Displaying 1 - 9 of 9
Abstract
When concerns about child safety and wellbeing are substantiated, decisions are made in the context of the options available—child(ren) remaining supported within family, short‐term removal with a plan for return home when parental issues are addressed, or permanent care placement. In New Zealand, families facing possible removal experience multiple challenges including poverty, family violence, parental mental health and substance abuse issues and historical and inter‐generational trauma. Lack of resources to facilitate the intensive intervention needed to address such complexity…
Abstract
With the adoption of statutes, policies and administrative guidance since the late 1980s, statutory child welfare agencies around the world have been implementing practice approaches to resolving and addressing child abuse and neglect concerns that involve extended family systems in decision making and planning. One such approach is the family group conference (FGC), enshrined in New Zealand law. This article provides a historical context and describes numerous provisions of the family group conference that protect participants and the proceedings. It then describes applications…
Abstract
In families where child abuse and neglect have already occurred, there is a strong imperative to provide interventions that reduce or eliminate harm done to children. Parenting programs lack tailoring for the needs of maltreating parents, and maltreating parents themselves are a heterogeneous group with varying needs. The literature on the effectiveness of parenting interventions for high-risk parents is limited, and this scarcity of knowledge can result in child protection cases being treated as a natural experiment. For children who experience ongoing maltreatment by their…
Abstract
Placement in out-of-home care is associated with a number of devastating outcomes for mothers and for their children in the short and long term. The aim of this study was to examine factors and processes of change that occurred through participation in a residential family preservation/reunification programme from the perspectives of service users and staff. We conducted in-depth interviews and a focus group with 12 service users and staff from one programme in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Three overarching themes common to the narratives of service users and staff were identified: 1)…
Abstract
It is generally assumed that Family Group Conference (FGC) is a culturally adequate method for social work in indigenous communities. In this meta-synthesis, we question this assumption. Through systematic and strategic searches, we explored the existing trends of FGC research in indigenous contexts. We have included 26 articles are included in the literature review. Our analyses reveal that there is a tendency towards taking the cultural adequacy of FGC for granted. A few researchers question these assumptions, and debate tokenism and colonialism in…
In Aotearoa New Zealand a braided rivers—he awa whiria metaphor is facilitating conversations between Māori (indigenous peoples) and non-Māori researchers about the integration of knowledge systems. This article explores how an approach based on he awa whiria can work in practice in the examination of the efficacy for Māori whānau (families) of the government’s intensive home-visiting programme, Family Start. A retrospective impact evaluation of Family Start for children born from 2004 to 2011 examined the outcomes for children in families receiving Family Start, compared to a matched control…
This report examines and shares learnings from ATD Fourth World UK's social work practice framework with families experiencing poverty, discussing its strengths-based collaborative approach to build relationships and reduce power imbalances between practitioners and families. Implications for the feasibility of implementing this framework in child protection social work practice and policy in Aotearoa New Zealand is also addressed.
"Overlooking poverty’s impact on families not only sidesteps addressing underlying structural issues of inequality but also…
This article is part of a special edition of the journal Psychosocial Intervention (Volume 22 No.03 December 2013) focused on the state of child protection in a wide variety of countries with special attention to out-of-home care placements, principally family foster care and residential care, tough several aspects related to adoption were included as well.
This article provides an outline of the early development of care and protection in Australia and New Zealand as a…
This study conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of scientific literature to summarize the evidence for associations between individual types of non-sexual child maltreatment and outcomes related to mental and physical health. This review is a first of its kind to demonstrate in aggregate quantitative effects the knowledge behind the associations, using 124 studies mostly from Western Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Eighty percent of child maltreatment is perpetrated by parents or parental guardians, and poverty,…