Assessing the Outcomes of Alternative Care and Treatment Responses

Cross-System Collaboration and Engagement of the Public Health Model to Promote the Well-Being of Children and Families

“…The risks children are exposed to today are no greater than they have been throughout the modern epoch, but risk is now engrained in professional thinking to such an extent that the procedural apparatus set up to process child welfare reports, investigations and interventions inhibits any broader thinking about families' predicament and ways of dealing with multiple problem situations. (Kojan, Marthinsen, & Clifford, 2019) From the perspective of researchers, the child welfare system is further weakened by the use of programs that are usually not evidence-based and by a process of service delivery that is inherently difficult to evaluate ( Jonson-Reid & Chiang, 2019;Maluccio & Pecora, 2006;Pecora, McAuley, & Rose, 2006;Wright & Kaltner, 2019). Adding to these concerns is the realization that, when evaluations have been done, results are mixed and often disappointing.…”