Workforce Development and Multiagency Collaborations: A Presentation of Two Case Studies in Child Welfare

Chad Mcdonald,Cole Benson,Kristine A Campbell,Caren J Frost,Matthew J Davis

doi:10.3390/su131810190

Abstract

Background: Two disciplines that work in the child welfare arena, social welfare and healthcare, are crucial for addressing families’ and children’s needs in social, emotional, and physical healthcare situations. How child welfare workers are trained and how healthcare teams collaborate with other stakeholders in the child welfare system is crucial in meeting and sustaining the needs of families and children. Methods: We demonstrate two case examples, one focusing on enhanced learning tools through virtual reality (VR) and the other on strengthening collaborations between healthcare teams and the child welfare system. Results: For the VR training tool, 79% of participants indicated they would recommend the VR learning tool as effective in developing skills in the child welfare workforce. In response to the learning collaborative project, child welfare participants reported positive impressions regarding collaborative practices while identifying system-level barriers to implementation. Conclusion: Findings from these two case studies provide insights from which to consider system development for designing and implementing sustainable improvements in child welfare approaches to families and children referred for suspected maltreatment.

Highlights

IntroductionAwareness of child maltreatment and the need for child protection grew in both social service and healthcare systems from shared roots early in the 20th century
In a very literal manner, both risk putting others’ lives at unnecessary risk. While it is outside the scope of this section to review or identify all the efforts child welfare jurisdictions can make to remedy the shortage of sufficient practice opportunities, we provide a case example of how a federally-funded, public child welfare agency partnership with the University of Utah developed a learning tool designed to provide such practice opportunities to current and prospective child welfare workers
While we identified no negative consequences from these practice improvements, focus group participants reminded us that collaborative practice carries unmeasured risks, including potential for breaches in confidentiality, higher staffing expectations, and identification of social needs for children and families, such as housing or employment, that neither child welfare nor healthcare has the capacity to address within the U.S context

Summary

Introduction

Awareness of child maltreatment and the need for child protection grew in both social service and healthcare systems from shared roots early in the 20th century. How child welfare workers are trained and how healthcare teams collaborate with other stakeholders in the child welfare system is crucial in meeting and sustaining the needs of families and children. Methods: We demonstrate two case examples, one focusing on enhanced learning tools through virtual reality (VR) and the other on strengthening collaborations between healthcare teams and the child welfare system. Conclusion: Findings from these two case studies provide insights from which to consider system development for designing and implementing sustainable improvements in child welfare approaches to families and children referred for suspected maltreatment

Methods

Results

Conclusion