child protection

Child Protection and Family Services Home

Trends in Social Work

  • Child maltreatment is a critical and complex issue for children, youth and families and the systems that serve them.
  • Abused and neglected children are more likely to experience depression, post-traumatic stress disorders, chemical dependencies and poor physical health, and engage in criminal activity than children who were not maltreated.
  • Families in crisis can make children vulnerable to abuse and neglect. Children with families experiencing multiple stressors face a greater risk for maltreatment.
  • Child abuse and neglect can occur within families of any community or economic, religious, racial or ethnic background; however, some factors including lack of employment, domestic violence or behavioral health issues can put children at an increased risk of harm. Housing instability can also bring families to the attention of child welfare and in some instance, can serve as a barrier to family reunification.
  • Immigrant families and undocumented, unaccompanied youth come to the attention of the child welfare system for many of the same reasons as other children, youth and families. Child welfare workers face a range of challenges including language barriers and lack of resources and supportive laws and policies, in providing services to immigrant children, youth and families.
  • Social workers know that protective factors such as economic stability, supportive family networks, nurturing parent skills, access to role models, and community resources can buffer children from harm. 
  • Foster care and adoption services seek to provide greater stability and/or permanency in the lives of vulnerable children and youth who cannot be cared for by their own families.
  • Human service agencies nationwide have struggled to maintain a system to share valuable information as a method of prevention, rather than reaction. Research shows that failure to share information across agencies reduces those safety net redundancies that are necessary to catch an individual in crisis before it becomes too late.
  • Hundreds of children die every year in their homes from abuse and neglect. Child deaths can occur when families are not known to the system, or when community services and social service interventions are not well-coordinated. 
  • A qualified, committed and culturally competent workforce is critical to meet the needs of vulnerable, children, youth and families.  Employees most prepared to work in child welfare are less likely to leave their jobs.
  • Budget cuts, high caseloads, low salaries, administrative burdens, the risk of violence, and emotional exhaustion can affect recruitment and retention of qualified staff.
  • Many U.S. Schools of Social Work conduct research and coordinate public-private partnerships that help local and state child protection systems train paraprofessionals, create a pipeline for MSW trained supervisors, leverage additional public and private funding to expand prevention programs, and implement system-wide improvements.
  • Investing early in child protection and child development pays off in the long run. Improving the social supports, health care and education of at-risk children helps build a generation of adults who make stable contributions to their communities and the economy.

 


http://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/swMonth/2012/toolkit/childprotection/talkingpoints.asp
10/7/2013
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