Asylum, children's rights and social work

Although it is only a minority of displaced and persecuted people globally who seek refuge in ‘Western’ countries, they meet an increasingly hostile reception. This paper focuses on the situation facing children seeking asylum with or without their families in Britain and Australia, and the implications for children's rights and for social work. The policy background and its racist foundations in both countries are outlined. Despite geopolitical differences, there are unnerving parallels. Legislative changes and policy complexity signal increasingly punitive attitudes towards asylum seekers. The situation of children and families in the community is discussed in terms of the exclusion of asylum seekers from basic rights, and specific issues for separated children. Even more damaging is the incarceration of children and families in detention centres, and the emerging research is explored. In both countries there is widespread flouting of children's rights, and children also feature as pawns in ideological contests. However, they also act autonomously and illustrate an inclusive model of citizenship. The role of social workers in the statutory and voluntary sectors is considered, and the paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges for social work of avoiding collusion with repressive policies and actively promoting human rights.     

Lithuania's children's policy in the period of transition

The article investigates the welfare regime of the free Lithuanian Republic from the perspective of children's policy. The main principles of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – child protection, child provision and child participation – serve as indicators for the level of child orientation. The article analyses legal and institutional issues related to the implementation of the Convention in Lithuania in the first decade of Independence 1990–2001. Furthermore, it compares Lithuanian policy with the three welfare regimes identified by Esping-Andersen. Our results indicate that Lithuanian policy shows a low level of child orientation and that the Lithuanian welfare regime does not correspond to any of the welfare regimes in Esping-Andersen's typology. Lithuania still shows traits from the former Soviet regime. The new liberal extreme market orientation is not modified by social support institutions, and is combined with conservative ideologies on women and family.     

Regulating child care: from the Children Act 1948 to the present day

This article reflects selectively on the development of the legal regulation of child care practice in England and Wales since the Children Act 1948. Two main themes are identified: the burgeoning burden of the statutory responsibilities of local authorities throughout the period, and the controls more recently imposed on the discretionary exercise of statutory powers. The impact of the latter on particular areas of practice is discussed within the context of the growing influence of international treaty obligations, the concept of children's rights, and the outcomes of research on the legal framework of child care practice.     

Social Work,Siblings, and SIDS: Conceptual and Case-Based Guidance for Family System Intervention

ABSTRACT

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a tragic loss event within the family, impacting adults as well as children. This article uses three case illustrations to discuss the role of a SIDS event on the family system with a special focus on the emergent challenges for surviving siblings of various ages. Practice application examples are woven throughout the review to illustrate the age-specific grief responses which may occur following a SIDS event. The article also presents a theoretically supported intervention matrix that integrates models of bereavement support and family system responses, taking into account children's varying developmental needs and tasks based on sibling age.     

Empowering looked-after children

Children's rights include the right to participation in decisions made about them. For looked-after children, this right is enshrined in the Children Act (England & Wales) 1989. This article reports the results of a study of children's views about their experience of being looked after and the degree of power that they felt they had to influence decision making. Their main areas of criticism were frequent changes of social worker, lack of an effective voice at reviews, lack of confidentiality and, linked to this, lack of a confidante. The findings are discussed in relation to recent policy changes. Specifically, the Looked After Children documentation and the Quality Protects initiative, by setting out uniform objectives and performance criteria, seem to restrict the freedom of local authority management and of social workers to respond to individual children's preferences, or to give weight to what the children themselves consider to be in their best interest.     

Balancing parents' and very young children's rights in care proceedings: decision-making in the context of the Human Rights Act 1998

This paper explores whether the Human Rights Act 1998 has influenced the approach a range of professionals, including social workers, managers and children's guardians adopt when they examine and seek to balance the potentially competing rights of parents and children involved in care proceedings. Drawing on findings from an empirical study of the decision‐making process that influences the life pathways of very young children in care, it also explores some of the dilemmas professionals face in their day‐to‐day practice and examines whether parental rights are prioritized over children's rights in certain instances.     

The Hopes and Fears of Older Australians: for Self,Family, and Society

This study refutes negative ageist stereotypes of how older people view themselves and society by reporting on their freely expressed main hope and main fear for the future. Data were collected through a population based cross‐sectional telephone interview survey conducted in NSW in 1999/2000. Participants (n=8,881) were randomly selected community dwelling older Australians (65+). Analyses revealed that participants were more likely to express a hope than a fear, and that a sizeable proportion of their hopes and fears were focused outwardly to family, or more broadly to social and environmental issues both locally and globally. These latter hopes and fears indicate awareness, interest and concern on a wide range of issues outside self and family. Some differences by gender and age were identified but views varied considerably among individuals. These findings provide evidence to dispel the negative image of older people as a self interested undifferentiated group whose members become progressively fearful as they age, by revealing an altruistic and outwardly focused dimension.     

Stillbirth: The Mother's Experience and Implications for Improving Care

ABSTRACT

More children die as a result of stillbirth than all other causes of infant deaths combined (Ananth, Shiliang, Kinzler, and Kramer, 2005; Goldenberg, Kirby, and Culhane, 2004; Froen, 2005; National Institute of Health, 2004); yet, mothers experiencing stillbirth are often left without support afterwards (Kubler-Ross, 2004; Fahey-McCarthy, 2003; Fletcher 2002; Saddler, 1987; DeFrain, 1986; Kirkley-Best & Kellner, 1982). Despite social work's growing involvement in care at the end of life, parents of stillborn children have not experienced consistent, relevant, and competent professional care in coping with the tragedy of death. Forty-seven women between the ages of 19 and 51 were recruited through nonprofit agencies that provide bereavement care to grieving families. Results of this qualitative study suggest that stillbirth is emotionally complex with long-lasting symptoms of grief and significant struggles to find meaning. The findings also support the need for perceived psychosocial and spiritual support from professional caregivers, family, and friends. The women's own experiences argue for comprehensive approaches to support the grief and loss of stillbirth, and for the importance of social work involvement in both immediate and longer term interventions.     

Criminal defendants’ family and the death penalty in China - a case analysis

ABSTRACT

The restorative justice movement has increased the rights of consciousness for crime victims and their families globally. Though the practice of family group conferences in Australia and New Zealand and the court-ordered mediation programmes in China have increasingly involved defendants and their families, their roles in the criminal justice system have not been the main focus of academic inquiries. Citing a high-profile capital case in China, the Nian Bin case, this study examines the defendant family’s strategies in seeking legal redress, managing physical, emotional and financial tolls as well as coping with the victim families, throughout their eight-year pursuit of Nian’s exoneration. Given Confucian teachings on the importance of family to the individual and the society at large, this study provides a microscopic view into various precipitating factors for a capital defendant’s family activism. It also draws broader implications for China’s criminal justice reforms and the restorative justice movement.     

Challenging the abuse decision: a comparison of American and British perspectives on complaints and appeals

The conclusion by child protection services that a child has been abused and the decision to make a formal record of that conclusion involves a process called'registration' in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This is an administrative process rather than a judicial one and is instituted by public officials not lawyers, but it can have as significant an effect on the families involved as the findings of a court Yet, despite this significance, families have found it very difficult to challenge the decision to register a case of abuse, particularly in the UK. This papers offers a critique of registration processes in the UK and in the USA and suggests ways in which these processes might be improved to protect individual rights.     

Promoting children's rights through the use of relationship

This paper reports on a research study exploring the views of 27 children and young people on their involvement in a child protection investigation. Their perspectives on the personal and professional qualities of the professionals involved and on the choice, influence and representation they experienced and prefer are discussed. One of the most striking findings is that most of the children and young people had experienced a positive relationship with a social worker. Overall, many reported improvements at home, at school and in their health and behaviour. Their responses to different aspects of the intervention are discussed within the context of their rights to participation, choice and representation. It is acknowledged that children lack agency in promoting these rights in child protection work and concluded that these are best promoted through the development and maintenance of a relationship of trust, offered by a key professional in their network. Drawing upon Heard & Lake's (1997) work on attachment theory, it is suggested, further, that relationships and processes which embody supportive and companionable interactions are more likely to offer opportunities for representation and participation than those which are dominant and submissive. Finally, it is argued that children's services should be based on a human rights perspective, the discourse of which has more in common with the values of respect and honesty than with cost effectiveness and business management.     

Grief and Trauma Group Therapy for Children After Hurricane Katrina

Theoretical and evidence-based group therapy models that address the interplay of grief and trauma are needed for children postdisaster. This article describes a theoretically informed 10-week grief and trauma group model that was evaluated with children in schools after Hurricane Katrina. The foundation of the grief and trauma intervention includes utilizing developmentally specific methods, an ecological perspective, and culturally relevant approaches. The theoretical ordering of themes addressed occurs within three overlapping phases: (1) resilience and safety, (2) restorative retelling, (3) and reconnecting (Herman, 1997 Herman, J. L. 1997. Trauma and recovery, New York: Basic Books.  [Google Scholar]; Rynearson, 2001 Rynearson, R. 2001. Retelling violent death, Philadelphia: Brunner-Routledge.  [Google Scholar]). Techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy and narrative therapy are combined to address loss and trauma.     

Widening our knowledge concerning young looked after children: the case for research using sociological models of childhood

The Assessment and Action framework for looked after children, designed to improve outcomes for all children in public care and those at home on care orders, is now well established in the UK. This paper offers a critical evaluation of the framework by examining the model of childhood upon which it is premised and by exploring its relationship to children's rights as conceptualized in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). It will be argued that the particular child development model which underpins the framework addresses the rights of looked after children to protection and provision but does not allow for their participation rights to be sufficiently addressed. A critical review of the research concerning the education and health of looked after children is used to illustrate these points. It will be argued that what are missing are the detailed accounts of looked after children themselves. It is concluded that there is a need for the development of additional research approaches premised upon sociological models of childhood. These would allow for a greater engagement with the participation rights of this group of children and complement the pre‐existing research agenda.     

September 10, 2001

Abstract

This essay chronicles the impact of a patient's suicide on the therapist, reflecting on the initial trauma, the therapist's repeated attempts to deal with the loss, and her ultimate physical collapse. Time off from work began the healing of her physical symptoms, and the spontaneous writing and immediate sharing of her raw and unformulated feelings with a writing group she had just joined, began the process of grieving which, until this point, had only been known physically. Working and re-working this essay kept her safely, but affectively connected to the loss and gave her experiential understanding of the adaptive function of somatization, leading finally to the acceptance of the limitations of both patient and therapist.     

Children in Residential and Foster Care – a Swedish Example

The article reports on a longitudinal study of children placed in a children's home in Malmö, Sweden, at the beginning of the 1980s. The 26 children, placed when younger than four years of age and staying more than four weeks in the children's home, were followed up three and nine months after leaving the children's home as well as five, ten and fifteen years later. Interviewing the parties concerned was the predominant research method. Twenty of the 26 children in the research group also had later experiences of out-of-home care, including foster care, in addition to the stay at the children's home. This article is about them, 15–20 years old when interviewed in the latest follow-up study. Three aspects of outcome are focused on: the degree of stability in the children's living conditions; relationships to parents and foster parents; well-being and emotional and behavior problems. Bearing in mind that the concept of well-being is relative, a cautious conclusion is that a third of the children in the study experienced well-being, a third felt o.k., and a third had serious problems, including criminal activities and drugs. The somewhat unclear connection between well-being, stability in living conditions, and sense of family belonging is discussed.     

A grass roots approach to influencing child welfare policy

This paper provides a brief review of child welfare issues identified by a Canadian Task Force convened for the 1979 Year of the Child. Project experience with the use of Looking After Children is linked to the issues identified in 1979. A fairly extensive discussion of legal considerations is presented to provide a context for the challenge of influencing policy. Finally, the possibility of influencing policy from a grass roots approach that can transcend jurisdictional boundaries is presented as offering hope for change in a child‐centred direction.     

'Seen but not heard'– young people's experience of advocacy

This article draws on two pieces of empirical research undertaken in England with young people in public care. The research examined young people's experiences of a range of advocacy services, and the extent to which the involvement of an advocate facilitated young people's voices being heard in decision-making. The research responded to contemporary concerns about children's participatory rights, citizenship and social inclusion, set in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article examines the strengths and limitations of advocacy for young people in public care and compares the different types of advocacy services that are available to young people and considers the extent to which adult perceptions of childhood and youth frame the services that are offered. It provides a comparison of the outcomes for young people who have had an advocate and those who have not. The concluding discussion argues that young people in public care feel excluded and marginalised from decision-making processes, and that advocacy has a pivotal role to play in placing at centre stage the wishes and feelings of young people.     

Children in permanent foster care in Sweden

The Swedish child welfare system has no permanency planning as we know it from, for example, the United States and Great Britain. Regardless of whether the child is placed in foster care with or without the parents’ consent, the law requires semi-annual reviews and there is no time limit set on reunion. Nevertheless, there are foster children who remain in the foster home throughout the whole of childhood, on terms similar to permanent foster care or adoption. This paper concerns a selection of findings from a research project entitled ‘Is there a difference in being a foster child?’. Foster children aged 10–11 were interviewed three times and the children’s perspective was focused on, complemented by the perspective of their foster parent(s). When interviewed about their relationship to their natural family as well as to the foster family, and about having a sense of family belonging and expectations for the future, 11 of the 22 children perceived their stay in the foster home as permanent and regarded themselves as belonging only to the foster family, although all of the children had contact with their birth parents. The study concerns the children’s views as well as those of the foster parents. The perception of permanency in the absence of a legal option of permanency is discussed.     

Assessing the Needs of Older Gay,Lesbian, Bisexual,and Transgender People: A Service-Learning and Agency Partnership Approach

A county agency and a social work research class partnered to conduct a state-mandated needs assessment of older gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people (GLBT). A survey design with purposive sampling of GLBT people over 60 yielded 38 participants. Findings included that the Internet was a viable means to reach this population and student awareness increased. Areas of greatest unmet need were GLBT-oriented/friendly legal advice, social events, grief and loss counseling, social workers, and assisted living. Some participants perceived existing senior services as unfriendly or hostile to GLBT persons. Recommendations include continued use of service-learning research and expanded needs assessment efforts.