Protective Service Workers Research Articles

A Response to Barth et al. From the Perspective of a Child Protective Services Worker

A Response to Barth et al. From the Perspective of a Child Protective Services Worker

APA Files Another Amicus Brief in Ongoing Texas Case on Banning Trans Care for Youth

APA Files Another Amicus Brief in Ongoing Texas Case on Banning Trans Care for Youth

Family Risk Factors That Jeopardize Child Development: Scoping Review.

The obligation to protect children is defined by law. However, there is fragility in identifying actual or potential situations that jeopardize their development. This review aims to identify the family risk factors that jeopardize child development. A scoping review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute for Evidence-Based Practice framework and the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement. The research was carried out on the electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL, Nursing & Allied Health Collection: Comprehensive, MEDLINE Complete, and MedicLatina, with a time limit of 2010 to 2021. The search was restricted to documents written in Portuguese, English, and French. A total of 3998 articles were initially identified. After selecting and analysing, 28 risk factors were extracted from 29 articles. Four categories of risk factors were identified—namely, patterns of social and economic interaction, family characteristics, caregiver’s characteristics, and parenting. The results of this review allow the identification of family risk factors that jeopardize child development. This is significant for Child Protective Services workers as they carry out their risk assessments. This assessment is the first step in avoiding an accumulation of harm to at-risk children and allowing the development of interventions for minimising harm’s impact on children’s development.

Deconstructing bias: The decision-making process among child protective service workers in Chile

Worldwide, there has been a push toward reforming or abolishing child welfare systems because of systemic bias against families. Few studies have examined the role of bias in decision-making processes among child welfare practitioners, especially in child welfare systems in processes of change/reform. This qualitative study utilized discussion groups with child welfare teams to examine how professionals navigated the decision-making process in cases of child maltreatment. A grounded theory analysis revealed that professionals deconstruct macro, mezzo, and micro biases as they make decisions. Implications for global social work, such as self-reflection and structural changes, and for future research are explored.

“It's the Only System We've Got”

Front-line public “Child Welfare” caseworkers, also known as emergency response or investigative caseworkers, play a significant role in the “Child Welfare” system. Placed in an intermediary role within the system, investigative caseworkers are tasked with making critical decisions while attempting to advocate for families and uphold the system’s policies. To understand the caseworker decision-making processes more in-depth, a qualitative study was conducted with eighteen investigative caseworkers in four different counties. The guiding research question of the current study was: “What impacts the decisionmaking processes in which child protective service workers investigate and substantiate referred cases of child maltreatment?” Findings revealed several nuances and extensive complexities in how workers navigated often contradictory roles within the system. Important emerging themes include caseworkers’ use of surveillance during investigation and multi-institution partnership indecision-making processes. This Comment discusses the ways in which caseworkers react to and navigate ambiguity and parental resistance during investigations, lending an often-overlooked exploration into various nuances within the decision-making apparatus. Understanding nuances in the complex web of decision-making and information-gathering may lead to novel ways of thinking about how the “Child Welfare” system addresses child protection.

Child Welfare Reform: The Role of Federal Court Oversight in Child Protective Service Workers' Caseloads

Key Practitioner Messages Legal measures such as class action lawsuits and consent decrees may be effective in reducing child welfare workers' caseloads as part of systematic change. Schools of social work should expose their generalist and clinical track students to macro courses that address the role of such legal measures. Policy planning related to child welfare reform should involve frontline workers' experiences and perspectives.

Working in the Times of COVID-19. Psychological Impact of the Pandemic in Frontline Workers in Spain.

This study evaluates the psychological impact (PI) of the COVID-19 pandemic in frontline workers in Spain. Participants were 546 workers (296 healthcare workers, 105 media professionals, 89 grocery workers, and 83 protective service workers). They all completed online questionnaires assessing PI, sadness, concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and demographic and work-related variables. All groups but protective services workers showed higher PI levels than the general population. Healthcare and grocery workers were the most affected, with 73.6% and 65.2% of the participants, respectively, showing a severe PI. Women showed a higher PI level. Healthcare workers in the regions with higher COVID-19 incidences reported greater PI levels. The main concerns were being infected by COVID-19 or infecting others. Levels of concern correlated with higher PI levels. The protection equipment was generally reported as insufficient, which correlated with higher PI levels. Professionals reporting to overwork during the crisis (60% mass-media, 38% of healthcare and grocery and 21.7% of protective service) showed higher PI levels. In the healthcare group, taking care of patients with COVID-19 (77%) or of dying patients with COVID-19 (43.9%) was associated with higher PI levels. The perceived social recognition of their work was inversely related to PI. Most of the sample had not received psychological support. We suggest some organizational measures for frontline institutions, such as the periodical monitoring or inclusion of psychologists specialized in crisis-management to prevent negative symptoms and provide timely support.

Distress Tolerance and Emotion Regulation as Potential Mediators Between Secondary Traumatic Stress and Maladaptive Coping.

The extant literature has illustrated that protective service workers experience negative repercussions associated with their job (including the development of secondary traumatic stress; STS) and may utilize maladaptive coping mechanisms. Developing an improved understanding of factors that might explain the relationship between STS and the utilization of maladaptive coping mechanisms is warranted. This study sought to examine emotion regulation and distress tolerance as potential mediators between STS and the utilization of maladaptive coping mechanisms. Participants were 152 elder protective service workers and 105 child protective service workers who completed an online survey of self-report measures of emotion regulation, distress tolerance, STS, and coping behaviors. A parallel multiple mediator model was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the hypothesis that distress tolerance and emotion regulation would mediate the relationship between STS and the utilization of maladaptive coping. Our hypothesis was partially supported as the effect of STS on maladaptive coping was mediated by emotion regulation but not by distress tolerance. The results from this study have both prevention and intervention implications. From a prevention perspective, efforts could be directed at teaching emotion regulation skills to those at risk for developing STS as a mechanism for decreasing the probability of denial, substance use, behavioral disengagement, and self-blame that may occur as a consequence of STS. From an intervention perspective, some of the negative sequelae of exposure to STS may be averted by teaching EPS and CPS workers who present with STS symptoms, emotion regulation skills.

The Qualitative Exploration of Difficulties Experienced by Child Protection Services (CPS) Workers in the Process of Case Managing

The Qualitative Exploration of Difficulties Experienced by Child Protection Services (CPS) Workers in the Process of Case Managing

Front-line social work jobs and secondary trauma: Impact on parenting

ABSTRACT This nonrandom pre-experimental posttest only group design study sought to examine levels of secondary trauma in social work professionals and the impact of this trauma on parenting behavior. Participants (n = 421) completed measures focused on demographic data and normed scales in the areas of primary trauma, secondary trauma, and parenting styles. Results noted moderate levels of primary trauma and low moderate levels of secondary trauma. A negative correlation was noted between years of service and overall secondary trauma. Child Protective Services Workers (CPS) were noted to report an increased likelihood of primary and secondary trauma compared to the rest of the sample. Overall, a positive correlation was noted between secondary trauma and authoritarian parenting, and, conversely, a negative correlation was noted between secondary trauma and authoritative parenting. A smaller but significant finding was noted in high secondary trauma and permissive parenting. This information is important for teaching and training opportunities to educate social workers and other paraprofessionals on the impact of secondary trauma on parenting behaviors. Awareness can lead to personal changes, as well as changes in curriculum to support prevention efforts.

Evaluating IDENTITY, an Automated Data Sharing Platform to Improve Health Outcomes for Youth in Protective Custody

Purpose Integrated Data Environment to eNhance outcomes in cusTody Youth (IDENTITY) is a web-based portal designed to share linked electronic health record (EHR) and child welfare information in near-real time for children in protective custody. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and utilization of IDENTITY by child protective services workers and clinicians. Methods IDENTITY links records between the State Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) and the EHR using deterministic matching and non-deterministic matching algorithms (Dexheimer et al., 2018), updated twice daily and displayed in a …

"Business as Usual": Child Protective Services Workers' Perceptions and Experiences of and Responses to Client-Perpetrated Violence.

Client-perpetrated violence (CPV) against child protective services (CPS) workers is prevalent and problematic for workers and clients leading to psychological distress, physical injury, and compromised service delivery. With accumulating evidence of prevalence and detrimental consequences, few studies examine the characteristics of violent incidents among CPS workers. This study explores how CPS workers perceive CPV through exploring characteristics of incidents that they experienced. We applied components of the stress process model to consider the importance of workers' perspectives when interpreting violence and its effects. We used inductive, thematic analysis to analyze interview data focused on workers' experiences with CPV during their first 3 years as CPS workers. The qualitative subsample (N = 34) was drawn from the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (FSPSF), a statewide, longitudinal sample of recently hired frontline child welfare workers. With few exceptions, workers experienced a variety of physical and nonphysical violence. Some experienced more frequent exposure than others, particularly those who defined yelling as violent. Workers identified predictable patterns of violent circumstances and people, and commonly felt that their agencies treated violence as "business as usual." The high prevalence of violence, often predictable, indicates the importance of promoting a violence-free workplace through agency culture and responding to workers' reports of CPV with empathy and support. In addition, given workers' diverse perceptions of CPV, a manual could provide definitions of CPV, procedures to increase worker safety, and procedures to respond effectively to violence. Skill-based trainings can support workers at all levels to minimize, yet prepare for and handle, violence.

Measuring the quality of care in kinship foster care placements

Kinship foster care placements have become significantly more prevalent in both Canada and the United States. However, there are limited resources for child protection services (CPS) workers to assess the quality of the kinship caregiver placements. Although several measures exist to screen caregivers for general foster care, there are no instruments available for the assessment of quality in kinship foster care. Thus, the current study reexamined a kinship caregiver assessment using data from a study conducted at the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC). Inter-item and item-scale reliability coefficients were calculated for caregiver responses (N = 37) using Cronbach’s alpha and ordinal alpha through polychoric correlation matrices. Analyses revealed five distinct scales with good internal consistency (ordinal α > 0.75), suggesting a useful assessment tool. With the continuing shift to increased kinship placements, it is important that CPS workers have access to validated measures for this placement setting. Findings provide an innovative kinship caregiver measure to be used in the field of child welfare, and support further research in this area.

Non-Aboriginal Child Protective Service Workers’ Utilization of the Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathway Knowledge Translation (MAP-KT) Portal: A Report on the Utilization Statistics and Utilization Gaps of Aboriginal Best-Practice Material

Given the unique history and culture of the Aboriginal heritage, research evidence and evidence-based practice guidelines/recommendation derive from the general population are not sufficient in informing the practices of Child Protective Services’ caseworkers who are caring for Aboriginal youth in the child welfare system. Special attention should also be given to best-practice materials developed with special consideration of the Aboriginal context. The current study describes caseworkers’ utilization of Aboriginal child welfare best-practice materials hosted at the MAP-KT portal during its pilot testing period between October 1st 2007 and September 31st 2008. The objective of the current study is to assess the knowledge consumption behavior of caseworkers who were not employed by Aboriginal child protective agency but nonetheless had Aboriginal Child Welfare youth under they care. The MAP-KT portal is a web-based knowledge tool that brings to the point of practice (of CPS caseworker) child welfare knowledge distilled through the ‘knowledge filter” of the Knowledge to Action framework. Given the proportion of Aboriginal youth under the care of participating agencies, the utilization statistics of Aboriginal content hosted on the MAP-KT portal indicated that they might be under-utilized compared to other content areas. According to the Knowledge to Action framework, a number of ways to improve utilization have been proposed. Future research may focus on adapting the MAP-KT portal to user knowledge preferences on format, content and linkage to frequently utilized sites, as well as tailored marketing to users in First Nations child welfare services and those who provide services to children with First Peoples’ heritage.

Strategies and solutions to address the mental health needs of protective service workers: An introduction.

By virtue of their occupational responsibilities, protective service workers are often exposed to stressors and hazards that may increase their risk for various mental health problems. Efforts are thus needed to enhance connection to psychological services across protective service worker groups and to tailor the delivery of these services based on the specific needs of these workers. To enhance the understanding of how to improve the provision of psychological services to protective service workers, the journal issued a call for papers. The 5 articles summarized in this introduction were accepted in response to this call and constitute this special section of articles. These articles represent a wide variety of public safety roles, including police officers, military service members, workers on secure forensic units, and human rights advocates. Despite this variety in specific roles and public service practice settings, findings from each study offer broad insights into bolstering mental health and improving the delivery of psychological services to all protective service workers. Together, these articles provide key perspectives on how to meet the mental health needs of protective service workers and illuminate unique considerations when providing care to this important group. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Compassion Fatigue and Resilience among Child Protection Service Workers in South Africa

The aim of this quantitative, inferential research was to investigate how working with vulnerable and abused children and families has an impact on child protection service workers in South Africa. In particular, the study explores whether such work leads to compassion fatigue, and whether there is a relationship between compassion fatigue and resilience. Compassion fatigue is recognised as a state of exhaustion that results in helping professionals losing their ability to empathise with their clients, while resilience refers to the process of adaptation in the face of adversity. Using availability sampling, online questionnaires were sent to child protection service workers at the “Afrikaanse Christelike Vrouevereniging”, a national child protection non-profit organisation. The questionnaire included the Professional Quality of Life Scale that measures compassion fatigue, and the Brief Resilience Scale that measures one’s ability to bounce back from stress or adversity. The responses of 81 child protection service workers who completed the questionnaire were captured and analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The results of this research showed that the participants are impacted by their work in the field of child protection and are vulnerable to compassion fatigue. Furthermore, the results showed a relationship between the Brief Resilience Scale and the Professional Quality of Life Scale, i.e. when the participants’ resilience scores were higher, compassion fatigue scores tended to be lower.

Factors associated with the decision to investigate child protective services referrals: A systematic review

AbstractLimited resources for child protection create challenging decision situations for child protective services (CPS) workers at the point of intake. A body of research has examined the factors associated with worker decisions and processes using a variety of methodological approaches to gain knowledge on decision‐making. However, few attempts have been made to systematically review this literature. As part of a larger project on decision‐making at intake, this systematic review addressed the question of the factors associated with worker decisions to investigate alleged maltreatment referrals. Quantitative studies that examined factors associated with screening decisions in CPS practice settings were included in the review. Database and other search methods were used to identify research published in English over a 35‐year period (1980–2015). Of 1,147 identified sources, 18 studies were selected for full data extraction. The studies were conducted in the United States, Canada, and Sweden and varied in methodological quality. Most studies examined case factors with few studies examining other domains. To inform CPS policy and practice, additional research is needed to examine the relationships between decision‐making factors and case outcomes. Greater attention needs to be given to the organizational and external factors that influence decision‐making.

THE INTERVIEW FOR DECISIONAL ABILITIES: DEVELOPING THE EVIDENCE BASE FOR ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES

Adult Protective Services (APS) workers assess clients for abuse and neglect and are asked to determine the client’s understanding of risks they face. Yet, APS workers have little structured training in how to make such judgements. The Interview for Decisional Abilities (IDA 3.0-CA) is a tool designed for use by APS workers to assess the ability of suspected victims of elder mistreatment to make decisions about the risks they face. This study evaluates the impact of training and use of this tool on the knowledge, experiences and ability of APS workers to determine decisional ability. APS workers and supervisors were recruited from central and northern California APS programs and randomized into either control (n=94) or IDA 3.0-CA training groups (n= 95). Baseline surveys measure knowledge of, and experiences with, assessing decisional ability and determining next steps for case management. Additionally, respondents determine the decisional ability of three case scenarios. Three months post-training, controls and trained subjects complete the same survey with a new set of cases. Preliminary results at baseline indicate there were no statistically-significant differences between trained subjects (n=42) and controls (n=50) in their knowledge scores (78.6% correct vs. 81.0%, p=0.6641) or performance assessing decisional ability in the case scenarios (60.1% correct vs. 63.3%, p=0.3497). Reported experiences assessing decisional ability and determining next steps in case management were also similar for trained subjects and controls. Complete results will be presented regarding change in knowledge scores, experiences, and assessing decisional ability in case scenarios compared across trained subjects and controls.

RISKS AND VULNERABILITIES AFFECTING ADVANCED CARE PLANNING FOR OLDER ADULTS INVOLVED IN ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES

Adult protective services (APS) workers regularly engage in advanced care planning (ACP). This qualitative content analysis of 21 APS cases sought to extend knowledge and uncover characteristics that influenced the ACP process and increased vulnerability of older adults in cases of neglect. The case narratives were examined to identify themes of vulnerability and risk related to ACP. Vulnerabilities of the older adults included multimorbidities, geriatric syndromes, and functional limitations. Risks involving caregivers included health problems and cognitive impairment. Caregivers were overwhelmed or lacked insight into the older adults’ needs. Involvement of other family members was detrimental or non-existent while some advocated for improvements where the caregiver refused assistance. Findings support the development of methods of ACP, including the facilitation of difficult conversations, that would respect the autonomy and dignity of the older adult while meeting the multiple needs of caregivers and family members.

Professional and organizational power intertwined: Barriers to networking?

In recent years, the field of child protection has been characterized by the promotion of collaboration and networking initiatives throughout the western world. Using Norway as an example, we address potential barriers to networking by studying how problems are perceived by local child protection service workers and their co-actors. Informed by an institutional logics perspective, this article sheds light on how manifestations of logics take shape on the ground, focusing on their internal differentiation as well as possibilities and barriers to their (re)combination. The Norwegian case is intriguing because it suggests that a specific intertwinement of organizational and professional power might create distinctive barriers to networking. In Norway, “child protection pedagogues” take the position of specialized professionals endowed with both state power and management skills. As risk managers promoting prevention and marketing for reputation, while at the same time claiming professional and bureaucratic authority, these actors seem to take on a “hyper-hybrid” form that is likely to cause irritation and anxiety among their co-actors, resulting in the perception of poor collaboration. Thus, relating our findings to the international literature, we argue that excessively hybrid combinations of institutional logics, based upon different forms of knowledge and power, can entail specific barriers to networking.