Understanding Child Welfare

Richard P. Barth, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland School of Social Work, Jill Duerr Berrick, Distinguished Professor and Zellerbach Family Chair, Berkeley Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, Melissa Jonson-Reid, Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work Research, Brown School, Washington University, Antonio R. Garcia, Professor, School of Social Work, North Carolina State University, Johanna K.P. Greeson, Associate Professor, School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, John Gyourko, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, James Madison University and Brett Drake, Professor of Data Science for the Social Good in Practice, Brown School, Washington University, USA

‘Within and beyond the United States, societies face enduring and increasingly complex challenges of protecting children from abuse and neglect, and providing safety and helpful support services. In Understanding Child Welfare, a team of some of the most experienced thinkers in the field provides an invaluable resource for researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, and the public, presenting a holistic state of the art summary of core topics. Barth et al. have crafted a scholarly yet accessible, measured and thoroughly referenced synthesis of key dimensions of contemporary child welfare services. Their comprehensive treatment draws on decades of deep expertise and careful scholarship, blending theory and practice, science and normativity, social policy and individual need. Marked by a commitment to precision, the book is built on a solid foundation of the true nature and intrinsic limits of child welfare services, which highlights and overcomes common misconceptions while facilitating a nuanced account on which readers can rely. The book takes on the difficult challenge of considering the spectrum of human experience and social determinants that so often present difficulties in case-based decision-making and broader ongoing practice for child welfare services collectively and practitioners individually. Given the inherent limits of the field, the authors appropriately acknowledge the imperfectibility of child welfare services and ongoing critical debates, but in their strategy of repeatedly providing “glimmers of change” point to strategies and developments that offer hope for current and future generations. The prevalence of child abuse and neglect and their massive associated long-term burdens on individual health, family wellbeing and community flourishing mean governments have a moral and economic stake in enhancing child welfare services. This book can play an important role in contributing to this ongoing imperative.’

• ContentsPreface1 Understanding the aims and tensions of child welfare services 2 Pursuing safety: Understanding harm, trauma, andinterventions in families 3 Foster care and beyond: Pathways, practices, and permanency4 Child welfare and the challenge of difference: Universalism,accommodation, and reform 5 Adolescents in child welfare: Distinctive pathways, services,and outcomes6 Will the kids be alright? CWS and the unfinished work ofprotection and beyond 7 Child welfare myths and misunderstandings 8 Workforce dynamics in child welfare: Investing in the peoplewho protect children 9 Looking ahead: Toward a smaller, smarter, stronger childwelfare system References