Child welfare workers' practice in cases involving domestic violence

Bourassa, Chantal; Lavergne, Chantal; Damant, Dominique; Lessard, Geneviève; Turcotte, Pierre

doi:10.1002/car.1015

Cited by 33 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Moreover, these women often find themselves isolated or forced to take time off from work due to difficulties at home [44]. IPV also affects the conditions in which parental roles are exercised, in particular by increasing victims' stress [46][47][48][49][50]. While the quality of the relationship between the child and the parent who is an IPV victim constitutes an important protection factor for the former [51][52][53][54][55], studies show that the partner or ex-partner often employs violent behaviour to undermine this relationship [53,56,57].…”

Section: Direction Of Violence and Impact On Parental Rolesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concerted Practice-Based Actions in Intimate Partner and Family Violence: When the Children’s Well-Being Is the Central Concern

et al. 2014

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Abstract:In Canada, the exposure of children to intimate partner violence is, along with negligence, one of the most frequent forms of maltreatment. Intimate partner violence raises important issues with regard to child custody and to the exercising of parental roles. The aid provided for children exposed to intimate partner violence covers a range of programs, in particular community services specializing in intimate partner violence, frontline social and health services, and child protection. However, these resource services do not share the same missions, or the same understanding of the problems and possible solutions, since they often operate in parallel networks. The complex situations of families confronted with intimate partner violence present considerable challenges in terms of collaboration between the different organizations. Action research was employed to develop an innovative concertation strategy that fostered collaboration between practitioners from different family resource services. The strategy, which was implemented in the Québec City region between 2011 and 2013, was then evaluated. This article presents the results of this evaluation as OPEN ACCESSSoc. Sci. 2014, 3 651 well as the positive outcomes that the concertation strategy had for the practitioners' practice and for the improvement of family services.

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Section: Direction Of Violence and Impact On Parental Rolesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concerted Practice-Based Actions in Intimate Partner and Family Violence: When the Children’s Well-Being Is the Central Concern

et al. 2014

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“…At each step of the child welfare investigation process, CPS workers utilize a number of tools and follow department procedures to make important judgments that directly affect the welfare of millions of children in the United States (Bourassa et al, 2008;DeRoma et al, 2006;Dorsey et al, 2008). In many instances, the workers acknowledged that their practices do not wholly align with policies, and in some cases, workers find it difficult to keep pace with the changes in DHS/ CPS policies, at times contributing to a disjoint between DHS policy and caseworker practices.…”

Section: Discussion: When Practice and Policy Collidementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, together with DHS, the university research team conducted multiple focus groups to obtain insight to guide the professional development of new and continuing CPS workers and to identify organizational processes that may be implemented to support the vision of the department to be a model agency for CPS. We followed an approach of using semi-structured focus groups examining caseworkers' perceptions, similar to prior research that examined caseworkers' practices in cases involving domestic violence (Bourassa, Lavergne, Damant, Lessard, & Turcotte, 2008) and caseworkers' analysis of risk and protective factors when deciding to remove a child from the home (DeRoma, Kessler, McDaniel, & Soto, 2006).…”

Section: The Policy Context and Collaboration With Local Cps Officialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, despite policies and procedures to guide the investigative process, studies show considerable variation in the implementation of such tools and, as such, important decisions related to determining risk and case outcomes also vary considerably from practitioner to practitioner and are influenced by numerous factors beyond the risk assessment process (Bourassa et al, 2008;DeRoma et al, 2006;Dorsey et al, 2008). Yet, little research has examined why there is variability from caseworker to caseworker in implementing risk assessment tools and how workers' perceptions of these tools may influence the implementation of risk assessment tools.…”

Section: Overview Of the Child Protective Services Investigative Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

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When practice and policy collide: Child welfare workers' perceptions of investigation processes

Lee

Sobeck

Djelaj

et al. 2013

Children and Youth Services Review

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a b s t r a c tThis qualitative study examines variability in practices surrounding Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations regarding the allegations of child maltreatment. Working under the auspices of a community-research collaboration with Department of Human Services officials, university researchers conducted a series of focus groups with CPS caseworkers in a state that was under court-ordered consent decree to improve child welfare investigations. Focus groups with caseworkers sought to better understand caseworkers' common investigative practices and their perceptions of best practices in conducting child welfare investigations. Two main areas were noted for improvement: (1) the need for ongoing training of CPS workers, particularly at the stage of initial intake of the allegations of maltreatment, and cross-training of police and hospital staff who regularly work with CPS, and (2) implementation of an improved risk assessment tool. These recommendations are discussed in detail.

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“…Par exemple, les résultats d'une étude réalisée au Nouveau-Brunswick révèlent que les intervenants en protection de l'enfance ont peu de considération pour la situation des femmes victimes de violence, ce qui les amène fréquemment à les accuser de ne pas protéger ou de négliger leurs enfants (Bourassa, Lavergne, Damant, Lessard et Turcotte, 2008). En fait, les intervenants présument souvent que le fait pour les femmes de demeurer avec un conjoint violent témoigne d'un refus de protéger leurs enfants.…”

Section: Recension Des éCritsunclassified

On n’est pas là pour régler le problème de violence conjugale, on est là pour protéger l’enfant

Lapierre

Côté

2011

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À la lumière de développements récents dans le champ de la protection de l’enfance, il s’avère important d’examiner comment les différents acteurs dans le système de protection conceptualisent les situations de violence conjugale. Le présent article aborde précisément cette question, s’appuyant sur les résultats d’une étude de cas réalisée dans un centre jeunesse du Québec. La méthodologie qualitative combinait une analyse documentaire des politiques et des entrevues individuelles réalisées auprès de différents acteurs dans le système de protection de l’enfance, soit des intervenants sociaux, des cadres intermédiaires, des cadres supérieurs et un réviseur. Dans l’ensemble, les résultats de cette étude révèlent que tous les participants reconnaissent que les intervenants en protection de la jeunesse sont confrontés à des situations de violence conjugale dans le cadre de leur travail et que de telles situations peuvent nécessiter l’intervention des services de protection de la jeunesse, du moins dans certaines circonstances. Selon les données recueillies, ces circonstances relèvent principalement des conséquences pour les enfants et des capacités parentales de leur mère. Par ailleurs, les résultats présentés ci-dessous semblent indiquer que les différents acteurs dans le système de protection de la jeunesse ne mettent pas l’accent sur la violence des hommes et sur la victimisation des femmes, mais bien sur l’exposition à la violence conjugale et sur ses conséquences pour les enfants. Ils sont préoccupés par la situation des femmes dans la mesure où cela met en cause leur capacité à assurer la sécurité et le développement de leurs enfants. Les femmes victimes de violence sont donc perçues comme une partie du problème, voire même comme la source du problème.

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Child welfare workers' practice in cases involving domestic violence

Cited by 33 publications

References 27 publications

Concerted Practice-Based Actions in Intimate Partner and Family Violence: When the Children’s Well-Being Is the Central Concern

Concerted Practice-Based Actions in Intimate Partner and Family Violence: When the Children’s Well-Being Is the Central Concern

When practice and policy collide: Child welfare workers' perceptions of investigation processes

On n’est pas là pour régler le problème de violence conjugale, on est là pour protéger l’enfant

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