Child welfare policy and practice

Abstract

The underlying message of the articles in this issue of Children and Youth Services Review is the need for empirically based planning and practice in child welfare services. One of the shortcomings of these services is that they have been driven by “practice wisdom”, economic and political expediency, or a selective consideration of the research (Nelson, 1984). Dramatic changes have occurred in child welfare service delivery during the last 30 years. The “discovery of the battered child syndrome” (young children with multiple inflicted injuries at various stages of healing) by Kempe and his colleagues (1962) signaled a new era in child welfare (Faller, 1981; Kadushin & Martin, 1988). These researchers, who were pediatricians, radiologists, and psychiatrists, conducted a survey which identified 302 battered children who were seen in 88 hospitals across the country. This work led to heightened concern about children who were being maltreated, and ultimately was instrumental in the passage of federal legislation (PL 93-247-Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, 1974) and corresponding state laws, which created and elaborated child protective services (Failer, 1981; Kadushin & Martin, 1988; Nelson, 1984). Of interest is the fact that an equally important study by David Gil (1970). which documented the association between poverty and minority status and being reported for child abuse, was largely ignored by legis- lators and others designing child protective services. The model adopted for child protective services is essentially a crisis intervention model. Its assumption is that child maltreatment is precip- itated by a parental or family crisis. The protective services worker is intended to enter the family, while it is in crisis, and provide short-term services, which alleviate the crisis and return the family to its previous,