M.A. / Child migration in society today appears to be escalating at a very high rate. The influx of child migrants has put an enormous strain to social workers in terms of rendering family preservation and reunification services. In most cases families are not available to enable social workers to render family preservation and reunification services. International Social Services (ISS) assist in tracing families of across the border child migrants but the service does not extend beyond reunifying the child with family. There are no monitoring and tracking systems to prevent the child from migrating again. The aim of this study is to identify and describe the challenges faced by social workers in rendering family preservation and reunification services to child migrants. The objectives of the study are as follows: to conduct a literature study on family preservation and reunification services and the child migrant; to determine social workers’ strategies used in family preservation and reunification services to child migrants, and the challenges they are experiencing; to obtain social workers’ views on effective strategies that can be implemented in rendering family preservation and reunification services to child migrants and to make recommendations that will assist social workers in rendering family preservation and reunification services. A qualitative study of two focus groups consisting of 15 social workers each from Department of Social Development Johannesburg Region was conducted. The research findings revealed the need of coming up with strategies for family preservation and reunification services to child migrants. Presently social workers have no strategies but processes only.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Prevention and early-intervention programmes that promote and assist parents in acquiring the skills and knowledge required to parent children effectively, with or without behavioural issues are a crucial to childcare. The Children’s Act, Act 38 of 2005, as well as the South African Constitution declare that the needs of a child are important; therefore, when the parents are equipped with adequate knowledge and skills, prevention of a family breakdown could be achieved. This current research study, therefore, involves an exploration of the experiences of parents, who had participated in parental intervention strategies, in the form of positive parenting skills training.

Worldwide, changes in the family have become more evident. Many of the traditional roles that families used to play are now performed by other institutions, such as schools, churches, a variety of welfare agencies and non-governmental organizations. Families in South Africa are no exception, as many South African families are faced with challenges that have a negative impact on their ability to sustain themselves and their members. The previous Minister of Social Development, Doctor Zola Skweyiya, rightly acknowledged that, in order to address the needs of vulnerable groups in our communities effectively, we need a particular focus on the role of the family, both as a developmental and as a supporting institution. In responding to these challenges, the Department of Social Development developed a new Manual on Family Preservation Services (Department of Social Development, 2008b), with the aim of training social service professionals to deliver family preservation services. In order for the programme envisaged by the developers of the Manual to be implemented efficiently, the Norms and Standards Policy on Developmental Social Welfare Services (Department of Social Development, 2007a:52-57) mandates the roll-out of the training and education by all provinces. Thus all social service professionals are mandated to implement family preservation services as stipulated by the Norms and Standards Policy on Developmental Social Welfare Services (Department of Social Development, 2007a) and the Draft National Family Policy (Department of Social Development, 2008a). In her role as one of the trainers on family preservation services who was also responsible for monitoring and evaluating these services in the provinces, the researcher observed the inadequacy and inconsistency of the concept of family preservation services in reporting among social service professionals despite the training and capacity-building carried out by the Department of Social Development. The researcher therefore investigated, first, whether the formulation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services lacks clarity relating to the theoretical framework and operational definition of key concepts which are supposed to assist social service professionals in rendering effective family preservation services. Second, she interviewed 20 social workers regarding their experiences on the formulation and implementation of the Manual. This is a small sample in terms of representing social workers in the country. In total, 37 social workers were originally interviewed, but, because it transpired that they had never attended any training on the Manual for Family Preservation Services, their data were excluded from the empirical study, even though they are implementing these services. The researcher was therefore interested in analysing the formulation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services and also analysed the experiences of social workers regarding the formulation and implementation of the Manual, with the aim of identifying gaps and improving service delivery to families. The researcher reviewed prior literature on systems theory, which is fundamental in addressing family dynamics, the family life cycle and its stages. She also considered literature on family preservation services on four levels of service delivery, the stages of the policy cycle and the overview of the Draft National Family Policy, as well as the Manual of Family Preservation Services. In this study, the researcher adopted an explanatory design, which is a form of mixed methods research. The overall purpose of an explanatory design is to gather qualitative data that help to explain or build upon initial quantitative results from the first phase of the study. In order to collect quantitative data, the researcher used a checklist for a content analysis of the formulation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services. She then conducted semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data about social workers’ experiences regarding the formulation and implementation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services in eight provinces. The researcher did a pilot test of the semi-structured interview schedule, which helped her to refine two questions that were understood differently by the two social workers who participated in the pilot test. After latent coding, the quantitative data were analysed manually, while the qualitative data were coded according to Creswell’s model for qualitative data analysis. The quantitative empirical results revealed some limitations in the formulation of the Manual on Family Preservation Services. Such limitations include an unclear definition of the concept of family preservation services, the omission of objectives from the Manual, confusion with regard to the theoretical frameworks applied, a lack of clarity on the role of volunteers, the process of providing training and capacity-building to social service professionals, monitoring and evaluation plan. These findings were confirmed by the social workers who were interviewed. They exposed the confusion that exists on the definition of family preservation services, the objectives, the theoretical frameworks, the role of volunteers, high case-loads, which they linked to a shortage of social workers and the fact that resources, training and capacity-building on family preservation services are not prioritized. It was therefore recommended that the issues highlighted above be addressed and be included in a revised Manual, and that relevant material also be provided to social service professionals who need to implement family preservation services. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / tm2015 / Social Work and Criminology / DPhil / Unrestricted

No description available.

TITTLE: Risk behaviour and leisure activities for children before they are placed in Children's home ABSTRACT: Thesis Risk behavior and leisure activities for children they are placed in children's home is oriented on the factors that influence spending time children before they are placed in a children's home and how spend children their time. In the theoretical part of my work dealing with the substitute family care and family preservation. The chaps risk behaviour and leisure time are fundamental. Where I try to focus specific These two parts with regard to children before placed in childrens home. The practical part of this work was founded of visits two childrens homes. Where I studied documentation and did twenty-six interviews with children. The main part is devoted to the presentation of the obtained results, so how children spend their time before they are placed in a children's home. The results are analyzed and possible solutions and recommendations for working with children and families in family preservation.

Sammanfattning Nyckelgården är ett HVB-hem med inriktning på behandling av föräldrar och barn. Den primära anledningen till att familjer placeras är omsorgsbrist hos föräldrarna. Detta innebär vanligen föräldrarnas svårigheter att kontrollera sina egna känslor och frustrationer, vilket har lett till en oförmåga att prioritera barnens känslomässiga behov. Nyckelgården erbjuder kvalificerad behandling i förälder-barnrelationen och arbetar även med svårigheter knutna till självutveckling, social kompetens och nätverk. Syftet med vår studie var att utvärdera Nyckelgården för att arbetet där ska kunna utvecklas och förbättras. Vi har genomgående utgått från ett brukarperspektiv för att förmedla tidigare klienters upplevelse av sin vistelse på behandlingshemmet. De frågeställningar som konkretiserar vårt syfte är; Hur har tidigare klienter upplevt bemötande och möjlighet till delaktighet under sin vistelse på behandlingshemmet? Har tidigare klienter upplevt någon form av förändring i sin livssituation till följd av familjebehandlingen? Vad upplevde tidigare klienter som mest givande under behandlingstiden och vad behöver förbättras? För att uppnå syftet med studien har vi genom kvalitativ metod genomfört intervjuer med fem av Nyckelgårdens tidigare klienter. Resultatet av intervjuerna har analyserats utifrån två teorier; Aaron Antonovsky’s teori om KASAM samt John Bolwby’s anknytningsteori, vilken Kari Killén utgår ifrån i sitt resonemang om professionell-klient relationen. Utvärderingen visar att respondenterna har upplevt delaktighet under sin behandling och att detta i flertalet fall har bidragit till motivation under behandlingsprocessen. Vidare visar resultatet att personalens förmåga att lyssna och visa empati upplevs som viktigt för respondenterna. Det mest givande med behandlingen upplevdes vara att de fick verktyg i form av kunskap för att bättre hantera sin föräldraroll samt hjälp till självhjälp i sin övriga livssituation. Majoriteten av respondenterna uttryckte att de upplevt positiva förändringar till följd av Nyckelgårdens behandling i form av mer fungerande relation och bättre samspel med sina barn. Vår slutsats av resultatet är att Nyckelgården är en väl fungerande verksamhet och att personalen fortsatt bör reflektera över sin förmåga att lyssna, visa empati samt bekräfta klienter i sin föräldraroll. / Abstract Nyckelgården is a treatment home that focuses on family preservation. The primary reason for placing families is care shortage from the parents. This means that parents display difficulties controlling their emotions and frustrations, which have led to an inability to prioritize the emotional needs of the children. Nyckelgården offers qualified treatment of the parent-child relationship and also work with difficulties regarding self-development, social abilities and social networks. The aim of our study was to evaluate Nyckelgården in order to develop and evaluate their work. Throughout our evaluation we originated from a client’s perspective in order to convey former clients experience of their time spent at the treatment home. The questions of issue have been; how have former clients experienced refutation and ability to participate during their stay at the treatment home? Have former clients experienced any kind of change in their life situation related to the family treatment? What did former clients experience to be most rewarding about their stay and what is in need of improvement? In order to attain the aim of the study we have trough qualitative method performed five interviews with former clients of Nyckelgården. The result of the interviews have been analyzed with the help of two theories; Aaron Antonovsky and his theory of KASAM and John Bolwby’s theory of attachment from which Kari Killén have discussed professional- client relationships. The evaluation show that the respondents have experienced participation during their treatment and that in many cases this has led to improved motivation during the treatment process. Further, the result show that professional ́s ability to listen and display empathy proved important to the respondents. Most rewarding in relation to treatment was receiving tools in terms of knowledge to better deal with the parenting role and to experience a sense of empowerment. The majority of the respondents expressed that they experienced positive changes in relation to their treatment at Nyckelgården as well as improved interaction with their children. Our conclusion is that Nyckelgården is a well-functioning organization and that the professionals continuously should reflect on their ability to listen, display empathy and acknowledge clients in regards to their parenting role.

The changeover of the South African government in 1994, brought along a need for transformation on all levels of society, including social welfare. As part of this transformation the South African government adopted the developmental approach to social welfare. Within this policy framework the government expects all social welfare services to be developmental. Existing services, including statutory social work services, should thus be reoriented to make them developmentally focused (White Paper for Social Welfare, 1997:7). The researcher has, however, identified a lack of clear guidelines for the transformation process of social welfare services and particularly of statutory social work. The goal of this study was therefore to investigate how statutory social work services can be rendered in a developmental manner, that is, in an empowering and upbuilding manner, and to formulate guidelines for social work practice in this regard. For this study, the researcher utilised the qualitative approach. The respondents included were seven social workers and six clients in the study as respondents, representing five welfare organisations in Tshwane. The key findings indicated that the developmental approach to statutory social work entails an emphasis on family preservation, which implies prevention and early intervention as well as reunification strategies. The findings also indicate that, although social workers are aware of what the developmental approach entails, this emphasis currently does not exist in practice due to various reasons, including the fact that social workers are overburdened and under-resourced. The recommendations of this study are captured in guidelines for developmental statutory social work and guidelines for creating an enabling environment for statutory social work services. The guidelines for developmental statutory social work include various strategies for prevention and early intervention, while the guidelines for creating an enabling environment especially emphasise creating working partnerships with the government and other professionals and organisations. / Dissertation (MSD)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

Family preservation services are intended to prevent the out-of-home placement (into foster care or some other alternative arrangement) of children and youth in families at risk of maltreating them. An Ecological Systems perspective of these families might suggest that a family’s context (represented by the variables of poverty, agency services, family history, and individual/caretaker characteristics) must be considered as an over-arching influence in families’ risk and outcomes. The purpose of this cross-sectional secondary data analysis study was to identify layered factors that distinguish family preservation cases in Richmond, VA that experience removal or subsequent abuse or neglect from those that do not, in order to make recommendations about how services can be better directed to support families in caring for their children and youth. Using Hierarchical Discriminant Function Analysis, this research project evaluated the “predictive” values of the external conditions and internal characteristics of family recipients of the Richmond, Virginia Department of Social Services corollary to family preservation services on the outcomes of (a) successful case closure, (b) out-of-home placement during services, and (c) child maltreatment after case closure. Contextual factors (poverty), Agency factors (number of services and ratio of concrete services), Family factors (history of placement, chronicity of maltreatment, abuse risk score, and neglect risk score), and Individual/Caretaker factors (caretaker substance abuse, caretaker mental health, and family structure) were investigated. The findings of this study showed that poverty, agency characteristics, and family characteristics each directly explained substantial amounts of variance among the outcomes and that poverty, provision of concrete services, and a family history of foster care placement best distinguished among families experiencing these different outcomes. These findings highlight the need of family preservation programming to directly address conditions of poverty in abuse and neglect risk, and suggest that the services provided to the families need better targeting to families’ needs. Recommendations based on this study include the development of a theory-based, local-evidence-based model of services for family preservation services at the agency for which the research was conducted.

This thesis aims to analyze the activity of officers in charge of youth in risk with children, which for various reasons were given into the care facility for institutional or protective care. The thesis closely specifies the officers in charge of youth in risk in the social and legal protection of children and the clientele to which its activities are focused. In the third chapter are described steps that may be of interest to protect the rights and interests of the child adopted. The following three chapters are devoted to institute of institutional and protective care - reasons which may be resorted to these measures, what competences and duties belong to the officers in charge of youth in risk and how are the termination or withdrawal of the measure. A separate chapter is devoted to the theme of family preservation, as a process that supports the functioning of the family. In some cases is demonstrated what specific procedures officers in charge of youth in risk in Usti nad Labem in solving educational problems of children benefiting.

It is costly to train the counselors who serve in intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS). The hiring agency must pay for traveling expenses in addition to any fee paid for training. When an IFPS worker chooses to terminate employment before the end of two years of employment, this puts a strain on an already tight budget. This problem could be alleviated by finding an efficient pre-hire screening instrument. The three personality traits described in Hardiness Theory literature: commitment, challenge, and control, are traits often used to describe the ideal IFPS worker. This study assessed IFPS workers to determine if the competent IFPS worker possessed these traits and to discover if they are satisfied with their work, and not suffering from symptoms of burnout. Twenty null hypotheses were formulated. Fifty-eight specialists from the Tennessee Home Ties programs completed: (a) a demographic survey; (b) the Personal Views Survey to measure Hardiness; (c) the Maslach Burnout Inventory; and (d) the Job In General scale to measure job satisfaction. Supervisors provided a copy of the Therapist Evaluation Form to measure employee competence. Eight specialists and three directors participated in additional telephone interviews. The Pearson product-moment coefficient of correlation statistic was used to determine statistically significant relationships between pairs of research variables. Nineteen of the 20 null hypotheses were rejected. The results of the study support the existence of a relationship between hardiness and competence, burnout, and job satisfaction. Pearson product-moment correlations were obtained to ascertain if a statistically significant relationship existed between any of the research variables and the demographic variables. Weak positive relationships were found between age and competence and between years of service and competence.