Why is family preservation important

The following posts, by NA and AG meet these requirements:

Post an explanation of the role of family preservation in child welfare. Then, explain whether research supports the assumption that foster care is harmful for children, as presented by the cornerstone argument for family preservation.

Be sure to include whether you agree with this assumption and why you agree or disagree.

Subsequently, identify the gaps in your state foster care system that contribute to the idea that foster care is harmful to children.

Then, compare the benefits and shortfalls of permanency planning and family preservation.

Finally, provide a description of whether you prefer the permanency or the family preservation approach as a child welfare social worker and why you prefer it.

NA:Top of Form

In child welfare, family preservation is the primary goal. This means that as long as the child as not at risk of injury or death, work should be done with the family to maintain the child in the home to prevent them from being placed in foster care (Popple & Leighninger, 2019). There continues to be an increase in how many children are entering foster care, and foster care was shown to have effects on children. Those who grew up in multiple foster homes were least likely to experience bonding and attachment with a parent, which was found to be an important part of psychosocial development. Children who were removed and put into foster care were more likely to be psychologically distressed (Popple & Leighninger, 2019). I work in child welfare. As someone who has experience seeing children being removed from their parents to children being placed in different foster home, I agree that foster care is detrimental to children. This is why it’s important to not only work with the family, but when the child cannot be kept in the home for safety issues, family should be explored to maintain the child’s connection to their family. Most importantly this also reduces the trauma of being removed from the care of their parents and are usually more able to maintain routines that they had when in the care of their parents, such as being able to attend the same school (Epstein, 2017).

In Pennsylvania, one in four who age out of foster care are homeless, have little to no education or job training, have mental health or substance abuse issues or are arrested (“The facts”, n.d.). That is indicative that foster care is not only not providing permanent homes for youth, but it is also not preparing them adequately for when they do age out. One of the benefits of family preservation over other permanency options is the cost. Every year, about $10,000 per year, per child is spent on foster care. However, family preservation programs come up to $3000 per family, per year (Popple & Leighninger, 2019). The issue with family preservation is that sometimes they are not focusing adequately when planning. Many of the times, plans are based off of threats and not on the strengths of the family, which could cause issues with progress and preventing a reoccurrence of abuse/neglect (Morton, 2016). If family preservation programs are improved, this could possibly lead to less children in foster care and less traumatized children.

References:

Epstein, H. R. (2017). Kinship care is better for children and families. Retrieved fromhttps://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/child_law/resources/child_law_practiceonline/child_law_practice/vol-36/july-aug-2017/kinship-care-is-better-for-children-and-families/

Morton, T. (2016). Retrieved from https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/featured/16584/16584

Popple, P. R., & Leighninger, L. (2019). The policy-based profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for social workers (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

The facts. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.psrfa.org/being-a-foster-parent/the-facts/

AG

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The role of Family preservation is to allow a child who has been neglected or abused to be removed if the situation is seriously harmful to the child.

Foster care in the 1800’s states, “if a child had living parents society [Children’s Aid] made no attempt to work with them so the child could return home”.

It wasn’t until the 1950’s foster care homes began being scrutinized for deficiencies and child abuse.

Today the philosophy is, a child is better with the parents than without.

There were several problems with the foster care system according to Goldstein, Freud, and Solnit (1973) that kept the foster care system in constant scrutiny, one, foster care was not temporary but long- term and two, children were not just placed in one home but several.

In the 1800’s foster care started with the child being with one Family and eventually becoming the foster child’s permanent home. Today, it is temporary until the social worker can find permanency for the child.

Family Preservation allows the social worker to decide if the child is in serious danger or harm. This has a downside. The Family must be “considered a good candidate for Family Preservation and the child must be at risk for placement” (Popple & Leighninger, 2019, p. 217).

In the Hernandez case the allegations toward him were not a danger to the child so the children would not be removed from the home and since the children were not removed from the home Juan would not qualify as a “ good candidate “.

Foster care is now a way for individuals to get paid for housing children through Federal funding allocated to States. Some foster care Families are using children as their commodity.

Case managers in some States may victimize suspected Families of child abuse by reporting inaccurate data because it allows them to receive more benefits.

Federal fiscal incentives towards permanency provided States to receive more money if they could find the child a permanent placement.

The Federal government also pays more for States placing “ hard-to-place children, disabled, older, and minority group members (Popple & Leighninger, 2019).

The benefits of a Family Preservation is services being available 24/7, being short- term, and having sessions conducted in the home. The shortfalls in the traditional Social Services are large case loads, 9- 5 hours of operation, and counseling lasting months and certain cases years( Popple, 2019).

Texas calls its foster care system “ broken” but they are not the only state that can make that claim.

In 2018, in Texas, of the cases that were able to be investigated, 271 cases of child abuse and neglect were investigated, and out of those cases 71 were violations, 10 involved child abuse and neglect, Choke-holds, and restraints(Wallis).

There are probably hundreds more cases but not enough case workers to investigate all of the allegations.

Speaking from personal experience I believe the best interest of the child is what is most important.

Placing a child back with abusive parents or neglectful parents too soon could cause more harm, and not being competent of cultural diversity and removing a child from the home, in the case of the Hernandez Family is more detrimental than placing them in a foster care system.

Reference

Popple, P. R., & Leighninger, L. (2019). The policy-based profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for social workers (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Edwards, H. R., Bryant, D. U., & Bent-Goodley, T. B. (2011). Participation and influence in federal child welfare policymaking. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 5(2/3), 145–166.

Plummer, S. -B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. (Eds.). (2014). Sessions: Case histories. Baltimore: MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

CW:

Post an explanation of the role of family preservation in child welfare. Then, explain whether research supports the assumption that foster care is harmful for children, as presented by the cornerstone argument for family preservation:

Family preservation is available to aid parents in improving their parenting and assist the family in being able to function for the children to be safe. According to Popple and Leighninger (2016), “…family preservation policy seeks to help keep families together but also seeks to protect society from the excessive costs of an escalating foster care population” (p. 286). Removing children from their homes could leave a lasting negative impact on them, therefore the family preservation policy allows them to be safely taken care of with their parents receiving the proper encouragement and services that could ultimately change the lives of their children.

Be sure to include whether you agree with this assumption and why you agree or disagree. Subsequently, identify the gaps in your state foster care system that contribute to the idea that foster care is harmful to children.

According to Biema (1994), “Foster care is intended to protect children from neglect and abuse at the hands of parents and other family members, yet all too often it becomes an equally cruel form of neglect and abuse by the state” (p.144). I agree that foster care can be the state neglecting these children just as their parents had at home. Fortunately, for my state the judges and lawyers in our juvenile courts have been provided published guidelines which are provided by Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Office of Families and Children. This plan is also known as the State of Ohio Child and Family Services Plan 2015-2019. This plan ultimately provides guidance in the areas of child abuse and neglect prevention, family support, and family preservation (Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Office of Families and Children 2014).

Compare the benefits and shortfalls of permanency planning and family preservation. Finally, provide a description of whether you prefer the permanency or the family preservation approach as a child welfare social worker and why you prefer it.

Permanency planning benefits are having the family engaged in the process along with the caseworker’s visits. Shortfalls could potentially be when the family is not involved in the planning then there would not be much to plan for after the children leave out of home care. Benefits for family preservation are improving the parenting of the parents along with aiding the family in being about to function collectively as one. A shortfall could potentially be if the parents/family does not put in the work needs to strive. This could potentially lead to the children being taken. I would say that I would prefer preservation planning because it at least gives the parents a chance to become better parents in order to change the children lives.

References:

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Office of Families and Children (2014), State of Ohio Child and Family Services Plan 2015-2019, retrieved July 10, 2019 from http://jfs.ohio.gov/OFC/CFSP-2015-2019.stm

David Van Biema, "The Storm Over Orphanages," TIME Magazine, 144 (December 12, 1994).

Popple, P. R., & Leighninger, L. (2015). The policy-based profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for social workers. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

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For this assignment we need our responses to meet the following requirements:

Respond by offering an insight for the comparison of benefits and shortfalls of permanency planning and family preservation your colleagues described based on Ohio’s child welfare policies.

Support your response with specific references to the resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.