care within the child welfare system. Results revealed that almost all agencies reported PSB within their foster boarding home and residential treatment centers. A majority of agencies perceived PSB to be a significant problem for which staff and families were not sufficiently trained. These findings highlight many avenues for advocacy, clinical intervention, and staff development.     

Welfare Reform

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) on a growing constituency that may require welfare assistance: grandparents raising grandchildren. A brief review of the demographics of grandparent caregivers is followed by an exploration of welfare reform legislation, including work requirements and the Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI). The importance of state-level policies in assisting grandparent-headed households, particularly health care, school enrollment, and housing policies, are also discussed. The paper concludes by offering implications for welfare policies in terms of their impact on intergenerational households headed by grandparents.     

Children's Challenges to Efforts to Save Them: Competing Knowledges in the Child Welfare System

The child welfare system is founded on a belief that children are sometimes endangered by their parents or caregivers and must be saved by agents of the state. Children are perceived as objects to be saved, but they are rarely seen as active strategists in their interactions with child welfare system social workers. Using ethnographic data collected during observations of social workers and juvenile court proceedings, this article shows how children have their own complex understandings of state intervention and strive—to varying degrees of success—to contest official views of their lives and provide competing forms of knowledge. Specifically, children attempt to rework state actors' perceptions of their families and familial problems, use state actors as an audience for their versions of their lives, and attempt to mobilize state power for personal or material gain.     

Child Welfare and Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment (AOD): Bridging the Gap to Comprehensive Services

ABSTRACT

Chemical addiction is a significant factor in child abuse and neglect (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 1999). Although research has indicated that an alliance between the child welfare and alcohol and other drugs (AOD) treatment fields is the best way to effectively address chemical addiction within families, collaboration has not generally been established. The lack of collaborative relationships between the child welfare and AOD fields can be attributed to a number of different factors. Similarities in proposed interventions for collaborative efforts between AOD treatment and child welfare agencies can be found throughout the literature. The establishment of a truly collaborative partnership between AOD treatment and the child welfare system is a necessary step towards achievement of functional and healthy families, a goal common to both disciplines.     

Welfare to Work in the United Kingdom

Summary

Increasing employment and reducing child poverty are two central goals of current government welfare reform policy in the UK, and single parentswith their relatively low employment rates and relatively high poverty ratesare one of the key target groups for both. This article outlines welfare reform policies in the UK with particular reference to single parents, and discusses the impact of these. In doing so, it highlights some key differences compared with the US.     

Recent Developments in Welfare to Work in Hong Kong

Summary

The Asian financial crisis (1997) has created a social care crisis resulting in rising unemployment, poverty, income inequalities and homelessness. Although faced with dwindling public finances, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government had been compelled to tackle these problems. However, it has been attracted to the neo-liberal recipe: changing the subvention system to a block grant, curbing social spending, and tightening eligibility for social assistance. Notably, the introduction of the Intensive Employment Assistance Projects (IEAPs), which are the first welfare to work programs in East Asia, has become a major policy tool. This paper reports on a study of the impact of the projects, one of the key pillars for welfare to work programs. The IEAPs were found to have brought about positive changes in welfare clients' motivation to work and sense of self-reliance. Social workers from both traditional and progressive NGOs have etched, in various ways, their place in the welfare to work programs and contributed to the debate on welfare reform in Hong Kong.     

Toward a Competent Child Welfare Service Delivery System for Gay and Lesbian Adolescents and Their Families

SUMMARY

Analogous to the child welfare delivery system deficits that have been documented for people of color communities, the problems encountered by gay and lesbian adolescents and their families are frequently ignored and largely unrecognized by the majority of child welfare professionals. An understanding of the impact of societal stigmatization of gay and lesbian individuals and their families is crucial to the recognition of, and response to, the needs of this population. This paper posits that the development of competence in this area holds promise for preserving and supporting families and for the establishment of appropriate gay/lesbian-affirming child welfare services for these young people and their families.     

Preparing for Child Welfare Practice

Summary

Specialized child welfare MSW programs and stipend support for child welfare MSW students have been developed in several states through the Federal Title IV-E program. Thirty-seven focus groups conducted over four years with approximately 550 Title IV-E MSW students in California were submitted to qualitative thematic analysis. The intense emotional challenge of child welfare work emerged in the focus groups. A three stage cognitive-affective model of student development is proposed. This exploratory study suggests several hypotheses for further research: that students at more advanced cognitive-affective levels should be less prone to burnout, better able to make the difficult value-based decisions demanded by child welfare work, and more likely to integrate and use the emotions of themselves and others. Implications are explored for graduate programs, professors, and supervisors.     

How Mothers Cope When Their Welfare Grant Is Cut

Abstract

In this qualitative study of welfare mothers' perceptions and responses to receiving an economic sanction, we recruited a convenience sample of mothers of preschool children whose benefits had been cut due to noncompliance with an employment activity. The interviews combined semi-structured and open-ended questions, as well as measures of maternal depression and economic hardship. No pattern of differences in strategies was found between those women who complied with the work mandate and those who did not. Many of the women were confused about the reason for the cut in their benefit. Policy ramifications of findings in regard to the 2002 TANF Reauthorization legislation are discussed.     

Treatment Approaches for Child Welfare Mothers with Addiction Problems

Abstract

This paper argues that child welfare mothers with addiction problems may require specialized treatment approaches based on their gender. The prevalence of women's problems with addiction and the unique ways addictions manifest themselves in women are discussed. The literature is then used to guide a discussion on the limitations of traditional treatment approaches that have been designed for men and may be of ill service to child welfare mothers. Alternative treatments are reviewed, and suggestions for improving treatment services to child welfare mothers with addiction problems are provided.     

Working with Me,Working at Me: Fathers' Narratives of Child Welfare

This article examines the experiences of fathers involved in the child welfare system. Fathers who were interviewed as part of a multiyear Canadian project were atypical in that they were actively engaged with the child welfare system. Their stories show how, although not always physically present, child welfare's ghostly form is still very much a part of the daily lives of fathers and their families. These fathers had to be resourceful and resilient as they endeavored to look “promising” to the child welfare system. The critical analysis offers insights into a more father-inclusive approach to child welfare that has implications for policy and practice development.     

Assessing the Effect of Welfare Reforms on Public Assistance Caseloads in Four Ohio Counties

Abstract

The implementation of welfare reform at the local level is critical to assessing the effects of structural reforms initiated since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996. Wide variations in the activities undertaken in response to national welfare reform have hindered efforts to understand the factors that have contributed to the success of welfare reform apparent in caseload reductions. This paper reviews Community Human Service Plans in four Ohio counties and examines their trends in caseloads. Two strategies emerge: “job attachment” and “human capital development.” These differences in local implementation can be related to caseload trends.