May 2005Vol. 6, No. 4Print issueSpotlight on National Foster Care Month

Hispanic Americans, African-Americans, and White Americans generally agree about what constitutes child sexual abuse and the circumstances under which it should be reported, according to a recent study. Researchers who investigated whether the three largest ethnic populations in the United States would agree on the definitions found differences only at the lowest levels of severity. In those cases, Hispanic Americans and African-Americans were more likely to recognize or report child sexual abuse than were White Americans.

Researchers surveyed 179 adults enrolled in college classes to determine their responses to the Child Sexual Abuse Evaluation questionnaire, as well as a demographic questionnaire. The sexual abuse questionnaire included vignettes designed to represent different levels of abuse severity and different legal categories of abuse as defined by State (Indiana) law. While ethnicity emerged as a variable for one vignette involving less severe abuse, the only other variable that attained significance was gender. Results indicated that females may be more likely than males to interpret inappropriate sexual behaviors by males as wrong, criminal, or reportable, especially in cases in which there is a small age difference between the male perpetrator and the female victim.

Based on their results, the authors of this study suggest that clinicians who work with child victims of sexual abuse can generally assume that clients of different ethnic groups perceive and respond to child sexual abuse similarly, from both a moral and a legal stance. Clinical implications of this study are explored, as are research implications.

The study is described in a recent article, "Do American Ethnic Cultures Differ in Their Definitions of Child Sexual Abuse?" by W. Lowe, Jr., T. W. Pavkov, G. M. Casanova, and J. L. Wetchler. The article was published in the February 2005 issue of the American Journal of Family Therapy and is available for a fee at www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/uaft/2005/00000033/00000002/art00004.

A recent survey found State child welfare agencies continue to be plagued by workforce issues that include high turnover, low compensation, demanding workloads, and limited resources. Despite these shortcomings, many State agencies have begun to implement creative recruitment and retention strategies, as well as to focus on strategies that address preventable turnover.

The survey was conducted in the summer of 2004 by the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), Fostering Results, and the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research, with funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Surveys, which focused on case-carrying child welfare workers, were completed by child welfare administrators in 42 States. Administrators provided information on salaries, education, training, caseloads, hiring, turnover, recruitment, and retention.

Many of the findings could be compared with those from a similar survey conducted in 2000. Results show:

• The vacancy rate improved slightly for child protective services (CPS) workers (from 9.3 percent in 2000 to 8.5 percent in 2004), but vacancies stayed open longer.
• Turnover rates rose during the period (from 19.9 percent in 2000 to 22.1 percent in 2004 for CPS workers).
• While salaries increased, they did not keep pace with the cost of living, nor were they as high as the salaries of other public and private service workers, such as teachers, firefighters, and nurses.
• Respondents listed budget constraints as the top factor contributing to recruitment and preventable turnover.
• Preventable problems found to cause staff to leave included workloads and caseloads that were too demanding, interference of work with their personal lives, and insufficient resources for client families and children.

The survey also asked about strategies that administrators used to recruit new child welfare workers. The three most effective strategies were:

• Partnerships with universities or stipends for students
• Job announcements on websites
• Early and aggressive recruiting at social work schools

In addition, administrators rated strategies for retaining workers. According to the survey results, the five most effective were:

• Increased and improved inservice training
• Increased educational opportunities
• Increased and improved orientation and preservice training
• Available technology such as laptops and cell phones
• Improved professional culture throughout the agency

The full Report From the 2004 Child Welfare Workforce Survey is available on the APHSA website at www.aphsa.org/Home/Doc/Workforce%20Report%202005.pdf (Editor's note: Link no longer active).

Related Items

A recent article in the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment found that exposure to public child welfare agencies increased masters of social work (M.S.W.) students' interest in pursuing careers with those agencies. This was found to be a more significant predictive influence on students' decisions than a number of sociodemographic factors, including gender, age, and socioeconomic background. The findings are based on survey data from 5,793 students in accredited M.S.W. programs in California between 1992 and 1998. The study is titled "Factors Influencing M.S.W. Students' Interest in Public Child Welfare," by researcher R. Perry, and it can be accessed at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J137v10n02_01#.

Read more about the child welfare workforce in previous issues of Children's Bureau Express:

• "Online Resource for Child Welfare Training" (February 2005)
• "Addressing the Staffing Crisis in Child and Family Services" (June 2004)
• "Meeting the Challenge: Recruiting and Retaining Quality Staff" (August 2003)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities have produced a toolkit to help parents learn about the milestones in their children's growth, from birth to age 5 years, as well as developmental delays and other disabilities. The "Learn the Signs. Act Early" campaign and toolkit are designed to help parents recognize any delays so that their children can be screened and receive early treatment, if necessary.

Available in both English and Spanish, the toolkit includes an informational card on developmental milestones, a growth chart, and a series of factsheets on milestones and developmental and behavioral delays. These materials can be downloaded from the website or ordered in bulk. In addition, the "Learn the Signs. Act Early" website has an interactive tool for parents and information for health providers on becoming involved with the campaign. Visit the site at http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/index.html.

When families experience child maltreatment and domestic violence, child welfare agencies, domestic violence service providers, and dependency courts typically respond to individual victims in isolation. The Greenbook initiative, however, provides communities with guidelines and recommendations that focus on collaboration among these three entities to address these problems in a systemic way.

Federal funding was provided to six communities to implement the Greenbook recommendations. Now at the halfway point of the 5-year funding cycle, the Greenbook National Evaluation Team has published an interim report on the demonstration initiative. The participating communities have identified activities that both promote collaboration among agencies and treat the entire family, not just individual victims. These include:

• Strengthening collaborations through activities such as cross-training
• Identifying co-occurring issues
• Sharing information among agencies and courts
• Ensuring batterer accountability
• Improving access to services, including multidisciplinary case planning
• Improving advocacy, including co-located advocates in multiple systems

Interim results showed that systems changes were occurring in several areas. For instance, child welfare agencies were beginning to implement new screening procedures that allowed them to screen for domestic violence. To further their advocacy efforts, some communities had begun to work on changing State-level policies. Overall, staff at all levels reported that the changes had raised community awareness about child maltreatment and domestic violence, and staff were beginning to think about their cases in the context of all family members and all family strengths and needs.

The next phase of the project will focus on quantitative evaluations to determine system changes. It is expected that such changes will result in improved safety and well-being for children and families.

The full interim report, The Greenbook Demonstation Initiative: Interim Evaluation Report, was prepared by the Greenbook National Evaluation Team (Caliber Associates, Education Development Center, Inc., and the National Center for State Courts) and funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Justice. The report is available at www.thegreenbook.info/documents/Greenbook_Interim_Evaluation_Report_2_05.pdf (PDF 2.36 MB).

On March 30 and 31, Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, M.D., F.A.C.S., held a workshop in Washington, DC, to discuss defining and achieving a public health approach to preventing child maltreatment. The event included a cross-cutting list of participants representing medicine, public health, interchange development, social services, child welfare, academia, education, law enforcement, the faith-based community, juvenile justice, foundations, communications, mental health, and government.

An archived webcast of the conference, "Making Prevention of Child Maltreatment a National Priority: Implementing Innovations of a Public Health Approach," is available on the National Institutes of Health website at http://videocast.nih.gov/PastEvents.asp?c=1. (Editor's note: This link is no longer active. To view a description of the conference proceedings, visit http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK47486/.)

In 1997, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) convened the Task Force on Health Care for Children in Foster Care to address the unique and complex health care needs of this population. The practice standards developed by this committee were published in Fostering Health: Health Care for Children and Adolescents in Foster Care, which has just been released in a second edition. These standards of care are designed to be used by health care professionals, foster parents, child welfare agencies, the courts and legal community, and policymakers.

Fostering Health provides practice parameters for primary health care, developmental and mental health care, and child abuse and neglect. These practice parameters identify events, timeframes, professionals involved, and necessary procedures. Other chapters of the book cover health care management, medical consents, confidentiality, qualifications of health care professionals, assessment and improvement, and health care financing.

Fostering Health is published by AAP (District II, New York State) and is available for purchase from its website at http://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/healthy-foster-care-america/Pages/Fostering-Health.aspx.

The National Association of Youth Service Consultants (NAYSC) serves as an information resource that links agencies and organizations in need of technical assistance with youth-focused consulting services. The NAYSC website hosts a searchable directory of consultants, trainers, speakers, and technical assistance providers. NAYSC funding notices cover city, State, regional, and national funding opportunities from across the country. To access the many resources of the NAYSC, visit its website at www.naysc.org (Editor's note: Link no longer active).

A Spanish version of the popular www.adoptuskids.org website is now available. The site, www.adopte1.org, was launched Wednesday, April 20, and includes Spanish-language information about the adoption process and children in the foster care system who are waiting for permanent families. (Editor's note, www.adopte1.org is no longer active. To veiw AdoptUSKids Spanish resources, visit http://www.adoptuskids.org/para-familias.) For more about the public service advertising campaign to publicize the site and increase awareness about adoption among Latino families, see "ACF Launches Spanish-Language Adoption Recruitment Campaign" in this issue.

Cultural competency and multicultural approaches in child welfare are the focus of a new book, Child Abuse and Culture: Working With Diverse Families, by L. A. Fontes. This book is designed to help child welfare workers develop a multicultural approach to helping their client families by confronting their own prejudices, overcoming language and culture barriers, respecting families' values while ensuring children's safety, and creating an agency environment that is welcoming to all.

Chapters address:

• Developing a multicultural orientation
• Working with immigrant families affected by child maltreatment
• Assessing diverse families for child maltreatment
• Interviewing diverse families
• Physical discipline and abuse
• Child sexual abuse
• Working with interpreters
• Child maltreatment prevention and parent education
• Improving cultural competency of an agency

Each chapter concludes with a set of questions for reflection and discussion, so that the book may serve not only as a reference for social workers and therapists, but also as a supplementary text for trainees and students. In addition, the book includes a number of case examples to illustrate commonly encountered challenges and ways to deal with them.

The book, published by Guilford Press, is available on the publisher's website at www.guilford.com.

Related Items

Read more about culturally competent child welfare practice in previous issues of Children's Bureau Express:

• "Cultural Competence Training" (February 2005)
• "Culturally Competent Practice with Urban Indian Children and Families" (December 2003/January 2004)
• "Interviewing Immigrant Children About Maltreatment" (September/October 2001)

Groundspring.org's Internet Academy offers a series of online fundraising courses titled "Building the eNonprofit." The series covers the following topics:

• What Is Online Fundraising?
• Organizational Capacity & Online Fundraising
• Creating an Effective Website
• Driving Traffic to Your Site
• Online Donation Processing
• Email Communications Program
• Introduction to Data Integration
• Creating a Successful Internet Strategy & Online Campaign

Each session is offered monthly, January through November, and is 90 or 120 minutes long. A single session costs between $49 and $59, or $314 for a series covering all eight topics. Members receive a discount. For more information on courses and registration, go to the Groundspring.org website at www.groundspring.org/training/online_training.cfm (Editor's note: Link no longer active).

Recently, more attention has been paid to understanding and improving the interaction of systems that become involved with a child immediately following maltreatment (e.g., child protective and law enforcement systems). However, less is known about how systems that become involved with these children later, including mental health agencies and schools, incorporate trauma-related information and expertise into their response to children and families.

Treating Child Trauma: A Systems Integration Approach, by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network's Systems Integration Working Group, reports on the results of a survey conducted among 53 of these later-stage agencies in 11 communities. The survey was used to assess (1) the ways the agencies gather, assess, and share trauma-related information and (2) the basic training about child trauma their staff members receive. While this survey is a small first step, the ultimate goal is to identify gaps in communication among agencies and systems and to develop training and educational materials to improve collaboration on issues associated with child maltreatment and trauma.

Along with survey findings, the 41-page report includes recommendations for a number of groups, including family and dependency courts, public child welfare agencies, foster care agencies, mental health agencies, and schools, as well as for members of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

The report is available on the National Child Traumatic Stress Network website at http://nctsnet.org/nctsn_assets/pdfs/materials_for_applicants/A_Systems_Integration_Approach.pdf (Editor's note: Link no longer active).

Child welfare decisions run the gamut from clinical decisions about client assessment, goals, and services to decisions about collecting and evaluating program data. A special issue of Children and Youth Services Review focuses on the decision-making process in child welfare and, specifically, the errors that can occur.

The issue includes six articles:

• "Investigating Child Maltreatment in Out-of-Home Care: Barriers to Effective Decision-Making" (D. DePanfilis and H. Girvin) reports on archival case reviews of 129 investigations into maltreatment in out-of-home care.
• "Improving Practice: Child Protection as a Systems Problem" (E. Munro) argues for the application of systems design to child welfare.
• "Examining Decision Errors in Child Protection: A New Application of Root Cause Analysis" (T. L. Rzepnicki and P. R. Johnson) describes the use of root cause analysis to investigate decision-making errors in a child fatality case.
• "The Next Step: Integrating Actuarial Risk Assessment and Clinical Judgment into an Evidence-Based Practice Framework in CPS Case Management" (A. Shlonsky and D. Wagner) describes the use of (1) assessment of risk and (2) contextual assessment of child and family functioning as decision aids for evidence-based practice in child welfare.
• "Assessing Parenting Capacity in a Child Welfare Context" (K. S. Budd) describes a clinical practice model for mental health evaluations of parents in cases of physical abuse, neglect, or dependency.
• "Lessons From a Systematic Review of Effects of Multisystemic Therapy" (J. H. Littell) considers methods for synthesizing results of multiple studies of the effects of social interventions.

These papers were originally presented at the 3rd International Symposium of the School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley, in December 2003. They were published in the April 2005 issue of Children and Youth Services Review 27(4) and are available for purchase online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01907409/27/4.

Did you miss the Grants.gov webcast on March 9? If so, there is still time to view an archived version on the Grants.gov website before June 9, 2005.

The "Spread the Word" webcast is targeted toward Federal agency grant program offices and other key partners to elicit support and promote the understanding of Grants.gov within their grant communities. The content of the presentation, however, is appropriate for anyone who wants to learn more about Grants.gov, how to find grant opportunities, and how to apply for grants.

The webcast (www.grants.gov/section910/spreadthewordwebcast.pdf) (Editor's note: Link no longer active) runs approximately 40 minutes and includes a slide show for participants to follow along. The presentation slides can be viewed at http://www.ag.ncat.edu/agedispatch/docs/grantsDOVgov.pdf (PDF - 1,300 KB). The original broadcast also included a question and answer session. A summary of the questions and responses is available at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~beattie/bmc/WebcastQA.pdf (PDF - 252 KB).

The Council on Accreditation (COA) has developed an online tool that allows leaders of human service organizations to conduct self-assessments of their organization's governance process. The interactive assessment compares the user's responses with national best practice standards in governance and provides immediate feedback in such areas as regulatory requirements, confidentiality, ethics, risk management, financial management, and governing authority. This tool is the second initiative in COA's Leadership Series; the first interactive assessment dealt with Continuous Quality Assessment.

To access the Governance Assessment Tool or the Continuous Quality Assessment Tool, visit the COA website at www.coanet.org.

Adoption Learning Partners offers a series of web-based courses to address the information needs of adoptive families, families contemplating adoption, adopted persons, and birth parents.

Developed in partnership with adoption and child welfare experts, e-learning instructional design experts, and adoptive families, each course provides instruction, interactive exercises, and extensive resource lists. Courses take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours to complete, and most are offered free of charge.

Courses focus on various aspects of the adoption process, including:

• Conspicuous Families: Race, Culture, and Adoption
• Adoption Tax Credit
• Let's Talk Adoption: A Lifetime of Family Conversations
• With Eyes Wide Open: A Preparation Guide to International Adoption
• The Journey of Attachment
• Finding the Missing Pieces: Helping Adopted Children Cope with Grief and Loss
• Becoming Your Child's Best Advocate: Help for Adoptive Parents

Complete course descriptions and registration information are available at www.adoptionlearningpartners.org.

The National Family Preservation Network (NFPN) recently released the Advanced Fatherhood Training Curriculum (AFTC) package. Developed in response to feedback from practitioners asking how to engage fathers who are reluctant to get involved with their children, the AFTC is intended for individuals who have already completed NFPN's basic fatherhood training curriculum.

The training package is recommended for use with small groups. It features a 33-page manual and a brief video. Key topics include:

• Differences in fathers' and mothers' parenting styles
• Strategies for overcoming obstacles to father involvement
• Case examples identifying specific skills to use to engage fathers
• A section for administrators on promoting father-friendly practice

Ordering information is available on the NFPN website at http://www.nfpn.org/father-involvement?adv-training-package=55-advanced-fatherhood-training-curriculum-package.html.

Related Item

For more information about the NFPN basic fatherhood training curriculum, see "New Training Curriculum Helps Involve Fathers in Their Children's Lives" in the October 2003 (Training) issue of Children's Bureau Express.

Upcoming national conferences on adoption and child welfare through August 2005 include:

June 2005

• NDACAN Summer Research Institute (National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect; June 1 through 5; Ithaca, NY)
• 2005 Conference on Family Group Decision Making (American Humane; June 8 through 11; Long Beach, CA)
• APSAC's 13th Annual Colloquium (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children; June 15 through 18; New Orleans, LA)
• 2005 Building on Family Strengths Conference (Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health at Portland State University; June 23 through 25; Portland, OR)
• Investigation and Prosecution of Child Fatalities and Physical Abuse (American Prosecutors Research Institute; June 27 through July 1; Denver, CO)

July 2005

• 27th Annual Conference "Don't Gamble with Truth in Adoption" (American Adoption Congress; July 6 through 10; Las Vegas, NV)
• 9th International Family Violence Research Conference (Family Research Laboratory & Crimes Against Children Research Center; July 10 through 13; Portsmouth, NH)
• Children's Bureau's 8th National Child Welfare Data Conference "Assuring Positive Outcomes for Children and Families: It's A Team Effort" (National Resource Center for Child Welfare Data and Technology; July 20 through 22; Washington, DC)
• 19th Annual Conference on Treatment Foster Care (Foster Family-Based Treatment Association; July 24 through 27; Atlanta, GA)

August 2005

• 2005 NACAC Conference (North American Council on Adoptable Children; August 3 through 6; Pittsburgh, PA)
• 6th National Conference on Child Sexual Abuse Prevention (National Children's Advocacy Center and the Association for Sexual Abuse Prevention; August 10 through 12; Huntsville, AL)
• 28th National Children's Law Conference (National Association of Counsel for Children; August 25 through 28; Hollywood, CA)

Further details about national and regional adoption and child welfare conferences can be found through the "Conference Calendar Search" feature on Child Welfare Information Gateway at www.childwelfare.gov.

Children and adults with developmental disabilities are at greater risk for all types of abuse or neglect, yet preventing and recognizing the maltreatment can be difficult. The Partnership for People with Disabilities has developed a comprehensive web-based course on the topic for health care professionals and others who serve this population, including those in education, protective services, the courts, and law enforcement.

The course, "Abuse and Neglect of Children and Adults with Developmental Disabilities: A Problem of National Significance," consists of 13 self-paced instructional modules on a range of topics from risk factors and recognizing abuse to reporting and treatment. Each module includes learning objectives, self-study questions, references, resources, and links to relevant websites.

The Partnership for People with Disabilities is a project of Virginia Commonwealth University. A complete outline of the course and ordering information can be found at www.vcu.edu/partnership/maltreatment (Editor's note: Link no longer active).