Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses.

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As the number of Indigenous children and youth in the care of Manitoba child welfare steadily increases, so do the questions and public debates. The loss of children from Indigenous communities due to residential schools and later on, to child welfare, has been occurring for well over a century and Indigenous people have been continuously grieving and protesting this forced removal of their children. In 1999, when the Manitoba government announced their intention to work with Indigenous peoples to expand off-reserve child welfare jurisdiction for First Nations, establish a provincial Métis mandate and restructure the existing child care system through legislative and other changes, Indigenous people across the province celebrated it as an opportunity for meaningful change for families and communities. The restructuring was to be accomplished through the Aboriginal Justice Initiative-Child Welfare Initiative (AJI-CWI). Undoubtedly, more than a decade later, many changes have been made to the child welfare system but children are still been taken into care at even higher rates than before the changes brought about by the AJI-CWI. In order to develop an understanding of what has occurred as a result of the AJI-CWI process, this study reached out to child welfare workers who had worked in the system before, during and after the process was put in place. Using a storytelling approach based in an Indigenous methodology, twenty-seven child welfare workers shared how they perceived the benefits, the deficits, the need for improvement and how they observed the role of Indigenous culture within the child welfare context. The stories provide a unique insight into how the changes were implemented and how the storytellers experienced the process, as well as their insights into barriers, disappointments, benefits and recommendations for systemic change. / Graduate

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 77-80.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University, 1996. / Abstract precedes thesis as [4] preliminary leaves. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2936. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-83).

Clients involved with child protection systems due to issues of neglect are known to have multiple needs. The issues that they confront are personal, situational, and social in nature. The emphasis on risk reduction in many jurisdictions within North America has meant that needs have been given less priority. The aim of the exploratory study was to gain a better understanding of both the nature of needs and risks in cases of child neglect in Ontario, as well as the similarities and differences in the views of clients and child protection workers. It is posited that through the acquisition of knowledge in those areas, that improvements can be made in assessing and planning, in creating agreed upon expectations about the objectives of intervention, and in developing a better balance between the addressing of needs and risks. / For the study, an instrument was designed to measure client perceptions of their problems and needs. It was compared with workers' perceptions of risk as contained in the risk assessment instrument completed by all child protection workers in Ontario. The Client Perception of Problems and Needs Scale was administered to 77 parents receiving services from Family and Children's Services of Renfrew County due to concerns about child neglect. / The finding that participants felt their needs were greatest in dealing with issues of stress, child behaviour and mental health issues, and in coping with socio-economic disadvantage was congruent with the few studies that have been conducted on the perceptions of child protection clients about their needs and problems. The analysis of the risk assessment data provided evidence that reliance on risk reduction at the expense of needs-based approaches, is not warranted. Few similarities were found in the perceptions of clients and workers about the issues of greatest concern. However, it was surprising that few concerns emerged about the clients' living conditions, or the affective interaction between clients and their children. Finally, the study demonstrated that the participants were able to recognize their problems, used various coping strategies for dealing with them, and were able to articulate strengths and resources on which they relied.

Stress and burnout have received a great deal of attention in the child welfare field. This has been due to such issues as the high workload, the complexity of the cases, working with resistant and at times violent clients and the negative work environment of the youth protection agency. These factors have a detrimental effect on the worker's personal and professional resources and undermine the healthy functioning of the agency, all of which ultimately affects best practice with clients. One way in which child welfare organizations could make an effort towards reclaiming clinical practice is to engage in training for its workforce. Training can benefit practitioners by improving their skills and knowledge and this can lead to greater job satisfaction. Agency functioning is improved by having a trained workforce as well as social workers who are knowledgeable regarding agency policies, values and models of intervention. Children and families ultimately benefit by working with practitioners who are equipped with the appropriate skills. These benefits for workers, clients and the agency cannot materialize unless barriers are removed and changes within the agency take place in order to support the effective transfer of knowledge and training.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1932. / At head of title: The Catholic University of America. "Biographical items." Bibliography: p. 157-163.

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1941.