Children’s Aid Society Research Articles

Racial disparities in child welfare in Ontario (Canada) and training on ethnocultural diversity: An innovative mixed-methods study

BackgroundDespite continuous reports showing the overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system in Ontario, Canada’s most populous and ethnically diverse province, knowledge in the factors contributing to this issue remain scarce. ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore questions relating to caseworker’s training on ethnocultural diversity in connection with racial disparities and overrepresentation of Black children in child welfare services. Participants and settingsThis two-fold mixed-methods study included (1) a qualitative methodology based on four focus groups with child welfare caseworkers from a Children’s Aid Society (CAS) in Ontario and community facilitators (N = 24), and (2) an analysis of academic curriculums from all 36 Ontarian colleges and universities offering social work programs. MethodsWe used an innovative and complementary mixed-method design based on grounded theory. ResultsResults from categorical content analyses with NVivo revealed that community facilitators perceived a lack of ethnocultural competency amongst CAS caseworkers. Similarly, CAS caseworkers reported inadequate training on ethnocultural diversity during and following their post-secondary education (college or university). Corroborating these findings, results from documentary analyses of Ontarian university and college curriculums in social work revealed that barely one in two programs had a mandatory course on cultural issues. ConclusionsThis study reveals a need for additional efforts to provide adequate training to child welfare caseworkers on ethnocultural diversity, starting with undergraduate training programs, in order to understand and tackle the overrepresentation of Black children in child welfare services. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Stitching Tattered Cloth: Reflections on Social Justice and Qualitative Inquiry in Troubled Times

This article is a transcript of a keynote performance delivered at the opening of the 14th Annual International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI). I compare the troubled times we face during the first year of President Donald J. Trump’s administration in 2017 with conditions existing during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Similarities include mass migration, religious intolerance, nativist and anti-immigrant movements, racial injustice, political division, acute income inequality, and debates over the role of science and religion. Finding inspiration in the work of social reformer Charles Loring Brace (1826-1890), I examine his efforts in founding the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) of New York in 1853. Guided by a moral compass and radical new view of social justice work, Brace used qualitative methodological approaches and melded disciplinary knowledge to devise a comprehensive intervention strategy to alleviate child suffering. His goals were nothing short of eradicating poverty and homelessness, decreasing crime and delinquency, reducing illiteracy, reducing unemployment, and improving child and maternal health outcomes. For nearly four decades Brace worked to establish a multi-service child welfare agency that continues to exist 165 years later. He contributed to creating a new profession of applied philanthropy or social work. I compare these efforts with the building of ICQI. Norman K. Denzin, ICQI’s founder, possesses the same kind of visionary leadership, commitment to social justice, and ‘dangerous’ ideas as demonstrated by Brace. I suggest ICQI grew from a similar set of building blocks and possesses the same transformative power as CAS demonstrated in troubled times.

P013: Management of intimate partner violence in the emergency department

Introduction: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health concern with complex medico-legal implications and a wide range of morbidity. While the ED is often the primary access point for these patients, IPV is under-recognized. Our objectives were to describe the characteristics of female IPV patients in the ED and determine the assessment and management patterns of physicians at a tertiary care academic ED. Methods: We conducted a health records review of adult (>18years) female patients seen at a tertiary care hospital ED presenting with evidence of IPV from January to September 2016. A combined search strategy of hospital records and Sexual Assault and Partner Abuse Care Program (SAPACP) patient rosters was used to identify study subjects. Data were collected for patient demographic/presenting characteristics, assault characteristics, and patterns of referral, management and patient disposition/discharge. Descriptive statistics were generated. Results: 100 patients met inclusion criteria with; mean age 35.1, female 100.0%, arrival by ambulance 53.0%, and mean CTAS level of 2.4. Abuse screening was completed at triage only 24.0% of the time. Presenting complaints were varied, with the most common being injury or trauma (32.0%). Most patients were only identified from the SAPACP roster. Patients reported strangulation, a strong predictor of future homicide, in 34.0% of cases. Admission to hospital occurred in 7.0% of cases with 19.0% involving specialist consultation and 7.0% leaving against medical advice or without being seen. Legal interactions including police involvement occurred 72.0% of the time and Childrens Aid Society was involved in 26.0% of cases. The final diagnosis was recorded as IPV or equivalent in only 49.0% of cases; the remainder were discharged with a final diagnosis of injury/trauma (26.0%), sexual assault (6.0%), somatic complaint (6.0%), mental health (8.0%), substance use/abuse (3.0%) or other (2.0%). Conclusion: Our study highlights that IPV is a common and heterogeneous entity with a wide spectrum of presentations and morbidity. Strangulation rates were high and are associated with increased risk of homicide. IPV is currently under-recognized and continues to carry stigma as ER physicians only recorded a discharge diagnosis of IPV or equivalent in half of cases. Educational strategies are required to highlight the importance of IPV to ED staff.

The Children’s Aid Society

The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) was founded in 1853 to help impoverished and orphaned children. In the process of fulfilling its mission, CAS may have unwittingly planted some of the first participatory seeds that grew into youth empowerment, elements of which were eventually incorporated into parts of the modern US foster care system. Specific empowering aspects of CAS’s include (1) providing asset-building opportunities, (2) adult facilitation of a prosocial environment, and (3) treating children as independent clients who helped shape the program. This article provides evidence of the participatory aspects of CAS using examples from nineteenth-century periodicals and annual reports.

Cross-Cultural Evaluation of Maternal Competence in a Culturally Diverse Society

“Ms. A” is a 27-year-old recent immigrant from China who was hospitalized twice in her early twenties because of psychotic symptoms. She was treated and maintained on antipsychotic medication at low dosages. Ms. A subsequently had a short-lived relationship with a man who disappeared from her life when he learned that she was pregnant. She decided to carry the pregnancy to term and to keep the child, not an easy decision because she had virtually no family support and few friends. However, she was intelligent and resourceful, lived in a relatively comfortable apartment in Toronto, and was able to support herself and her child on a disability pension. She had a good relationship with her psychiatrist and her social worker. Ms. A’s mother and several siblings lived in the same city, but Ms. A did not perceive them as supportive.