The family at risk : issues and trends in family preservation services / Marianne Berry. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berry, Marianne, 1960-

Series:

Social problems and social issues (Columbia, S.C.)

Social problems and social issues

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Family social work--United States.

Family social work.

Home-based family services--United States.

Home-based family services.

Dysfunctional families--United States.

Dysfunctional families.

Child welfare--United States.

Child welfare.

Dysfunctional families--Services for--United States.

Family social work--Services for--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 197 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Columbia : University of South Carolina Press, c1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"The Family at Risk offers a comprehensive overview and assessment of the family preservation movement, a relatively new and highly controversial effort to deliver services to families at imminent risk of child removal. Mandated by federal law and hotly debated by politicians, practitioners, and citizens, family preservation programs offer intensive, home-based services that allow families to remain intact while addressing issues that threaten their safety and survival. Marianne Berry takes stock of the promise and challenges associated with these programs, used increasingly throughout the United States, and speculates on the future of this emotionally charged aspect of social work policy and practice." "Rather than present a single model of intensive family preservation service, such as the widely publicized Homebuilders program, Berry compares several models currently in use and measures the effectiveness of individual models with various subpopulations of the child welfare system. In addition, she defines many commonly misused terms, including "imminent risk" and "reasonable efforts," and illustrates how principles of family preservation programs are often at odds with the aims and constraints of larger child welfare and protective service systems."--Jacket.

Contents:

The call to preserve families

The policy framework of permanency planning and family preservation

The empirical base for family preservation principles

Intensive family preservation service models

Family preservation programs and their effectiveness

Administrative and organizational issues

Determining "risk" and targeting appropriate cases

The relative efficacy of hard and soft services

Combining research and practice tools

Future directions for family preservation.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-585-35967-9