Child Welfare

Every year we take a look at the national statistics compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services on the state of childcare across the country. These statistics are used to evaluate whether the risk factors affecting the welfare of America’s children are increasing or diminishing.

Whorl Inside a Loop portrays one of the most creative and effective approaches developed by social workers. The characters in Whorl Inside a Loop, utilize creative arts therapy as an avenue to self-love, accountability, achievement, and freedom. This is “corrections” at its best.

Good Practice | Ethics | Law 

A THORNY ISSUE 

The ethical standards in many areas of social work are still being worked through the legal system. A particularly compelling example of evolving standards concerns social workers’ response to parents’ request to examine their children’s counseling records. At the beginning of the social worker-client relationship, social workers routinely discuss with minor clients and their parents the minors’ right to confidentiality and possible exceptions. Nonetheless, in many cases social workers encounter ethical challenges when parents ask to examine their child’s records because of their curiosity or because of their relevance to legal disputes. 

What's in a Name? 

That Which We Call a Rose 

By Any Other Name 

Would Smell as Sweet 

-William Shakespeare 

I recently conducted a phone interview with the new director of a Child Protective Services program in a state out west. I was surprised at the turn our conversation took. 

Scary Truths About Heroin Addiction

The life of every case worker I know, whether in Substance Abuse, Child Welfare, Mental Health, Emergency Assistance, or Juvenile Justice, has been affected by the new epidemic of heroin addiction. Nobody wants to talk about it, but it is everywhere; and not just among urban street kids or Chinatown's opium dens.

How many of your clients do you know? When case managers are asked this question, their answers might surprise you. Some, of course, say they know all of their clients. Some answer that they know most of their clients. Some, on the other hand, believe that they don't truly know any.

This announcement comes to us from our friends at OJJDP (Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention)