The core of this study is an intensive review of a small sample of Indian foster children, their natural parents, their foster parents and of the services each group receives from a children's aid society. To a considerable extent, this is a test of facts against theoretical knowledge and against common beliefs. It is also an operational study which has been undertaken in response to a specific need, and with the hope of finding some procedures for remedial action. The research material is drawn from thirty-one sets of three kinds of files, and the returns from twenty-four questionnaires which were mailed to the foster parent group with covering letters. Data were also secured from a questionnaire which was pretested in an interview with one foster mother who had several Indian children; from consultations with social workers and other experienced people; and from personal knowledge gained by working with the groups involved. A preliminary review of Indians in British Columbia, historically and currently, throws light on the special problems of Indians here characterized as "marginality", "anomie" and prejudice. The study is, then, directed to three primary questions relating to: (1) planning foster placement for the Indian child; (2) the adequacy of the service offered to the Indian children, their parents and foster parents; and (3) the equipment of the social worker who handles Indian cases. The research also throws light upon eight other related queries, which were formulated in the course of the enquiry. On the basis of the evidence from the aggregate material, a number of procedures are proposed, both for improved service in planning for the Indian foster child, and for helping the agency and its workers who are responsible for his care. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study developed from results obtained in a recent MSW thesis entitled, "Utilization of Manpower at Children’s Aid Society of Vancouver, B.C." by Adams, et. al. (U.B.C. School of Social Work, 1967). In the main, our assignment was to select and rank a wide range of tasks performed by agency staff in the field of child welfare. Using the Adams et. al. recommendation regarding "worker autonomy," we selected a panel of fifteen judges representing the three levels of employment - administrative, supervisory, and line worker, developed an adequate method of judging, and analysed the data. The Adams, et. al. study proved useful in our inquiry in providing clues to the various personal assignments we had set for our project group. The entire project covered a period of less than three months and because of this comparatively short research period, we resorted to simplified techniques of judging. We found a high percentage of agreement among the judges. This not only indicates that the tasks can be differentiated by social workers in the field of child welfare but also that the "forced choice" phase of the judging probably does not adversely affect reliability. Further, we suggested in the Adam's study, it would appear that "worker autonomy” can usefully be used as a criterion in ranking tasks in a child welfare agency. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This thesis deals with the treatment of disturbed children. Beginning with the institutional care of children, it traces developments to the modern conception of foster home placement and the evolution of child guidance clinics. The value of institutional care for emotionally disturbed teenage boys is considered. Three types of residences now in existence in the United States are described for comparison purposes (in an appendix) The principal methods used are (1) case study of six teenage boys and their parents from Vancouver Children's Aid Society files. (2) comparative analysis of the behaviour of the boys prior to and following placement in the Group Residence. The behaviour of the boys at the Residence being assessed from existing group work records. The scope of the thesis is of necessity limited. Very extensive case work and group work records had to be summarized, and the developmental history of six boys together with brief details of parental history are compared. Excerpts from the group records which display the progress of the boys in the Residence are included. The value of all excerpt material is assessed by the researcher, and an attempt is made to indicate the progress made by the boys during their stay at the Group Residence. Some other possible causative factors are discussed, and a brief Resume made of the strengths and limitations of the Residence. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study is part of a survey of all wards of the Children's Aid Society of Vancouver, B.C. who were not in foster homes in 1954. Those in Agency group homes or subsidized boarding homes comprised a group of thirty-nine children, eighteen girls and twenty-one boys, ranging in age from one month to fifteen years. The purpose of the study was to determine some of the reasons for this type of care for children, since the Children's Protection Act requires children be placed in foster homes and puts limitations upon any other type of care. The case records of these children were examined to determine whether or not this type of care was meeting their needs. Further, it examined the existing resources in Vancouver for child care to see if they were adequate to meet the needs of all children in care. From the records for each child certain material has been summarized (appendix) and developed for descriptive use in the text. A detailed summary of case records of four of the children is also used to point out areas that need special attention in any child welfare programme. Many factors in the lives of these children appear to have contributed to a special placement other than foster homes. Each child has come from a home that does not constitute a stable family unit. Many had several foster home placements. The majority came into care before the age of seven years. Group homes are meeting the needs of some, but not all such children. In particular, the needs of disturbed children are not being met as adequately in group homes. The needs of babies do not seem to be best served in subsidized boarding homes which in effect are institutions. In general, there is evidence that community services are not adequate to meet the needs of all children in care in Vancouver. The recommendations include the provision of additional services to meet the needs of children as well as further co-ordination and co-operation between existing resources so that together they may offer better service to children. Additional trained staff are needed. And, finally, the study reinforces the need for further research into child dependency. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Of the 177 wards of the Children's Aid Society between the ages of 6 and 10 years inclusive at the end of 1949, there were 63 who were found to be emotionally disturbed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the facilities available in this community for the diagnosis and treatment of this group of disturbed children. The overall statistical material for the study was obtained as part of a group project, a group of students having co-operated in recording significant data on a card-index schedule for all children aged 6 - 10 in care during that year. When the group of disturbed children was sifted out of the whole, specific cases were then chosen for more detailed study and illustration. Results from the study show there is a great lack of both diagnostic and treatment facilities in this area to deal adequately with this problem. In addition, there is a need to evaluate certain policies and expand certain resources already existing in the Agency to allow increased efficiency in helping these disturbed children. Greater awareness and more concentrated action in the preventive aspects of this problem would eventually help to decrease the number of children handicapped in this way. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study is a comparative analysis of apprehensions and committals made by the Children's Aid Society of Vancouver, British Columbia, in the years 1938 and 1952. Only cases both apprehended and committed within the year period were analyzed, and committals of children from unmarried mothers were excluded. The purpose of the study was to determine the causes or reasons for apprehension and committal, with reference to the legislation employed, and such changes as may have occurred in the kinds of neglect or dependency, their frequency of occurrence, and in the parental status of committed children. A distinction was drawn between conditions of neglect and conditions of dependency, in congruence with formulated definitions of the neglected and the dependent child. A classification of ten conditions of neglect and dependency was devised, based on an analysis of the sixty-eight committal cases studied. The kinds of neglect included: (1) Rejection, (2) Physical Neglect, (3) Moral Neglect, (4) Desertion, (5) Desertion and Moral Neglect, and (6) Desertion and Rejection. Dependency included conditions arising from: (1) Death of the Only Legal Parent or of Both Parents, (2) Physical Illness of Parent or Parents, (3) Mental Illness of Parent or Parents, and (4) Inadequacy of Parent or Parents. Of the twenty-three cases (involving fifty-two children) studied from the year 1938, sixteen committals or 69.59% of the total were for reasons of neglect. Seven committals or 30.41% of the total, were for reasons of dependency. In 1952, of the forty-five cases (comprising seventy-seven children) studied, thirty-two cases, or 71.11% of the total committals were for reasons of neglect. Thirteen committals or 28.88% of the total were for reasons of dependency. The study revealed that the proportion of committals for neglect and for dependency in 1938 and 1952 were approximately the same. The frequency of specific kinds of neglect, however, was found to differ proportionally, as did the frequency of specific kinds of dependency. With reference to status of parents of committed children, it was found that committals from married couples and from families with illegitimacy were greater in 1952, while committals from broken homes or incomplete families were fewer. The changes are revealed and are discussed in reference to the disruptive effects of the war period, and in relation to the development of better social services and resources within the community since 1938. These factors are found to have significantly affected the pattern or character of committals. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study is concerned with protective services for children as they have been developed in the U. S. and Canada over the past eighty years. An effort has been made to discover general trends amidst variety. Canadian developments are compared with those in the U. S., and one agency, the Children's Aid Society of Vancouver, B. C, is reviewed as an example that lends concreteness and meaning to the broader picture. Questions are raised in regard to future operations of the Vancouver society, but are not answered. The history of protective services in the U. S. and the analysis of trends has been developed from an examination of the literature on protection and related topics. Canadian children's aid societies are an integral part of the developing protection movement, and writings of early leaders in the Canadian CAS movement have been consulted. The account of the Vancouver agency has been developed from an examination of various records of the Society, and has relied heavily on a history written by Anne Margaret Angus. Interviews with former executives and board members were another source of information. The writer was employed for three years as a staff member, and this, too, contributed to an understanding of the Society. The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the first social machinery created for purposes of child protection, was organized in 1875. The idea spread rapidly. In the 1890s and early 1900s, Canadian communities began organizing children's aid societies to act as protection agencies. Although trends are similar to those in the U. S., there are some special characteristics. Canadian children's aid societies made extensive use of placement in free family homes while protection agencies in the U. S. were depending almost exclusively on institutional placements. In Canada, from the beginning, there was an integration of protection services with other services in behalf of children that was longer delayed in the U. S. Canadian protection agencies have been given continuing guardianship responsibility when the courts have deprived parents of their children; other patterns have been followed in the U. S. The Children's Aid Society of Vancouver, B. C. is a representative example of Canadian protection agencies. When it was organized in 1901, the protection of children was the primary motivation. Later, as the burden of caring for children increased, the original purposes of child protection were somewhat forgotten. During World War 1 and the early 1920s, as problems multiplied and the quality of care deteriorated, a ferment of new ideas in child welfare was at work. Eventually, difficulties of the Society and disagreements as to its future course contributed to a decision that the community should take a look at itself and its child-caring practices. Thus the B. C. Child Welfare Survey of 1926-27 was brought about. Extensive changes in the functioning of the Vancouver CAS were recommended. During the years from 1927 to 1931, recommendations were carried out and the agency was effectively reorganized. In the succeeding years there has been no radical change in direction or focus - only growth in size and a refinement of practices. Recently questions have been raised regarding the future functions of the Society and future provisions for the protection of children in the Vancouver community. Various changes have been advocated, and a careful consideration of alternative possibilities and of future directions will be needed. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This thesis is a study and analysis of the introduction of group work services to the Boys' Receiving Home of the Children's Aid Society of Vancouver, British Columbia. When the project began, no group work services and no adequate leisure time program were readily available for the boys living in the Home. The current philosophy of institutional care for children, the principles and potentialities of group living, and the concepts of environmental control are outlined. Within this frame of reference, the origin and development of the Boys' Receiving Home is traced, and the experiences and general behavior of the boys are described. The basic function of the group worker and the values of group experiences in this setting are discussed. This purely experimental project, that at first contained many negative elements, showed little initial promise of being very successful. Group process records are analysed to show the gradual process of developing a group work program providing a variety of experiences for the boys, and contributing to the total program of the Receiving Home in other ways. Particular attention is given to three areas: (1) the series of co-ordinated meetings involving (a) the staff of the Receiving Home; (b) the boys themselves as they planned and participated in the leisure time program; (c) the staff of Alexandra Neighbourhood House; (2) the general changes that were brought about in the boys' behaviour; (3) the progress of the boys towards more normal behaviour. Other specific contributions of the project, such as working with the case workers and the house parents are mentioned. The project indicates the need for continuing group work services and a greater variety of modern institutions with a range of social services. Finally, suggestions are made on the most appropriate function for the present Receiving Home, and the role of the Children's Aid Society in developing such new institutions. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate