Burnout among child welfare social workers negatively affects social workers and the social welfare system. The purpose of this action research study was to explore what child welfare social workers do to alleviate burnout. The practice-focused research questions for this study center on two elements: (a) the experiences of burnout among child welfare social workers employed by the Department of Family and Children services in the southeastern region of the United States and (b) the social work practices used to alleviate burnout. The conceptual framework for this study was the Maslach theory on burnout. Action research study procedures were used to facilitate analysis of the research problem. Data were collected using semistructured questions administered to 6 child welfare social workers in a focus group. The selection criteria for the child welfare social workers were social workers who work for the department of children and family services for at least 6 months. The data were transcribed verbatim from an audio recording. Codes were assigned to the data and reliability checks were conducted. The themes that emerged from analysis of the data included workload, lack of influence on the job, lack of rewards on the job, negative social interaction, and value differences in individuals and their jobs. The findings of this study might contribute to positive social change by enhancing awareness regarding burnout in child welfare social workers and providing an opportunity for child welfare social workers and child welfare agencies to learn how to address causes of burnout in child welfare social workers in the southeastern United States.

The outcomes of a child protection/family support programme, the Cottage Community Care Pilot Project, were evaluated in this study. The evaluation employed a non-equivalent comparison group design of 'at risk' consenting first-time mothers in the perinatal period with babies up to 6 weeks of age. Ninety-three families were recruited and 58 of these were matched with a trained volunteer home visitor. Analysis of assessment items and questionnaires, reviews of hospital records and the Department of Community Services Child abuse and neglect notification register and focus groups with mothers and volunteers provided the information used in this study. The CCCP had an impact on particular aspects of family function, certain infant and maternal health indices and the families' use of community services, but its contribution to reducing the incidence of child abuse and neglect is less clear. Client and volunteer feedback indicated support for the programme. While home visitation by trained volunteers is not proposed as the total answer for effective child protection or family support, the findings of this evaluation suggest that there is a place for similar programmes. / Master of Science (Hons)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / After two decades of public management reform, the ‘new accountability’ of performance measurement is a routine feature in the relationships between Australian government agencies and the non-profit organisations they fund to provide child and family services. While performance measurement offers to resolve tensions about how governments manage the quality and productivity of contracted services, the indicators they commonly adopt raise well-documented practical, political and epistemological challenges in social services. Left unresolved, these challenges risk biasing representations of service performance, by emphasising the most tangible dimensions of service activities (such as measures of client throughput) over relationship building and care. Capturing only part of service activity compromises the usefulness of performance data for managing quality and outcomes, and denies policy makers critical information about the value and meaning of care in users’ lives. This thesis identifies and critically explores one set of challenges for performance measurement: the role of service users. Uniquely, I explore how user involvement in social service evaluation can make visible how these services enhance the quality of family and personal life. Using a case study of family support services in New South Wales, the research makes a series of empirical and theoretical contributions to problems of user involvement in social service evaluation. Firstly, the research examines the performance indicators currently used by government to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of family support services in NSW. This shows that performance indicators in family support capture output more thoroughly than outcome, and confirms the minimal role that service users play in assessing service quality and outcomes. But while service users are largely excluded from participation in performance measurement, theoretical perspectives as diverse as managerialism and feminism treat service users as well placed to capture and report otherwise elusive information about care quality and outcomes. Further, participation in evaluation facilitates the exercise of users’ rights to self-expression and self-determination in the social service delivery and policy process. After identifying the widespread exclusion of service users’ perspectives from performance measurement in NSW family support, the thesis makes its more substantial contribution, in documenting findings from a detailed study involving adult family support service users (parents) and their workers (the ‘Burnside Study’). This qualitative study was conducted in four socio-economically disadvantaged service delivery sites located around New South Wales. Using focus group, interview and observational methods and a modified grounded theory approach, the study contributes exploratory evidence of what these service users think of, and how they think about service quality, outcomes, and evaluation in family support. The parents’ accounts of using family support capture their unfulfilled social ideals and the broader visions of the justice they hoped these social services would help them achieve. Their criteria for measuring service outcomes and service quality, and their views on evaluation methods embody core themes that social theorists have struggled to analyse, about the purpose of social services and the nature of ‘a good life’. The theoretical framework I develop highlights the role of family support in the context of service users’ struggles for social justice, and in particular, their struggles for self-realisation, recognition and respect (Honneth, 1995). The research extends theories of recognition beyond publicly articulated social movements to those struggles in social life and social politics that exist in what Axel Honneth terms the ‘shadows’ of the political-public sphere (2003a: 122). After establishing a conceptual framework that facilitates deeper interpretation of users’ perspectives, I present the findings in three categories: users’ perspectives on service outcomes; users’ perspectives on service quality; and users’ perspectives on evaluation methods. The findings show how service users define ‘service outcomes’ in the context of their struggles for recognition and respect, highlighting the contribution welfare services and welfare professionals make beyond the managerial ‘Three E’s’ of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. Further, the findings confirm the importance of ‘helping relationships’ to the quality of service delivery in family support, despite the invisibility of service relationships in existing performance indicators. The complexity of worker-client bonds highlights the difficulty of evaluating social services using simple numerical counts of client or service episodes, and plays into broader debates about strategies for revaluing care work, and the role of care recipients. Finally, the findings show the role performance measurement processes and methods might play in facilitating users’ struggles for recognition. Users identified a role for evaluation in making visible the contribution of family support in pursuing their social justice goals, and saw evaluation as an opportunity in itself to facilitate recognition and respect. Overall, the thesis offers concrete evidence about how family support service users experience and define service quality and outcomes, and how they see their own role in evaluating the services they use. The research shows how users’ perspectives both contest and confirm the ‘new accountability’ of performance measurement, pointing to new directions, and further challenges, for conceptualising – and evaluating – social services.

The dissertation presents the argument that the formal training of a professional social worker is relevant but not equivalent to the training needs of a professional manager in the social work field. Social work professionals as managers do not, without management training, have the same credibility and/or skills as professional managers of social work. Within the general topic of welfare, research is first directed to the Australian welfare experience in its historic sense. Selecting relevant philosophical and ideological frameworks the writer a) critically explores traditional and contemporary theories, with special reference being made to bureaucracy, organization, and management; b) investigates theories and practices of social workers and social work managers to ascertain their relevance to contemporary Australian society, using the A.C.T. Family Services Branch as an example of a social welfare agency. This assists in explaining the context, functions and obligations of a welfare agency, as it responds to the needs of the community and of the staff it employs.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 12, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This study utilized a qualitative approach to explore how Healthy Start home visiting services affect participants' parenting and lives in general. The purpose of this study was to explore both the intended and unintended outcomes of Healthy Start, using the theory of transformative learning. This theory postulates that through education individuals examine their thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. This self-examination results in changes in self-perception that can impact lives in many unexpected ways. Through interviews with 20 families, who had participated in Healthy Start for at least 6 months, families reported both anticipated and unanticipated changes in their lives. It was found that Healthy Start influences a variety of positive outcomes for families. Previous quantitative findings were supported. According to the parents interviewed, Healthy Start is achieving its intended outcomes and goals. Parents reported greater ability to access health care services, improvements in their home learning environment, and improved interactions with their child. Parents also indicated increased knowledge of child development and community resources. Findings also provided support for the occurrence of transformative learning. Interviewed parents indicated that their involvement with Healthy Start impacted more than just their parenting. Through a supportive relationship and goal setting, the participants were able to reach beyond basic parent education. The interviews suggest that the mechanism for transformative learning lies in the supportive, non-threatening relationship that develops between parent and home visitor. This supportive relationship, in addition to guided goals setting, enhances a parent's feelings of self-efficacy and increases their ability to make life changes and persist in the face of challenges. Parents reported improved relationships with others, increased feelings of confidence, and the ability to accomplish otherwise unattainable things. / Graduation date: 2002

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Donald G. Unger, Dept. of Individual & Family Studies. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-199). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 80-90.

Thesis (M.S.N.)--Gonzaga University, 2002. / Oral presentation for NURS 681P.