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Family Services (family + services)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	60%

Selected Abstracts

"In the Best Interests of the Child": Mapping the (Re) Emergence of Pro-Adoption Politics in Contemporary Australia

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 2 2009
Kate Murphy
This article seeks to understand, in historical and international perspective, recent governmental initiatives that aim to reinstate adoption as a viable policy option for the care and placement of children in Australia, with reference to two recent reports of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Human and Family Services, Overseas Adoption in Australia: Report of the Inquiry into Adoption of Children from Overseas (2005), and The Winnable War on Drugs: The Impact of Illicit Drug Use on Families (2007) which raises adoption as a policy option for children of drug-addicted parents. These reports appear to signal a discursive shift away from the anti-adoption attitudes that have characterised the post-1970s period in response to the Stolen Generations and other past adoption practices. It is argued that this change can be understood as having been pushed to the fore by the conservative family policy of the Howard era and further fostered by international trends in adoption policy. [source]

Prevention of child abuse and neglect and improvements in child development

CHILD ABUSE REVIEW, Issue 1 2009
Mogens Nygaard Christoffersen
Abstract The aim of the study was to evaluate the implementation of a section in the Danish Social Assistance Act which encourages local authorities to offer families services in order to support children at risk of child maltreatment. The specific purpose of the present paper is to answer the question: Will the socio-psychological development of children known to social services be improved when abuse and neglect are reduced? A sample of 1,138 children was drawn at random from new social services cases starting in 1998. Subsequently, about 80 per cent were evaluated by local caseworkers on the basis of a standardised questionnaire covering a period of four years. The most damaging family conditions seemed to be psychological maltreatment, physical/sexual abuse and neglect. Maltreated children were more often in a depressed state, unhappy, socially isolated, or they had an eating disorder, inadequate or under-nutrition, suicidal tendencies, lack of concentration, or disturbed behaviour, compared to those children who were not exposed to abuse and neglect. If parental behaviour improved, effects on children's well-being were also observed and positive changes in children's socio-psychological development were identified. The questionnaire explored the impact of various interventions, including services geared to strengthen the child's network, but results indicated that the child displayed reduced risk of reactive symptoms only when parental behaviour improved and abuse and neglect were reduced. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The effectiveness of nonprofit lead-organization networks for social service delivery

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 4 2010
Bin Chen
Public agencies increasingly contract with nonprofit organizations to lead community-based networks for social service delivery. We explore the role that partnership characteristics play in the effectiveness of these networks. Using data on children and family services in Los Angeles County, we consider the impact of both the motivations for forming partnerships and the nature of the resulting partnerships on perceived outcomes for clients, interorganizational relationships, and organizational learning. We find that client outcomes and interorganizational relationships are enhanced when partnerships are formed to meet certain programmatic and organizational goals. Organizational learning, however, is affected only when partnerships are formed to enhance organizational legitimacy. Partners selected because they share common vision increase effectiveness, while those selected because there are few alternative partners decrease effectiveness. Finally, when partnerships use an interorganizational coordination mechanism, client outcomes are improved. The managerial implications of these impacts for the nonprofit sector are developed. The results lend considerable support to the role of partnership motivation and partner selection in the effectiveness of nonprofit lead-organization networks, and specificity about the nature of that role. [source]

The extent and nature of family alcohol and drug use: findings from the belfast youth development study

CHILD ABUSE REVIEW, Issue 6 2008
Andrew Percy
Abstract Using data from an ongoing longitudinal study of adolescent drug use, this study examines the proportion of teenagers living with parents who are problem alcohol or drug users. Around two per cent of parents report high levels of problem drinking and one per cent report problem drug use. If a broader definition of hazardous drinking is used, the proportion of teenagers exposed increases to over 15 per cent. When substance use is examined at a family level (taking account of alcohol and drug use amongst dependent children in addition to that of parents), the proportion of families experiencing some form of substance use is considerable. These findings add further support to the call for increased recognition of the needs of dependent children within adult treatment services when working with parents. Likewise, the reduction of harm to children as a result of parental substance use should be an increasingly important priority for family support services. This is likely to be achieved through the closer integration of addiction and family services. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Ethical Challenges in Practice-Based Mental Health Services Research: Examples From Research With Children and Families

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE AND PRACTICE, Issue 2 2008
Ann F. Garland
Researchers have been encouraged to improve the practical relevance and utility of their work by conducting research based on "real-world" service settings and collaborating with other stakeholders, such as service providers and consumers. Practice-based research presents multiple ethical challenges, not well addressed in the literature. We discuss ethical challenges in three general categories, derived from our experience in practice-based research on child and family services: (a) multiple roles and potentially competing demands of research and clinical care, (b) multiple potential uses of research data, and (c) policy and fiscal challenges. Suggested directions for future work are also proposed. [source]