Children's protective services and law enforcement: fostering partnerships in investigations of child abuse

Although collaboration in child abuse investigations has been emphasized since 1974, barriers, including role conflicts and organizational differences, have often been reported. This study describes the process of collaboration based on the perceptions of investigators working with a Child Advocacy Center. Telephone interviews were conducted with 290 child protective service workers and law enforcement officers from 28 child advocacy centers in 20 different states. Respondents identified barriers to the process of collaboration such as conflicts over case control and facilitators including co-housing and cross-training. Conditions that should contribute to successful collaboration are discussed.     

Nonprofit Collaboration and the Resurrection of Market Failure: How a Resource-Sharing Environment Can Suppress Social Objectives

Collaboration and its promotion by funders continue to accelerate. Although research has identified significant transaction costs associated with collaboration, little empirical work has examined the broader, societal-level economic outcomes of a resource-sharing environment. Does an environment that encourages collaboration shift our focus toward certain types of social objectives and away from others? This paper uses agent-based Monte Carlo simulation to demonstrate that collaboration is particularly useful when resources are rare but a social objective is commonly held. However, collaboration can lead to bad outcomes when the objective is not commonly shared; in such cases, markets outperform collaborative arrangements. These findings suggest that encouraging a resource-sharing environment can lead to inefficiencies even worse than market failure. We also demonstrate that failure to account for transaction costs when prescribing collaboration can result in quantifiably lower outcome levels than expected.     

Nonprofit and public sector interorganizational collaboration in disaster recovery: Lessons from the field

Recent disasters have identified that interorganizational collaboration is often fraught with complexity. This article explores interorganizational collaboration in the nonprofit and public sectors during the disaster recovery efforts after a catastrophic flooding event. Based on a series of in‐depth interviews with practitioners involved in the recovery following a flooding event, the findings offer insights into the barriers and mechanisms used to facilitate collaboration. In disaster recovery, collaboration is reliant on established interorganizational structures and trusting relationships. Role clarity is the link between these two characteristics, and this article posits the association between this and the concept of swift trust to facilitate collaboration. Theoretically, this article extends an existing multidimensional model of collaboration into the context of emergency management. Importantly, it also offers a tangible output for industry in the form of an aide‐mémoire for collaborating in disaster recovery.     

The Reunification Partnership: Engaging Birth Parents and Foster Carers as Collaborators in Restoration Casework

Collaboration is recognised as a key factor influencing the success of efforts to reunite children with their family following a protective intervention and a period in out-of-home care. Until now, little research has explored the possibilities of collaboration in this context, especially between parents and foster carers. This qualitative, interpretive study asked child protection caseworkers involved in restoration cases about their perceptions, perspectives, and experiences of collaboration between parents and carers. In-depth interviews were conducted with six caseworkers from five locations in New South Wales. The study found that caseworkers identified factors that influence the development of collaboration. These factors include trust, motivation and willingness, knowledge, and agreement. They also described strategies for promoting these factors in their casework. The research highlighted that a collaborative relationship between parents and carers can be facilitated through casework practice that considers certain factors and that strategically addresses the barriers to collaboration.     

Mental Health Practitioners' Views of the Families of Individuals With Schizophrenia and Barriers to Collaboration: A Mixed Methods Study

Family involvement has been identified as a best practice in the treatment of schizophrenia. Yet studies show a small number of families of individuals with schizophrenia are involved in treatment. In this mixed method study, community mental health practitioners from different disciplines responded to a quantitative survey (N = 88), a qualitative structured question guide (N = 8), and open-ended questions (N = 43) that explored their views of families of individuals with schizophrenia and barriers to collaboration with them. Practitioners did not blame the family for causing their family member's schizophrenia. Barriers to collaboration were reported in three main areas: (a) time/workload barriers, (b) agency/system barriers, and (c) family barriers, while at the same time recognizing family collaboration as effective practice and reporting a desire to engage more families in the treatment process. Younger practitioners viewed organizational factors as more significant barriers to collaboration. Substance use factors emerged as a theme as a barrier to collaboration.     

Prospects for Disabled Children and Their Families: An International Perspective

The aim of this paper is to provide an international overview of some of the main developments now taking place in educational provision for children with disabilities. Difficulties experienced by disabled children in many countries in gaining access to any form of education are contrasted with home-based and centre-based projects, such as Portage. Particular attention is given to the nature of collaboration between families and teachers, in the context both of schooling and of community-based rehabilitation. Obstacles to parent-professional collaboration are identified and suggestions made for how these might be overcome.     

Curriculum Implications for Collaborative Practice From Veterans Health Care Sector Social Workers Serving OIF/OEF Veterans

This study examined veterans health care social workers’ perceptions of collaboration and practice with Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom veterans with the purpose of developing curriculum implications for social work education. Using a mixed-methods design, including surveys (n=21) and interviews (n=13), associations between serving this veterans cohort and the occurrence of collaboration were assessed. Surveys revealed that reflection on collaborative processes increased when serving this cohort. Interviews identified frequent high acuity in behavioral health conditions and emotionally overwhelmed veterans as contributors to this finding. Curriculum recommendations include infusing content on interprofessional collaboration in practice courses, improved instruction on intervening with colleagues to promote effective client processes and outcomes, and education on developing positive interprofessional climates.     

Building a Comprehensive Agency-University Partnership

Abstract

University-community partnerships are receiving increased attention in an era of rapid change and fragmented resources. This case study of a multi-county consortium of social service agencies in collaboration with four graduate social work programs and two foundations represents an innovative approach to building a partnership through the use of a consortium as a mediating structure. With a focus on training, research, policy development, and a think tank, specific implications for developing agency-university partnership are identified. The case is embedded in the expanding literature on university-community collaboration.     

AN URBAN ENCOUNTER

Computing research has long been interested in location-aware mobile games, such as hybrid reality games, location-based games and urban games. With an increasingly pervasive IT infrastructure and comparatively affordable mobile devices, such games are becoming part of everyday play around the world. A study of an urban night-game called Encounter widely played in the Former Soviet Union and the Russian-speaking Diaspora is presented. The ways in which IT enables a complex interaction between the local experience of play in the urban environment and the geographically distributed nature of the player community are considered. The findings illustrate how this form of location-aware mobile game-play pulled together local engagement and global player communities into socio-technical assemblages, showing the interplay between local attachments, distant connections and the location-based communication in daily experience. The most important outcome of these games then was not the direct individual engagement with the urban environment through technology or the collaboration with strangers in the course of play (although these were the necessary prerequisites), but the social relationships that, while gained in-game, could be leveraged for civic engagement, belonging and mutual support. While the local, physical experience of the everyday and the game was important, the connections to the distributed community resulted in expanded horizons and changed the nature of the local experience as players felt they could belong to something larger than the locales they physically inhabited.     

Children with disabilities in out-of-home care: Perspectives on organisational collaborations

Many contemporary support services for children and young people (CYP) in out-of-home-care have adopted a collaborative approach to service provision in order to best meet the complex needs of clients. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the perceptions of Evolve Behaviour Support Services (EBSS) frontline and managerial staff delivering services to CYP in out-of-home-care with disability and complex behaviours regarding interagency/stakeholder collaboration. Views about the number and nature of collaborative partnerships, factors which facilitate or hinder effective relationships and advantages (including unintended benefits) of collaboration were sought. Qualitative interviews with 21 participants highlighted issues around: (1) general and agency/stakeholder specific issues and barriers, and (2) benefits of collaboration. The collaborative approach to service provision was seen as greatly enhancing the effectiveness of EBSS' response and ability to meet the range of CYP's complex needs, as well as having benefits for carers and service providers. Nevertheless, difficulties with collaboration were also encountered. Frequently identified challenges included reduced stakeholder engagement, differences in professional backgrounds and practice frameworks, unequal initiation of contact and follow-up, organisational disparities, communication and information sharing problems, frequent stakeholder turnover and geographical barriers in rural/remote areas.     

Process evaluation of integrated West Nile virus surveillance in northern Italy: an example of a One Health approach in public health policy

West Nile virus (WNV) is endemic in the Po valley area in northern Italy. Regional health authorities have implemented integrated WNV surveillance following a One Health approach, based on collaboration between human, animal and environmental health institutions. We evaluated this integrated WNV surveillance system in Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Piedmont regions by means of a process evaluation. We examined the system’s implementation fidelity, dose delivered and received, reach, and we identified strengths and weaknesses in the system. Qualitative and semi-quantitative data were obtained from three regional focus groups. Data were discussed in a follow up focus group, where participants suggested recommendations for improving the surveillance system.Inter-institutional and interdisciplinary integration and the creation of a 'community of practice' were identified as key elements for effective surveillance. We identified differences in the degree of interdisciplinary integration in the three regions, likely due to different epidemiological situations and years of experience in surveillance implementation. Greater collaboration and sharing of information, public engagement and economic assessments of the integrated surveillance approach would facilitate its social recognition and guarantee its sustainability through dedicated funding. We demonstrate that a transdisciplinary research approach based on process evaluation has value for designing and fine-tuning integrated health surveillance systems.     

Partnership: Myth or reality?

The author examines the conditions for a viable and equitablepartnership between public and voluntary services for elderlypeople living at home; examples researched in Quebec (Canada)are referred to and two models of collaboration are identified:paternalism and real partnership. The burden of caring fallingon women is briefly discussed.     

Multi‐sectoral collaboration for improved nutrition: The problems and prospects of implementation in Ethiopia

Implementing nutrition initiatives through multi‐sectoral collaboration is challenging. This qualitative study explores these challenges in two regions of Ethiopia, through interviews with development staff at lower administrative levels. Respondents identified structural and attitudinal causes of undernutrition. The health sector was perceived to have primary responsibility to address nutrition. The Women's Affairs office had a lesser role than expected. Agricultural officers still saw their primary mandate as increasing cereal production. Cross‐sectoral collaboration was stronger in addressing short‐term food crises rather than chronic undernutrition. There is a need to build a shared understanding of the causes of undernutrition, including the many constraints faced by resource‐poor households, to provide more resources for implementation and to adopt a more gendered focus.     

Moving toward being analytical: A framework to evaluate the impact of influential factors on interagency collaboration

Interagency collaboration is absolutely essential to achieving the best usage of services and utilizing limited resources efficiently so that duplication of services may be avoided. Although many factors influencing interagency collaboration have been identified in the literature, the extent of their impact varies greatly. The variation has also intensified owing to the differences among social service systems. However, the majority of studies have only listed or categorized the influential factors as opposed to analyzing the extent of their impact in depth. Hence, a conceptual framework is needed to evaluate the impact of factors and to plan effective changes among individual interagency systems or collaboratives. This article proposes an overarching framework for this purpose that is composed of three dimensions: the scope of the impact of influential factors, the duration of the impact, and the developmental stage of interagency collaboration, or the so-called Scope-Duration-Stage framework (SDS). This framework will assist interagency systems in identifying key factors and will expand system capability to promote effective changes. Finally, we apply the framework in an early intervention interagency system to exemplify the application of the SDS framework.     

An exploration of factors which may influence how teachers perceive participatory action research tools being employed in schools

This article draws on a lead researcher's observations about participatory research collaboration within a qualitative research project involving teachers, pupils and members of the communities surrounding schools. It presents a practical account of research processes aimed at uncovering to how pupils, teachers and community members in economically and socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods perceived their own roles in relation to creative activity with groups of children, who had been identified by their schools as being in need of help to engage in learning. The activities were led by artists who would not normally be involved in schools. Social constructionist frameworks for evaluation are combined with the literature on participatory appraisal, in order to suggest a politically sensitive course of action by which practitioners and peer interviewers could be involved more usefully in the future, through direct collaboration on the planning tasks to reveal rarely articulated pupil attitudes.     

Collaboration Between Community Mental Health and Juvenile Justice Systems: Barriers and Facilitators

Recent studies have confirmed a high prevalence of youth with diagnosable mental health disorders within the juvenile justice system, as well as the vulnerability of youth in the mental health system who enter the juvenile justice system. This high prevalence of dual system involvement has spawned challenges of collaboration between the mental health and juvenile justice systems to provide needed services to youth and their families. Seventy-two in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 youth and their parents/guardians, mental health professionals from five different community mental health centers, and juvenile justice professionals in urban and rural communities in a Midwest state in the United States. Professionals, youth and parents identified several important factors that facilitated collaboration, as well as a myriad of barriers that needed to be overcome. Findings suggest ways to improve partnerships between the two systems and the development of supportive policies and procedures.     

Early intervention services for very young children and their families under P.L. 99-457

This article addresses early intervention services for children, birth to kindergarten age, who experience developmental deficits and delays that may later be identified as learning disabilities. P.L. 99-457 is briefly reviewed with a focus on elements that emphasize family-centered practice. Vignettes are presented to illustrate interventive strategies that promote parent empowerment, and parent-professional and interagency collaboration.     

Prerequisites of EAP Evaluation:

This chapter's main contention is that EAP evaluators, coordinators and administrators need to spend more time in thoughtfully planning EAP evaluations as such activities directly influence the quality of any subsequent evaluation. The chapter outlines four prerequisites to be considered in this regard. These are: (1) a sincere commitment to evaluate the program, (2) answering the why, when, and how of the evaluation; (3) the goals and objectives of the EAP require specification; and (4) information should be in retrievable form. These prerequisites are discussed within the context of a cooperative planning process between the administration, the EAP coordinator and EAP evaluator(s), and are described as to how they may directly influence the EAP evaluation.     

Distribution and selection of experts in the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (IPBES): the case of the regional assessment for Africa

In 2013, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) agreed to carry out a regional assessment for Africa. Since then, roughly 100 authors have been working to deliver, in 2018, a document that not only synthesises existing knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services for the African region but to distil from it knowledge that is relevant, credible, and legitimate for both societal and scientific practise. This requires, firstly, to carefully constituting the group of authors and, secondly, to design an assessment process that allows for deriving at an integrated perspective amongst these experts. Such a joint process of knowledge production that encompasses both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration can be framed as co-creation. In this contribution, we analyse whether the IPBES African assessment accounts for these two prerequisites for an effective assessment process. Our particular interest lays in the question whether scholars from social sciences and the humanities are sufficiently involved. Our analysis is based on the curriculum vitae of 97 members of the expert group, and reads quite straightforward: there is an overall lack of non-natural science perspectives and expertise that might lead to essential knowledge and data gaps when wishing to understand the effects of the diverse human concepts of and activities on biodiversity and ecosystem services. In order to address these gaps and to derive at an assessment report truly relevant for policy makers as well as other social and scientific actors, IPBES needs to widen its outreach to networks of scholars from the social sciences and the humanities and to inform them appropriately about the specific roles they could play within IPBES processes, particularly assessments.     

Medical foster care for seriously medically ill children: A growing need

This article identifies and lists the problems of children with complex medical conditions and/or complex home health case needs. Five categories of seriously chronically ill children are identified and programs to meet their needs discussed. The authors believe many of these children could benefit from foster home placements; they discuss one project in which there is collaboration between a pediatric medical center and a social service agency.