calswec.berkeley.edu€¦ · Web viewChris Tappan was the head of the Capacity Building Division in New Hampshire’s child and family office, which had recently merged child welfare

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Theoretical Models Related to Child Welfare Systems and Individual Child Welfare Worker PracticesAnita P. Barbee, Ph.D. & Michael R. Cunningham, Ph.D.

Developing an Integrative Theoretical Child Welfare Practice Framework in California

California counties have been working on developing a statewide practice model for the past several years. Four counties were funded by a large federal Children’s Bureau grant to develop and evaluate the CAPP model. Other counties have developed certain aspects of practice models or adopted pieces of practice that might serve as building blocks to practice models in the future. Still other counties are interested in adopting the Solution Based Casework (SBC) practice model.

In order to move the conversation along, the Child and Family Policy Institute of California asked Anita Barbee and Chris Tappan to speak about their experience with practice models. Dr. Barbee is in the Kent School of Social Work with Dr. Dana Christensen. Dr. Christensen co-developed the SBC practice model with Kentucky child welfare staff in the mid-1990s and installed it from 1996 to 1999 through changes in training, policy, and the SACWIS system. While a cadre of supervisors had been trained early in the SBC model and helped to teach it to their staff members (Martin, Barbee, Antle & Sar, 2002), not all supervisors and staff were up to speed. In order to fill that organizational gap in installing the practice model, Dr. Barbee received a Children’s Bureau grant from 2000-2003 to train child welfare supervisors and their teams in SBC. Dr. Antle was a doctoral student at the time and she incorporated a set of studies into the grant to test the effectiveness of not only training supervisors and their staff (teams) in the SBC model, but also in reinforcing the SBC training through case consultation (Antle, Barbee & van Zyl, 2008, Antle, Christensen, Barbee, & Martin, 2008, Antle, Sullivan, Barbee & Christensen, 2009). In addition, Dr. Antle measured staff adherence to the SBC practices and linked both training reinforcement and adherence to SBC in casework (through case reviews) to outcomes of child safety, permanency and well-being (Antle, Barbee, Sullivan & Christensen, 2010, van Zyl, Antle & Barbee, 2009). Drs. Christensen, Barbee and Antle helped Kentucky create a comprehensive continuous quality improvement tool that included 33 key SBC behaviors. Then, the Child Welfare Training Assessment team at the University of Louisville, led by Dr. Barbee, received the contract to put the CQI tool on-line. Dr. Antle trained the child welfare CQI staff in how to use the tool with fidelity when conducting case reviews and how to enter the data so that she could download it quarterly to conduct further analyses relevant to training. This contract lasted from 2003 to 2008. Since that time, the team has analyzed over 4500 child welfare cases to determine the efficacy of SBC on child welfare outcomes (Antle, Christensen, van Zyl & Barbee, 2012; van Zyl, Barbee, Antle, Boamah, & Christensen,in press). Dr. Barbee also has worked with other states who have adopted alternative models (e.g. Indiana, Oklahoma, MA) and seen firsthand the impact of those on the system. Finally, she has been conducting cross site evaluations of Children’s Bureau National Resource Centers (NRCs) and Implementation Centers (ICs) over the past nine years and examined evidence of capacity building and systems change through the adoption of practice models in many states.

In the late 2000s, Washington state adopted SBC as their practice model. This effort was studied by Mark Courtney through Casey funding. A number of lessons were learned about installing practice models into large state systems. An implementation system, Getting to Outcomes (GTO), was adopted for subsequent installations in New Hampshire, New York City, Kansas and Australia (Barbee, et al, 2011, Simon, Sterrett, Antle & Christensen, 2013). Chris Tappan was the head of the Capacity Building Division in New Hampshire’s child and family office, which had recently merged child welfare and juvenile justice. She helped to identify SBC as a viable cornerstone to NH’s practice model and added Restorative Justice and Parallel Process principles to the umbrella as well. Dr. Barbee worked through both the NRCOI and NCIC to help NH align training with the new practice model. She helped NH develop an SBC fidelity case review tool that will eventually be incorporated into the general CQI tool to conduct all case reviews. That tool has been tested and refined across four rounds of case reviews. The latest review showed that adherence to SBC was at 68%, which is the amount of adherence needed to reach outcomes of safety, permanency and well-being in the Kentucky CQI study (Antle, et al, 2012). Dr. Barbee is seeking funding to speed up the review of cases, in order to test the effectiveness of SBC in NH. Chris Tappan has since gone on to work for ICF and is now Director of the Children’s Bureau Information Gateway.

In their talk to California county child welfare directors and related staff in July 2013, Barbee and Tappan briefly reviewed what constitutes a child welfare casework practice model, the importance of having a casework practice model to guide work in the field, lessons learned from Kentucky and NH in developing a practice model and evidence that a practice model can move the dial on outcome achievement. A practice model for casework management in child welfare should be theoretically and values based, as well as capable of being fully integrated into and supported by a child welfare system. The model should clearly articulate and operationalize specific casework skills and practices that child welfare workers must perform through all stages and aspects of child welfare casework in order to optimize the safety, permanency and well-being of childr33en who enter,

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move through and exit the child welfare system (Barbee, et al, 2011, p. 623). Dr. Barbee further explained not only why theory was an essential component of a practice model, but how theory brings value to the practice model enterprise. She reminded the audience that: (1) a theory or framework is an organized set of explanatory principles that are susceptible to hypothesis testing, that (2) a good theory leads to research to test the theory (or debunk the theory), which results in an evidence base to support the theory, and that (3) bad theory has either been disproven or is ideologically driven and cannot be tested. She also cited work by Wandersman (2009) that noted that beyond theory, practice models should include a fully articulated set of actions and skills that can be observed for presence and strength, system supports and evaluation results, including data benchmarks to monitor the efficacy of the model.

In Social Work and Child Welfare, we are trying to understand what leads to the problem of child maltreatment, the processes involved in child maltreatment that are predictable and how to practice in such a way as to prevent the problem or process from starting or intervene once the problem has arisen. In reviewing theories for this document, Dr. Barbee enlisted the assistance of Dr. Michael Cunningham, a social and personality psychologist with a strong family psychology background. They determined that the theoretical base of a child welfare practice model needs to be grounded in evidence and that there are four key pieces to an integrative theoretical framework in child welfare: Problem, Process, Practice and Prevention.

Thus, in creating an integrative theoretical framework, the theories chosen must be evidence based and help staff understand: (1) what causes the problem (child maltreatment), including the types of internal vs. external causal attributions staff will make about the causes of child maltreatment; (2) what process goes on in the person and situation to make the problem worse, including past and ongoing oppression and trauma1 (3) how to engage in optimal practice including the proper orientation to take towards clients and the way to successfully intervene and provide effective treatment, and (4) how to create efficient and compassionate systems that effectively sustain ongoing treatment and prevent future problems. Therefore, The integrative theoretical framework of California, or any county or state, needs to be evidence based and trauma informed and pull from theories that address Problem, Process, Practice and Prevention (Evidence Based P Quad or EBPQ).

Dr. Barbee also noted in July that the philosophical and theoretical approaches to child welfare were historically based on religion, the judicial system, the medical model or some combination of these. In general, all of these approaches have a negative, blaming stance towards clients, attributing the cause of child maltreatment either to internal, controllable causes such as sin or character flaws or other negative causes such as illness or some other type of dysfunction. The overall approach to clients is problem focused. The approach is to let experts (judges, lawyers, physicians, psychologists, social workers) determine what is wrong with the client and then impose some sort of intervention on them through the client’s participation in many services. Child welfare workers monitor if clients comply with all of these service requests and make decisions about whether to keep families together or return children to families based on attendance at service sessions and compliance with service requests. An alternate approach is to focus on changes in parental and family unit support, knowledge and behavior, leading to outcomes such as the enhanced safety of children, permanency and well-being.

1 One factor that has to be taken into consideration when understanding what leads to child maltreatment is the role of past traumatic events and current PTSD on a parent’s ability to think and feel. Such trauma may make them more vulnerable to hypervigilence and aggression or that make them numb and neglectfully unable to care for their children periodically.

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A practice model will only be successful in a healthy organizational and community context and must address key aspects of context as part of any comprehensive casework practice model. The primary level of conceptualization described in this document is focused on the front line child welfare worker as he or she takes intake calls, conducts investigations, makes decisions about child safety, conducts family finding, family team meetings and utilizes other tools for involving families in assessment, case planning, placement and renewal, manages cases in the court system, engages community partners in ensuring that family members are working on behaviors relevant to keeping children safe, working with resource families, etc.

A practice model addresses how workers think and feel about families that we have encountered our system and how those thoughts and feelings impact behaviors enacted during engagement, assessment, planning, partnering, decision making, placing, monitoring, celebrating and closing. Most practice models do not address the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of workers. However, unless the practice model is targeted at this level, workers will be lost and may inadvertently engage in disrespectful, disempowering or discriminatory actions that damage families. Having a set of values and principles and a set of tools and interventions that seem compatible with these values and principles is only the first step. We must insure that workers engage with families from a strong theoretical base that helps guide their thinking, feelings and behaviors which include, but are not exclusively driven by, the various practice tools.

Thus, this document breaks down those dominate approaches to child welfare (e.g. judicial and medical) first by showing what theoretical orientation each one takes and some implications of each one. Then, the document explores major theoretical approaches to humans beginning in the 20 th Century and still applicable today to child welfare work. These all come out of Developmental and Clinical Psychology, Sociology, and Family and Relationship Studies- thus are an alternative to the Religious, Judicial and Medical orientations that have dominated the field to date.

The first set of major theoretical approaches (e.g. Phenomenology, Symbolic Interactionism, Social Constructivism and Humanism) and their major proponents and therapies that were derived from these theories (e.g. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Person-Centered Therapy, Strengths Based Approach, Solution Based Therapy, Human Validation and Motivational Interviewing) help set the orientation towards clients and work with clients in the child welfare system. Any child welfare casework practice model must choose at least one theory from this cluster to set the tone for all interactions with clients.

The second set of major theoretical approaches (e.g. Attachment Theory, Family Life Cycle Theory and Biologically based Theories) focuses on the developmental nature of children and families. One or both of these developmental approaches is recommended for helping to determine attributional schemas. The third set of major theoretical approaches (e.g. Behaviorism’s Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning and Social Learning Theories, Cognitive theories, Exchange Theory, as well as Systems Theory) and the therapies that are derived from these theories (e.g., CBT, TF-CBT, Relapse Prevention Model, CB Family Therapy, Behavioral Interventions, Structural Family Therapy, Multigenerational Family Therapy, Strategic Family Therapy) help set an understanding of the process leading to maltreatment. They also specify what needs to change in order for maltreatment to end and safety to be ensured. These theories are tied to assessment and treatment.

In addition to an analysis of the theories focused on direct practice with clients is a summary of major organizational theories with an emphasis on three that have been found to facilitate excellent practice and adherence to practice models in successful child welfare systems.

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Table 1: Overarching theories Attribution for cause of problem Major Mini Theories that

Developed out of Major TheoriesInterventions that are based on Theories that could inform CW casework practice

Conservative religious Internal, stable, controllable 12 step programsRetributive justice Internal, stable, controllable Incarceration, TPRDistributive justice External, unstable, uncontrollable Rawls Assignment to mandatory programs in place

of or during incarcerationMedical External, stable, uncontrollable Freud- Psychodynamic Theory, Jung,’s version of

Psychodynamic TheoryMedications, psychodynamic therapy

Evolutionary theory with a focus on theEnvironmental Stress/Traumatic Event Effect on the human brain resulting in fight, flight, coping and other outcomes, mediated by protective and risk factors (risk and resiliency).

Mix of external, stable, uncontrollable and internal, stable uncontrollable attributions (interaction effect between severity and persistence of external stressors or traumatic events on humans who are processing in various ways partly due to other variables)

Trauma theoryRisk and Resilience model

TF-CBTTSTFunctional Family Therapy

Phenomenology,Symbolic Interactionism,Social Constructivism,Humanism

Distal cause is external, stable and uncontrollable, but proximal cause is internal, unstable and controllable.

Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

Rogers Person Centered Theory. Adler’s Alderian Psychology

Strengths Based, Solution Focused ApproachSigns of SafetyHuman ValidationMotivational Interviewing

Developmental Internal, stable, uncontrollable Bowlby Attachment Theory, Family Life Cycle Theory

Behaviorism External, unstable, controllable Watson’s Classical ConditioningSkinner Operant ConditioningOC+ Conflict + Exchange TheoryBandura Social Learning Theory+Cognitive + Systems + Conflict Theories

CBT, TF-CBT, TG-CBTCB Family TherapyEmpowerment

Cognitive Theories Internal, stable, controllable Ellis Cognitive Theory CBTSystems Theories External, stable, uncontrollable Structural Functionalism

General Systems Theory+ Life CycleDynamic Systems Theory

Structural Family TherapyMultigenerational Family TherapyStrategic Family Therapy

Conflict Theories External, stable, controllable Lead to Social Justice interventions such creating fair laws, unions, social advocacy, watchdog orgs

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Emphasis on Attribution

Before introducing prominent models that have influenced child welfare systems and individual child welfare worker practices during the 20 th Century, it is useful to introduce Attribution Theory, because different theoretical approaches relevant to Child Welfare differ in their attributions and resulting emotional reactions and decisional responses to child maltreatment. Attribution theory (Heider, 1958, Kelley, 1973, Weiner, 2008) is a social psychological theory that describes how individuals and systems interpret the cause of a problem behavior, such as child maltreatment. Such cognitive interpretations set the tone for interactions with clients, influence the processes that are put into place and drive outcomes.

Attribution theory is concerned with the processes and schemas invoked by the perceiver in assigning causes to these events. Attributional processes are those processes that govern a perceiver’s attention to, thoughts about, and apprehension of perceived events. The events are the actions of others, one’s own actions or other environmentally produced events. Through such causal analyses, the perceiver makes inferences about the internal dispositions of other persons (or about him or herself), as well as makes inferences about the stability of the environmental forces influencing behavior and outcomes.

When trying to decide why people behave as they do, people often start with one of two possible attributions- Internal Attribution- the cause of behavior is something inside the mind and personality of the actor, including his or her dispositions, attitudes, and character traits.External Attribution- the cause of behavior is outside of the actor’s conscious mind and reside in the external social, physical or biological environment (someone else’s influence, external obstacles, stress, hormones; once drugs or alcohol have been consumed, they can function as an external cause)

Weiner (2008) noted that people also make attributions as to controllability and stability of the cause:Controllable attribution- the cause of the behavior is a choice and can be controlled by the actor (such as a desire or the pursuit of a goal)Uncontrollable attribution- the cause of the behavior is not under the potential control of the actor (social forces, genes)Stable- the cause is likely to persist unless there is a change, and even an intervention may be met with something that looks like resistance. Unstable- the cause is temporary, variable or can be changed.

If observers attribute the cause of behavior to be internal, controllable and stable causes then that leads to unfavorable evaluations of the actor, negative emotions towards the actor, and pessimism with respect to the prospect of change. Behavior towards this actor is likely to be blaming and punitive (e.g. Barbee, 1988). If observers attribute the cause of behavior to be external, uncontrollable and unstable causes, then that leads to favorable or nonjudgmental evaluations of the actor, feelings of empathy and compassion, and hope that things can improve. Behavior towards this actor is likely to include extending help and engaging the person in a change process (Barbee, 1988). Other mixes of attributions result in different emotions, thoughts and aspirations.

Attribution errors are also common: Fundamental Attribution Error- people overestimate the dispositional (internal and controllable) causes of other people’s behavior without getting all of the facts to see if there could be an external and/or uncontrollable explanation for the behavior. They may reject clues that an external attribution could account for the behavior. This is partly due to the fact that situational variables are often invisible to the observer and the actor is salient. Western cultural traditions for assigning responsibility contribute to this bias. A related tendency is the Actor-Observer Bias- whereas observers tend to attribute behavior and outcomes to internal causes in a subject, they tend to attribute their own behavior and outcomes to external causes. Thus, when a client is half an hour later for an appointment, the social worker may attribute it to internal causes such as the client being disorganized and disrespectful. Yet, when the worker is late, it may be attributed to external causes, such as construction on the highway and traffic congestion. This also is linked to the Self-Serving Attribution Bias. If the client fails to make progress, it is because he or she is unmotivated and lazy whereas if the client makes progress, it is because the worker is insightful and dedicated.

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Prominent Models that have Driven Child Welfare Systems and Individual Child Welfare Worker Practices during the 20th CenturyTheory or Model (also speaks to underlying philosophy and values)

Attribution for Causes of Problems Stance on Processes that Reinforce the Problem or Maintain the Problem

Stance on Problem Prevention Stance on Practice to Ameliorate the Problem

JUDICIAL OR CRIMINAL JUSTICE APPROACHESRetributive ApproachSupporters of a Retributive Approach believe that people behave rationally. They perform antisocial actions when they calculate that the benefits to themselves outweigh the likely costs (probability of detection and punishment).

Aggression and law breaking are intentional acts based on bad choices.

People have a strong internal locus of control and can choose to do, or not do any behavior.

These repeated choices impact a person’s character and once established is difficult to change (stable)

Supporters of a Retributive Approach make internal, controllable and stable attributions for the behavior of others. That leads them to be angry, judgmental, blaming and punitive towards those who break the law or harm others

Thus, the proper attribution for behavior is internal and controllable and often stable- bad person or criminal.

The criminal believes his or her behavior is acceptable.

The criminal believes that he or she will not get caught or that if caught can get out of trouble through manipulation.

Criminal often blames his or her behavior on external circumstances and does not readily take responsibility for his or her behavior or the bad outcomes of his or her behavior. (e.g. Everyone in jail says they are innocent).

Prevention occurs through proper socialization of children and youth to make good choices and abide by the law. This is conveyed by good parenting, schools, religious organizations and other CBOs.

Prevention occurs through the threat of severe punishment (e.g. fines, arrest, incarceration, loss of rights) for breaking the law or hurting other people.

Fear of punishment keeps most people in line.

Operant Conditioning Theory andSocial Learning Theory inform; observing others being punished and avoiding same fate by not imitating the same bad behavior.

Detect the crime, gather evidence to prove the person not only committed the crime, but intended to commit the crime, convict the person of the crime, and punish the person for the crime.

In child welfare, the ultimate punishment is removal of children from the parent(s) and termination of parental rights.

In the case of child death, there is a recommendation of incarceration and loss of other rights.

Theory of Change- Behaviorism via operant conditioning (reward good behavior, punish bad behavior).

Distributive ApproachSome courts, judges, attorneys, corrections administrators, and police have a more complex view of crime and believe that all the time or at least in some circumstances people behave in criminal ways due to genetics, biological processes outside the person’s control, or environmental pressures.

Childhood trauma (e.g. physical or sexual abuse, abandonment, neglect, witnessing domestic violence, neighborhood crime, being a victim of crime,

Supporters of a Distributive Approach make a different type of attribution- that is external and uncontrollable for at least some situations. Problems may be less stable. This leads to empathy, and a hope for change.

Continued trauma, staying in a deprived environment, having no hope and being connected to a dysfunctional network of family and friends keep people trapped in bad circumstances and patterns of behavior.

Prevent child maltreatment, domestic violence, neighborhood crime, divorce.

Treat mental illness, addiction and give strong skills.

Surround vulnerable people with cognitive impairments with social supports.

Improve schools, create jobs with a living wage and make accessible to those in low income areas, ensure affordable housing and do not concentrate poverty. Lift as many

Use of Exchange Theory- maximize reward and minimize costs

Focus on rehabilitation and therapeutic interventions even in prison to overcome trauma history, domestic violence, cognitive impairments, mental illness, and addiction.

Give educational opportunities for GED, trade schools or college. Give job skills training. Ensure housing in neighborhoods that are safe.

Change society, unfair laws that

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experiencing war, parental divorce, parental mental illness or addiction, natural disasters, etc.) can lead to or exacerbate cognitive impairment, mental illness and addiction.

All four of these make people vulnerable to becoming violent themselves. This, coupled with deprived environments (no good schools, jobs, housing, impoverishment), and access only to criminals (gangs, etc) make many urban youth/adults vulnerable to criminal behavior

people out of poverty as possible/improve neighborhoods. Fight against prejudice and discrimination towards the poor, racial and ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, etc.

Built on Conflict Theories and calls for a fight for economic and social justice. Job of Advocates (SW, Lawyers and volunteers)

discriminate against women, racial, ethnic and sexual minorities, improve neighborhoods, schools, and the workplace. Support families, ensure affordable child care, transportation, housing, healthcare, mental health care.

Restorative Justice ApproachA relational approach to the problem that crime creates- victims who are angry, scared and feel their needs are not fully met in normal judicial process- may lead them to stay in victim role and turn to crime themselves. Ensures that victims are restored to a positive state.Perpetrators who are disconnected from victim, crime, consequences are cut off from society, experience rejection. Make attribution that they are indeed bad people and stay on that path without redemption and relationship repair. This approach gives possibility of restoring relationships and can change perpetrators’ internal working model about him or herself.

In some ways, this is a blend of the first two Judicial Approaches but adds relational and restorative intervention.

Both internal and external, controllable and uncontrollable attributions can be made.

There is accountability for bad behavior and may be an understanding that why people behave the way they do is complex, but intervention is different and focused on relationships.

Victims can turn to crime when trauma is never recognized, acknowledged, apologized for, ameliorated in some way.

This process takes care of that problem.

Perpetrators can believe they are bad people and continue on the path without apology and forgiveness and repair of relationships.

Disrupts dysfunctional interactional patterns.

Healing prevents repetition of bad behavior by perpetrators and engagement of bad behavior by victims. Breaks a cycle of abuse and crime.

Change path of perpetrator and victim through mediated meeting.The focus is on ensuring that perpetrators make restitution for their crime- apologizing directly to the victim, paying the victim back what was taken or value of what was taken or lost in the commission of a crime.

This allows the victim to be compensated and also for the relationship to be repaired. The victim can then forgive the perpetrator for their bad behavior.The perpetrator makes the situation right, takes ownership of the bad behavior, apologizes, asks for forgiveness, is granted forgiveness (often), can begin anew to change behavior moving forward.

MEDICAL MODELProblem behaviors are caused by disorders, including mental illness. Disorders are due to bad genetics, bad parenting, and other causes.

Environmental toxins, bad nutrition or other or traumatic events can contribute to disorders. Ingestion of bad chemicals like drugs or too

People who abide by this approach make external uncontrollable and stable attributions for the behavior of others.

This can lead to empathy rather than blame, but also to pity, which minimizes the subject’s responsibility.

Social Network can be co-dependent and facilitate by not addressing the disorder, not adhering to treatments of disorder, or make disorder worse with bad interactional patterns like violence.

People with disorders have cognitive deficits (low functioning, out of touch with reality).

Get gene testing to detect nature of disorder so there is knowledge about a person’s capabilities.

Early detection and treatment prevents problems from getting out of control.

Change environment to prevent behavior

Problem focused approach.

Treat the client based on diagnosis of disorder through medications, therapy, services.

Most social support is given by professionals. Some interventions with whole families to help manage the disorder of the individual for

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much alcohol (due to addiction) or exposure to violence can contribute to disorders or make them worse and behavior worse.

There is some skepticism about whether a person can overcome biology or early childhood problems to change or improve.

Theoretical bases: Psychodynamic, Neurocognitive and Pharmacological theories

The emphasis on pathology also can make the client passive. People with disorders have

emotional deficits (low emotional regulation, swings in mood, difficulty managing emotions)

People with disorders often act in strange ways or ways that harm self or others.

adherence to treatment (e.g. take meds, go to therapy, attend all services, learn new ways to interact so as not to reinforce bad behaviors or make person erupt).

CONSERVATIVE RELIGIOUS MODEL

Problems are caused by sinful nature and being disconnected from God and His people.

Problem made worse by interdependence with other evil people and bad influences.

Christians are at the same time angry, judgmental and punitive about bad behavior but also empathetic because people are by nature capable of evil and staying on a good path is always a struggle even for the most devout Christians with lots of support from the Church.

There is hope for redemption but if people do not choose to be saved or are saved and do not rely on God or the Church enough then they are often condemned by Christians.

Mix of internal and external, controllable and uncontrollable attributions. On the one hand, humans are born sinners- which is internal and out of personal control, In addition, Satan and evil people who are under Satan’s control encourage others to engage in bad behaviors- which are strong external pressures and thus somewhat uncontrollable. But, the way out is salvation- God- an external being- who redeems the person and helps the person resist temptation and behave as good as possible. It is a free choice- and thus something that is internal and controllable that makes a person to accept salvation and decide to take Jesus into their heart. Conversely, an internal and controllable attribution is made for sinful behavior. Not choosing to be a Christian or continuing to willfully sin and not seek the support of God or His people to be good means that it is the person is at fault for behaving badly.

If not saved, will continue on bad path because of sinful nature (stable) and bad influences.

If saved and not in the Church community to keep you accountable or praying daily to God to help you be good, will be self- deceptive and will drift off into bad behavior. Relapse is seen as a worse sin because the person knows better and will be judged more harshly by members of the Church and God.

Fear of Hell (punishment), current and eternal separation from God, loved ones and anything that is good.

Separate children and adults from “the world” (e.g. home schooling, only friends with those at Church except when trying to convert someone to the faith).

Ensuring the person is saved.

Maybe exorcise demons if those are possessing the person.

Ensuring the person is in a strong Church community to be held accountable for behavior.

Ensuring the person is in touch with God on a daily basis to be good.

If addicted- go to a 12 step program which is spiritually based and use Higher Power (in Christian’s case is God) and support of other addicts through sponsorship and frequent meetings to stay sober.

Because people will not always be good, they continually need redemption and support from others who are saved to help them stay on the good path.

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Theories from Psychological, Developmental and Family/Relationship Disciplines that have Relevance to Child Welfare Casework Practice and that Could Inform a Child Welfare Casework Practice Model

Theory or Model (also speaks to underlying philosophy and values)

Attribution for Causes of Problems

Stance on Processes that Reinforce the Problem or Maintain the Problem


PHENOMONOLOGY, SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM, SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISMPhenomenology- a subarea of Philosophy that focuses on the relationship between consciousness and social life, including the nature of being in the world, and the creation of meaning.

Symbolic Interactionism is an area of Sociology. It suggest that the locus of experience is the self, and the self develops through social interaction (Goffman, 1959). Out of these social interactions come the importance of roles. Role entrance, role exit, role conflict, role ambiguity, role strain.

Symbolic Interactionism informs family life development theory to help understand why parenting in complex, family structures is difficult and sometimes overwhelming without tools, information and social support).

Social Constructionism- reality is co-created among individuals. It assumes that understanding, significance, and meaning are developed not separately within the individual, but in coordination with other human beings. Because they are social constructions, all values, rules and laws are arbitrary.Causes of values and actions are external, but those external

Most problems are caused by social structures and social definitions that become internalized and influence behavior. Thus, distal cause is external, stable and uncontrollable, but proximal cause is internal, stable and controllable.(Can see ties to Conflict Theories here).

Social definitions create problems that would not exist in the absence of those definitions.

Unemployment is a problem because people do not freely share monetary and social resources.

Pre-marital pregnancy is a problem because social norms in Western cultures demand marriage.

Drug addiction is a problem because some groups are forced to endure high levels of stress while cheap forms of recreation have been criminalized.

Child maltreatment is caused by not being treated as a valuable person, disaffection from the larger culture, adoption of negative social roles and lack of social support.

The desire of some individuals in society to feel superior requires that other individuals be made to feel inferior, ostracized or incarcerated.

To protect themselves against their social opponents, marginalized individuals band together and may reinforce behavior that reduces the chance of success as defined by the larger culture.

Individuals need to be informed about the values of different groups so that they can negotiate effectively with them, including presenting a self that the other will respect.

Individuals are taught skills to adjust to external power structures, including the educational system, the church, the police, the courts, the social work structure, the welfare system, and the occupational system.

Individuals are warned about the costs of adopting negative social roles.

Individuals are shown that they have adopted a negative role (such as victim, single mother, addict, outlaw, loser) which is unsatisfying.

They are shown alternate roles that they can adopt, which will may allow greater self-satisfaction.

Symbolic Experiential Family Therapy- came out of Existential, Humanistic and Pheonomenological Theories (Whitaker, 1988)

Interventionist deals with the dialectic of individuation and belonging. People need to be free to individuate so that they can belong without becoming enmeshed.

There is also a dialectic between our personhood and the roles we enact as part of our job and families. Healthy families express the contradictions in these dialectics.

The value is in helping parents take on healthy individual roles and find way to belong and helping children not be enmeshed with parents.

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structures are internalized, so that people have the illusion that they make choices.Theory or Model (also speaks to underlying philosophy and values)




HUMANISTIC THEORYMaslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow was one of the first in psychology to focus on what now is known as positive psychology and the strengths-based approach.

He saw humans as basically good and striving towards self-actualization and growth. He thought humans did not reach this state due to sickness in society.

He set a hierarchy of needs- lower needs must be met before higher needs can be pursued and met.

1. Physiological Needs for hunger, sex, thirst (if they are not met, they dominate the person).2. Safety Needs (security, stability, dependency, protection, freedom from fear, need for structure)3. Belongingness and Love Needs (family, friends, affectionate relations)4. Esteem Needs (self-esteem and esteem from others, strength, achievement, mastery, competence, confidence, independence, respect, status, dominance, attention, dignity)5. Need for self-actualization (to become everything one is capable of being)

External, stable and uncontrollable causes in society prevent people from meeting their needs.

Parents who cannot meet physiological needs and who themselves do not have safety needs met have difficulty meeting the physiological and safety needs of children.

A focus on deficits rather than on being or strengths is a problem.

Being stuck in a deficit oriented rather than a strengths oriented position with regards to people and their issues.

Support families so that lower needs can be met and family members can then focus on meeting their own and their children’s belonging and love needs, esteem needs and self- actualization.

Society needs to see the entire family as the unit that needs all of these needs met rather than just children- otherwise interventions are likely to punish poor families and place children in alternative settings.

This theory actually drives the outcomes of the child welfare system

Safety- making sure children are free of abuse and neglect. In other words making sure their physiological needs for nutrition are met as well as their safety needs for security, stability in housing, protection from harm, freedom from fear, need for structure and dependency on caring adults is met.

Permanency- making sure they have a family to grow up in where there is love and belonging. In other words- meeting their belonging and love needs.

Well-Being- making sure children in OOHC have medical needs, psychological needs and educational needs met. This relates to meeting esteem needs to have achievement, mastery, competence, confidence so that they can be independent and get the respect of others (through educational and mental health) as well as to help them become self- actualized.

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HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY/Person-Centered Theory (Rogers, 1961).

Important to be centered on the person, have unconditional positive regard (respect) for the person, empathy for the person and interact with the person in a genuine way.

Believed the person is the best expert about him or herself.

Problems arise from conditional positive regard that allows people to have self-esteem only if they meet ideal self-standards. That makes people second guess themselves.

Fully functioning people are open to experience, and trust their intuitions and their real selves.

People with problems such as child maltreatment do not have the kind of respect they need to build self-esteem and confidence in parenting.

Problems arise from conditional positive regard from significant others that makes people second guess themselves.

So Rogers blamed problems of individuals on distal external, stable and uncontrollable causes- namely those with whom the person is in relationship. But the proximal cause of behavior is low self-esteem, which is internal, unstable & controllable

Being around people who give conditional positive regard causes and maintains low self-esteem. A materialistic culture seeks to create artificial deficiencies in order to sell things to alleviate nonexistent problems.

Find someone (like a therapist) to give unconditional positive regard so subject can process the bad information about the self and straighten thinking and feelings and know oneself.

Rogers set the stage for values of self-determination of clients, respecting clients, seeing clients as experts in their own worlds (self, family) and joining with them with full positive regard and respect, empathy and genuineness so that they can understand themselves better and become their best selves.

Out of this theoretical orientation and the larger perspective of social constructionism and Maslow’s work comes strengths based practice.

Motivational Interviewing is based on Rogerian person-centered theory/therapy.

Also Satir’s Human Validation Process Model under Systemic Theories has roots in Humanistic psychology and person-centered therapy.

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Strengths- Based Approach (Saleeby, 2009) is not a theory but comes out Social Constructionism, Humanistic Psychology and Rogerian person centered theory/therapy.

The strengths perspective and strengths model of case management (Saleebey, 2009) emphasizes discovery and expansion of clients’ and communities’ strengths, capacities and resources; recognition of challenges and oppression without defining people merely as victims, sick, pathological or problematic.

Form a collaborative helping relationship; focus on solutions and creative possibilities; encouraging clients to narrate and reconstruct their life stories (narrative therapy); and deconstructing taken for granted assumptions about the nature of people and societies.

People give meaning to their experiences and lives. People have the capacity to shape their own lives and are seen as creative, adaptive and with the ability to be self-transforming.

The helping situation is client centered and involves growth or the alleviation of problems that are the result of beliefs and interpretations that restrain a person from achieving his or her full potential.

Does not focus on causes of problems but strengths and solutions that people and families have to meet challenges.

Focus on the negative, focus on pathology, victimhood, sickness and negative narratives. Judicial and Medical models are the problem.

Change the narrative of people’s lives. Help people find meaning in their circumstances.

Determine the current beliefs and interpretations (stories) that restrain a person from achieving his or her full potential.

Emphasizes a participatory helping relationship in which the client is given support to define his or her reality and goals.

Helpful dialogue is a symbolic interaction that reveals the client’s life meaning, especially the talents and resources that have encouraged resilience.

This may involve deconstructing negative and confining labels and social expectations that deny or obscure people’s strengths.

The helper’s every action helps shape the client’s understanding of self and world for better or worse… great care must be taken in the helping relationship.

Work with the client to build on strengths and change the narrative of their lives so that they cannot be stuck in the old story and thinking anymore (really a form of cognitive therapy- with an emphasis on story rather than discrete thoughts that cause problems for people).

Assess strengths that can be built on to solve any issues. The intervention is the change in the story. Narrative Therapy.

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Solution Focused Therapy (Insoo Kim Berg, 1996) Is a model that came out of Phenomenology, Social Constructionism and Humanistic Theory as well as behaviorism

It is a strengths-based, behavioral and goal directed model that was originally developed at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee by de Shazer (1985).

The emphasis is on process and future behaviors that will help clients accomplish their goals.

Focus is to help clients construct a set of behavioral tasks that lead to a rapid solution.

Self-defeating thinking and behavior patterns are the cause of many problems. That is an internal, controllable and unstable attribution.

Being too focused on the past and bad aspects of the past rather than the future prevents positive change and gets families bogged down in the negative patterns rather than the exceptions to those negative patterns that show capability and give hope and something tangible to build on.

Focus on the positive in people creates optimism and hope and helps people avoid negative spirals.

Addresses how clients talk about their problems and interact with others around the problem. Seeks to shift conversations, meanings and relationship patterns into a state of solution so that all people involved believe and act as if the problem is solved.

Use a wide variety of methods to help clients achieve change (Franklin and Biever, 1996).

Strategies include tracking solution behaviors, reinforcing the times when the problem is absent and complimenting and attending to small differences in behavioral change, starting from the client’s cognitive frame and working with their meanings to construct solutions to accomplish their goals, focusing on the future instead of the present or the past and using presuppositional language to help clients restructure meanings about themselves and their problems.

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Motivational Interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 2002). Is a therapeutic technique that came out of Humanistic and Person Centered Theory

Client-centered, yet directive, method for enhancing intrinsic motivation to change by exploring and resolving ambivalence.

Person using MI expresses empathy, develops discrepancy, reduces resistance and supports client self- esteem.

Focus on facilitating motivation for change.

Lack of faith or hope or the possibility of change are the cause of many problems. That is an internal, controllable and unstable attribution.

If subjects think they cannot change or do not know how to change they will try to NOT think about it and will seem passive, avoidant or defensive and angry.

If push or argue will lead to reactance, which looks like resistance.

Resistance to change is lack of readiness, willingness or ability.

Sometimes the change interferes with another value or goal and so even though they know it is important and know how to change they do not.

Not applicable Assess ability to change and assess willingness to change- whether or not they see change as important. To see importance they need to think about their ideal or goal and the discrepancy between the ideal and actual. To instigate change need to develop discrepancy to enhance the perception of importance.

So while we think in child welfare that parents are motivated to change just by our presence- we may be mistaken- not always true… or may be overwhelming and lead to these paradoxical behaviors.

Collaborate with client, honor the client’s autonomy and self direction. Evoke rather than install.

Engage in key MI skills first by establishing and maintaining a working alliance through OARS- use of open ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening and summaries- manage the resistance through cultivating importance for change, pique confidence, elicit and strengthen commitment to change and collaborate on a plan for change.

DEARS (Develop discrepancy, express empathy, avoid arguments, roll with resistance and support self efficacy). Assess for ambivalence and so reinforce change talk- and avoid traps.

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Child/Family Development TheoriesAttachment Theory (Bowlby)This is a fundamental theory of the parent (or primary caregiver)-child relationship that explicates the nature and impact of child maltreatment.

Children need consistent nurturance and protection from caring, responsive parents. That creates a positive working model of the self, and a positive working model of other people and the social environment.

A parent who provides inconsistent care produces anxious attachment. A parent who provides either neglectful or over-stimulating care produces avoidant attachment.

A parent who suffers from domestic abuse, drug addiction, financial stress, mental illness or mental disability may not be able to provide the consistent responsiveness that the child needs in order to form a secure attachment.

Some very abusive situations can lead to reactive attachment disorder (RAD).

The cause of attachment is the parent’s behavior, which is external, controllable and unstable.

Once an attachment style has been formed, it functions as an internal, stable and uncontrollable cause of the child’s behavior.

A child’s attachment style can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If we do not interact respectfully with parents, demand that all parties interact respectfully with parents, do as much as possible to engage families so as to keep families together, and ensure the best (not most expedient) placements for children, then children will find ways to disrupt placements and may inadvertently elicit abusive or neglectful behaviors from foster/adoptive parents and siblings. These disruptions, rejections, and further incidences of maltreatment re-traumatize the child.

Parents must be taught how to encourage attachment through consistent responsiveness and nurturance.

This can be facilitated by parenting classes or home visitation programs during pregnancy or early childhood. It also is helpful to identify barriers to effective parental care, such as poverty, transportation problems, addictions or a weak or overstressed social support network. It takes a village to help a parent raise a secure child!

We must behaviorally operationalize in daily practice the laws and policies that demand:

Respect for parents and the role of parents in the psychological, emotional, cognitive and relational domains of a child’s life.

Engagement of parents and other family members in changing behavioral patterns that led to child maltreatment, so that the family can be strengthened and remain together.

While child maltreatment is not good for child safety, when a child is attached (and most children above the age of 1 are attached to a care-giver even if the attachment is anxious or avoidant), the harm done to the child by removing the child from the parent may be more severe than leaving the child in a less than perfect environment (provided it is not lethally dangerous).

We need to execute removal in a certain way to minimize trauma to the child. Prioritizing placement with family if OOHC is required. Includes activities like Family Findings, Family Team Meetings, Family Group Decision Making, kinship care.

Placing children carefully with foster and/or adoptive familiesContinuation of ties (attachment) between the parents and children

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and siblings if a child is placed in out of home care in the form of daily phone calls, weekly or more visits, placement physically near family, creation of lifebooks, etc.

Develop and execute interventions to support the development of secure attachments between children in OOHC and members of the foster family or adoptive family.

To prevent more harm than good, the parent-child bond, bonds between siblings and bonds between extended family members and children must be privileged unless severe circumstances undermine our ability to keep children with or in touch with family members.

Family Life Development Theory or Family Life Cycle Theory (Carter & McGoldrick, 1989, McGoldrick, Carter & Garcia-Preto, 2011)Developmental Approach but also has ties to Symbolic Interactionism

Normalizing the difficulty of parenting, understanding the key tasks that often cause family trouble, leads to empathy and gives tools to share with the family. These tools enhance knowledge of child development, role of family changes, areas to plan for, tools to manage everyday life events and discipline. They situate the maltreatment in normal family life (sets up perfectly for use of a solution focused theory- that some or most of the time the family manages these family tasks quite well- thus they can build on those strengths and times when it goes right).

The task of parenting is complex and challenging and every family struggles, especially with certain aspects of family life (situates the problem as external but controllable and unstable. It is not the family’s fault that they lack knowledge and skills, but can be learned. That is, such behaviors can be controlled and changed with education, help, skill building, support and engagement of entire family).

Families struggle with everyday life events according to developmental age and stage of the child and family particularly during transitions. External, controllable, unstable causes

Most maltreatment is around those milestones and transitions as well as in the process of disciplining children.

What reinforces the problem is not having enough knowledge or skills. and perhaps others reinforcing maladaptive strategies for facing these crucial challenges.

Gain knowledge and skills for managing everyday life events and engage the entire family in these so that there is mutual support for the new ways of meeting the challenges.

Gain knowledge and skills for managing everyday life events and engage the entire family in these so that there is mutual support for the new ways of meeting the challenges.

Create a genogram to look for family patterns and where these strategies came from (can be useful for nuclear as well as extended family if they share in caregiving currently or during an OOHC placement)

Give parents tip sheets on these challenges by age of child and stage of family formation and development.

Include in the assessment what everyday life events is the family struggling with and how that relates to the maltreatment.

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Also as a part of this theory is the notion that some of the current ways everyday life events are tackled have roots in family history (were a strategy was observed or taught, or reinforced by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings).

Also see Multigenerational Family Therapy (Bowen)

Another cause of maltreatment is a lack of knowledge and skill that can be transmitted, taught and practiced for successful navigation of tricky parenting tasks.

Internal but semi-controllable and unstable. Client can be taught knowledge and skills

Including in the case plan family level objectives for changing family routine, discipline, etc to manage those everyday life events better so that children are safe.

If therapy or in-home aide or parenting class could help with the gain in knowledge and acquisition of skills to help manage these problematic areas of parenting, then it needs to be focused.

Monthly visits check on progress in using the skills learned by worker or therapist, aide, class.

Celebrate progress and successes.Environment-Bio-Psycho-SocialEvolutionary TheoryEvolutionary theory with a focus on the Environmental Stress/Traumatic Event Effect on the human brain resulting in fight, flight, coping and other outcomes, mediated by protective and risk factors (risk and resiliency).When stress is acute or persist, particularly if it is defined as traumatic (e.g. the life of the person or a person’s loved ones or friends is threatened)- it affects the brain and the hormonal system in a particular and detrimental way. It can affect a person’s ability to think, process information and make sense or meaning out of the situation and thus subsequent ability to cope. It can make emotions persist and make a person extremely anxious (e.g. PTSD), hyper-vigilant or emotionally blunted and shut down. And it can affect behaviors. This process can be made better or worse by risk and resilience (protective) factors.

Mix of external, stable, uncontrollable and internal, stable uncontrollable attributions (interaction effect between severity and persistence of external stressors or traumatic events on humans who are processing in various ways partly due to other variables).

Being traumatized can create the context for harsher punishment of children and child maltreatment is a traumatic event for a child. So trauma is both a cause and an effect of child maltreatment.

Risk factors exacerbate and prolong maladaptive reactions to traumatic events.

Protective or resilience factors mitigate the effects of the traumatic events.

There can be risk and resilience (protective) factors in both parents and children where maltreatment, family violence, neglect is prevalent.

Can mitigate effects of trauma with enhancing protective and resilience factors.

Have to treat traumatized parents, children and the family unit in general in a particular way so as not to cause re-traumatization.

Identify risk and resilience (protective) factors and use natural supports and resources to surround individuals and family unit with protective factors. Find ways to neutralize the risk factors or address those.

Intervene with EBPs that address the trauma such as TF- CBT, TG- CBT, TST, Functional Family Therapy, etc.

In order to staff to interact appropriately the organization needs to be trauma informed and prevent and treat secondary trauma among staff.

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BEHAVIORISM (with enhancements that incorporate cognitive processes in learning and behavior change)

Behavioral theories are interested in why behaviors occur, how to change or influence behaviors.

Classical conditioning (Pavlov, Watson) emphasizes emotional and physiological responses that becomes routine through association. When a naturally eliciting stimulus leading to a particular response is paired with a neutral stimulus over and over again then the neutral stimulus begins to elicit the response. Ring a bell when a dog smells food and begins to salivate. Remove the smell and food but ring the bell and the dog will still salivate.

3 principles important to classical conditioning-Generalization- refers to the spilling over of the conditioned response to a stimulus that is similar but not identical to the conditioned stimulus. Extinction- gradual decrease and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli are no longer paired… but if reintroduced there will be spontaneous recovery of the response…

Operant conditioning (Skinner)- focused on the consequences of behavior- that when reward behavior that behavior will increase (by introducing something positive

Cause of maltreating behavior is through classical condition (from care-giver’s own childhood), operant conditioning (reinforced for certain behaviors), and/or social learning (modeling what learned in own home, which also includes a cognitive component).

Behavior is thus largely due to external (environmental), semi-stable (depending on the stability of the situation; a child can change teachers/models every year) and uncontrollable causes.

But social learning theory notes can think differently and thus behave differently (internal, controllable, unstable).

Cognitive theory asserts that problems are caused by cognitive distortions that affect both emotions and behaviors.

Strong associations make behavior unconscious and difficult to tease out why the person is behaving the way he or she is. This makes it difficult to change behavior without replacing those associations with new more healthy ones.

Intermittent, variable ratio reinforcement makes the behavior routine. It also is very difficult to change behavior that is reinforced this way periodically, even if it also is sanctioned.

Punishment for trying new behaviors could extinguish progress.

Social learning is also strong- have to replace models, practice new behavior repeatedly.

Many of the thoughts and feelings that lead to behavior are fleeting and seem unconscious to the person having them- thus making it difficult to know why they behave the way they do. Without untangling the sequence of events including situational factors, thoughts, feelings and triggers that led to a maltreating incident or situation (neglect), it is difficult to change or know when a child is safe.

Learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975) represents application of social learning theory to human functioning. When people are faced with punishing outcomes for which they have no control, despite their

Problems are prevented by all care-givers who have a healthy childhood with positive parents, and by encouragement and success in the education and labor system that leads to effective behaviors and stress-coping skills.

Positive parental behaviors are sustained by reinforcement from a spouse, partner, relatives, religious community and social network.

Individuals can be inoculated against learned helplessness by being given small to moderate challenges that they learn to overcome,

Children tend to model those who are prestigious, receive social recognition and monetary rewards, and who are demographically similar. Do not imitate those who are punished or who seem dissimilar.

Perceived self-efficacy (belief one can perform a necessary behavior) can help regulate behavior. People who are self-efficacious persist in face of adversity- part of empowerment theory.

People set standards for themselves and strive to meet those standards; reward with self- reinforcement when standards are met and feel guilt when standards are not met

Albert Ellis (1962, 1977, 1982, 2009) first to systematize a cognitive approach to therapy applied to both

Bring to awareness the triggers of behavior, give new ways of thinking, pair new behavior with something good, reinforce new behavior until it is routine, exposing to role models who exhibit desired behaviors.

In assessment, have to find a way to zero in on the behavior that needs to change in order for children to be safe and why that behavior was there in the first place and/or why it persists in order to change it. The why likely involves a complex set of situational, emotional, cognitive and modeling variables that need to be understood- unearthed. Tool for that is identifying the sequence of events that led to maltreatment.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) comes out of Bandura’s work… to intervene in established patterns that are not helpful and to replace with better patterns…

Use of Relapse Prevention Model or CBT questions can help unearth these contributing factors that reinforce or allow the behavior to be exhibited. Trauma Focused CBT can also illuminate the role the trauma history or current trauma in the adult’s life play in the sequence of events.

Also need to identify new behavior to replace the old one that can nurture, discipline properly and effectively and keep the child safe.

Case plan needs to have Individual

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(reinforcer) or removing something negative (reinforcer), when punish a behavior that behavior will decrease… especially strong when the reinforcement is intermittent… and variable ratio…

Social learning theory or social cognitive theory (Bandura)- behavior is learned through observation or modeling and is then shaped by internal cognitive processes prior to performance of learned behaviors… adds social and cognitive contributors to changing behaviors and learning.

Bandura built on Mead and Piaget- behavior is based on the interaction between internal causes and external influences and an appreciation of the role of symbolization in cognition.

Showed role of imitative response pattern from model to the observer- when observe a model engage in a novel behavior- observer will copy it.. Inhibitory or disinhibitory effects may strengthen or weaken a previously learned response- and observing a model might prompt a previously acquired response- like spontaneous recovery… A cognitive mediational process allows for vicarious learning. Social cognitive theory learning is knowledge acquisition through cognitive processing of information. For modeling to take place first must pay attention to the relevant stimuli and screen out those not important, retention Is necessary to remember the behavior. Must be able to produce the behavior. Finally motivation is necessary to sustain the efforts of these processes.

efforts, they develop a sense of helplessness. Helpless cognitions prevent effective action even when the situation has changed and escape or improvement is possible. Discrimination and economic oppression can lead to this.

individuals and couples. Level Objectives to help the adult change the pattern of behavior that leads to maltreatment or keeps children unsafe. Very specific rather than global listing of “problems” like mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence, low cognitive functioning. What about not taking meds or the type of mental illness the parent has affects thinking about the child or parenting or discipline.

Therapists need to know what has been identified and work that task on the case plan to help bring about change. Therapist can help further unearth sequence of events, where those came from, help client understand why a particular situation, thought, emotion was a trigger for the maltreating behavior. Then can give the client strategies for avoiding, escaping, planning ahead to keep kids safe.

Therapists can help extinguish CC behaviors, reinforce desired behavior, model desired behavior.

During case monitoring can see if individual can plan ahead, or avoid problematic situations or escape before lashing out or get help to manage the child or demonstrate new way of disciplining child to show progress and how child will be safe if allowed back in the home.

Can assess for enhanced self-efficacy in safety planning, prevention of maltreatment, new discipline techniques, general parenting. Through the master of new behaviors the parent will be empowered and not exhibit learned

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helplessness.

Ellis’ ABC model separates activating events from distressing consequential emotions by concentrating on irrational beliefs or cognitions that cause disturbed feelings and behaviors.

Cognitive Behavioral Family Therapy (Datillo, 2010, Gottman) Roots in Behaviorism and CBT (Beck) but also Bandura and Gottman, Jacobson but also in systems theory

Martial and family dysfunction occurs when couples or parents with children have illogical and unrealistic ideas about their relationships and introduce negative, extreme evaluations of self and others when problems arise.

10 most common cognitive distortions in human interaction and personal reflection are arbitrary inference a conclusion generated about an event without substantiating evidence (i.e., teen is behaving in delinquent behavior when 5 minutes late)selective abstraction taking things out of context, paying attention to distortion-supporting details, ignoring other important informationovergeneralization- generalizing from one or two incidents to assigning someone a consistent ongoing attributemagnification and minimization-making more or less out of a situation or event than is warranted by the facts.personalization- a form of arbitrary inference that occurs when external events are attributed to oneself without sufficient evidence.

Illogical, unrealistic, distorted thoughts are an internal, stable and semi-controllable attribution for the cause of problems.

Cognitive distortions are supported by underlying core beliefs that people develop about the world and how it works (schemas). What “should be” that are shaped by family of origin, cultural backgrounds, societal norms, early relationship experiences.

Family schema maintained through routines and relatively consistent and predictable interactions.

Psychoeducation and training in communications and problem-solving skills can help families change poor patterns.

In therapeutic setting help families identify the individual and collective schemas that support automatic thoughts, distortions, and resulting useless interactions.

Applying CBT to families- focus on the nature and rate of patterns of upsetting behavioral interactions, how family members express and hear the thoughts and feelings of others, the methods and skills families employ to solve problems and how all of this affects the family system.

Examine who has power and control in family, are parents a team or in emotional divorce, is a parent overly enmeshed with the children while other parent withdraws, do parents have psychological needs that spill over into family life and limit their ability to parent effectively. Is education enough or are changes needed like cognitive restructuring and behavioral intervention.

In child welfare setting some of the behavioral intervention is focused on parenting behaviors.

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dichotomous thinking- classifying experiences as all or nothing, always or never, complete success or failure, totally good or totally bad, absolutely right or absolutely wrong.labeling and mislabeling- attaching trait labels to self or others for what is essentially a single or small set of incidentstunnel vision- tunnel vision occurs when one person in a relationship sees only what she or he wants to see or what fits the individual’s current state of mindbiased expectations- during times of distress, a biased explanation attributes a negative underlying motive or intent even to positive behaviorsmind reading another arbitrary inference in which one individual believes that she or he knows what another is thinking or will do- even though nothing had been verbally communicated between the two people.





SYSTEMS THEORIES

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General Systems Theory and Dynamic Systems Theory led to the Ecosystems Perspective and Interactionism (person x environment)(Bertalanffy, 1968, Germain & Gitterman, 2008, Bales, Lee, et al, 2009)

What began as Structural Functionalism has moved to a Dynamic Systems Theory.

Reality is composed of interrelated and interconnected systems. Each system is a whole that includes and transcends its component systems.

All systems are changing all the time in various directions and degrees of intensity and speed.

Dynamic systems engage in four complementary activities:Self-preservation (pattern maintenance and tension management), self-adaptation (copes with demands with resources and change), self-transcendence (integration) and self-dissolution

Stress- when inputs or stimuli are insufficient, excessive or missing an upset occurs in the adaptive balance- the fit between person and environment has broken down. Stress is a transactional concept- a psychosocial condition generated by discrepancies between needs and capacities and environmental qualities… arises in three areas of living- life transition, environmental pressures and interpersonal process.People are purposive and goal seeking thus this perspective focuses on growth, development and

Multiple causes of problems- complex interplay of forces within systems and across inter-dependent systems.

Entropy, system becoming closed, disorganized, stagnant can cause problems. Self-dissolution can cause problems.

External system could cause disruption or give negative feedback about how the individual or family system is performing (output).

When there is an imbalance or lack of harmonious operation within or between systems, a problem can result. Frequent repetition of a problem situation may lead to a crisis situation.

There is a complex interplay between internal and external, controllable and uncontrollable causes of homeostasis and disequilibrium.

Self preservation maintains patterns that may not be healthy.

In a family, each person is a subsystem, all family members together are mutually influencing, family relationships are woven together into patterns and developmental processes, the family as a whole encompasses subsystems such as parents, siblings and the family transacts with external suprasystems such as the neighborhood and the child welfare agency.

Families are usually open systems where boundaries are semi-permeable to allow energy and resources to be transferred between them.

Entropy- when a system becomes closed and then devolves by becoming disorganized and stagnant using up energy and can lead to death.

Negative entropy- exchanges of energy and resources between systems that promote growth and transformation.

Synergy- transactions within and between human systems that lead to enhanced creativity and fulfillment.

Open systems are self-maintaining and self- transforming- to survive must protect self from excessive, destructive disruptions.

To grow, a system must adapt in response to environmental changes and internal drives for creativity and

Self adaptation and self transcendence help to prevent problems.

Constant adaptation can bring back balance and harmony to prevent a problem.

Assess by understanding all of the inter-related pieces at play. Where did the disruption come from (within a person in the system, between several members of the family, between the family or members of the family and an outside entity like work or school or church or society).

In some ways the work of assessing what led to child maltreating behavior by the parent can incorporate a systems analysis- did the father lose his job and feel shame and worry about caring for his family as a result, then when confronted with a screaming baby at home, lashed out in anger when he normally does not do that?

Is father not adapting well to the situation? Is there a bad fit between the father and the work system or larger societal system? Is the company downsizing to raise profits for the shareholders and sending jobs overseas thus dislocating the father?

While the father may need to work on stress management or anger management within his system in adapting to changes in the environment to keep his child safe, he may also need to work with an advocate to help him get another job or negotiate with the company to compensate him fairly.

Systems approaches also know that changing one part of the system can have an impact on other parts of

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potentialities.

There is a general evolutionary trend for dynamic systems to evolve toward greater complexity, comprehensiveness and awareness.

All systems develop through mutual influence. Diversity of human beings, life forms, and ecological niches is natural; it contributes to the overall health, creativity, and development of dynamic systems.

Four functions of systems- input, throughput, output and goal direction.

Goal direction- setting priorities, values and moralsInput (energy)- gaining resources needed to accomplish the goalsThroughput- integration of energy into the system in such a way that it can be used to accomplish the system goals.Output- product that the system exports to the environmentFeedback is information that a suprasystem gives to the system about the system’s output (tells about the quality of the output)and becomes part of the inputprocess is continual and cyclical.

Focus on issues of adaptation, goodness of fit, sociocultural dislocation. Support for adaptive capacities of people, environments and interactions.

development.

Self-maintaining property of dynamic systems is morphostasis (form maintaining)

Self-transforming property is termed morphogenesis (form changing) both are complementary within the constant change and development of systems.

Together these properties keep dynamic systems in a process of constant flow and change that is called homeokinesis (Anderson & Carter, 1990). Continuity with change.

the system. A way to leverage change.

This is where our role as a child welfare system that interacts with the family comes in.

We could have biases as a result of living in this oppressive culture that will make us unkind towards our clients and prone to misunderstand the dynamics and even do things to add to their oppression.

Thus, we must be aligned with a social justice orientation and respect families as we interact with them.

We need to put in checks and balances to make sure we are not prejudiced and acting in discriminatory ways as we practice.

These respectful practices will be manifest in our behaviors and embedded in our person-centered and strengths based orientation.

Dynamic systems theory incorporates these realities into the model and has practical ways child welfare workers can interact with families to enhance respect and place levers of change strategically so as to disrupt unhealthy power dynamics, conflict, coercion and special interests from further hurting our families.

Focus is on creative change, win-win problem solving and linkage to both formal and informal networks

Emphasizes importance of context- cultural and other aspects. Helps

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practitioners understand the link between internal family patterns and environmental pressures such as oppression or lack of resources.





Family Systems TheoriesMultigenerational Family Therapy Bowen, 1966, 1976, Carter, 1997, McGoldrick, et al 2011) He had an evolutionary perspective and a systems perspective.

Use of the genogram to understand at least 3 generations of a family.

Problem is rooted in the system not the individuals, but plays out in the individual

When there is anxiety in one dyad- may bring in a third person to reduce it- called triangulation. The third person has major problems because of unresolved conflict between parents or dyad. This may be passed on to next family due to multigenerational transmission process.

Sibling relationships can contribute to problems in the family.

Family system or dyad is an external, stable, uncontrollable cause.

Individual’s lack of differentiation is an internal, stable, uncontrollable cause.

Individual’s anxiety is an internal, unstable, controllable cause.

Lack of differentiation, triangulation, lack of awareness, sibling positions

Individuals who are not differentiated (able to choose to be guided by thoughts rather than feelings). Undifferentiated people have difficulty separating themselves from others and tend to fuse with dominant emotional patterns in the family. Low degree of autonomy, emotionally reactive unable to take a clear position on issues. They have a pseudo-self. When fused with their family of origin tend to marry people at similar levels of differentiation to fuse together.

If just disengage or cut off that is not a sign of differentiation.

Deindividuation of adults from their parents, children from parents, etc.

Prevent triangles from forming by managing conflict appropriately among adults, family members.

Cannot join or effectively coach family unless know own family dynamics

Assess: Differentiation of the self and emotional cutoff, triangulation, nuclear family emotional system, the family protection process, the multigenerational transmission process, sibling position and societal regression.

Work with parents first, then the rest of the family members.

Lessen anxiety and relieve symptoms and increase differentiation. Open closed family ties and to engage actively in a de-triangulation process.

Use of genograms, process questions (so family can think about roles they play in relating with members of their family), tracking sequences (reverse pursuer-distancer relationships, triangulation), teaching and coaching.


Attribution for Causes ofProblems



Human Validation Process Model or Satir Transformational Systemic

A primary cause of problems are family rules that are too rigid,

Repetitive dysfunctional communications (negative Velcro

Clear communication, awareness, acceptance of difference, flexible

Initially the worker makes contact with each of the people in the

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Therapy (Satir & Baldwin, 1983; Banmen, 2008) Has some roots in phenomenology as well as systems theory

A dysfunctional family is characterized by closed communication, poor self-esteem, rigid patterns. Resists awareness and blunts responsiveness, little support for individuality, relationships are strained, members are incapable of autonomy or genuine intimacy. Rules mask fears over differences. Rules are rigid, many and inappropriate. Everyone expected to think, feel and act in the same way. Parents attempt to control the family by using fear, punishment, guilt, or dominance.

External stress makes family members resort to defensive communication stances- placating (diminish self), blaming (diminish other to preserve the self), being super reasonable (life is governed by principle, isolated from others- self and others are sacrificed for principles) and being irrelevant (busy, use of humor, do not take a clear position so as not to offend others). Batters use multiple styles during the cycle (super reasonable to control, blaming during explosion, placating after abuse to give remorse).

Family in status quo until there is a stressor that leads to chaos.

.

controlling and absolute.

Cause of problems for children is external, stable and uncontrollable.

Cause of problem for parents may be internal, unstable and controllable.

Specific cause may be understood through use of family mapping (genograms) and family life-fact chronologies. It emphasizes factors such as making contact, metaphor, reframing, emotional honesty, creating new possibilities, drama, humor, and personal touch in the process. Liked to examine 3 generations of family. But tried to bring that to the present

loop).

Lack of awareness of how the family functions.

Lack of insight into family history and how that is still impacting the present family dynamics.

Not understanding the systemic nature of the individual and family.

rules, change and growth and coping prevents problems

Further helped by enhancing potentials for growth, especially self-esteem and coping with demands and processes of change. 1) Enhancement and validation of self-esteem 2) family rules (broaden rules that are too absolute) 3) congruence versus defensive communication patterns – healthy communication patterns allow individuals to have a separate life as well as a shared life with family, different relationships are allowed and nurtured, change is expected and invited, not viewed as a threat, disagreement is viewed as an opportunity for growth rather than attack on family system, structure of family system is flexible with freedom and open communication, all members have a voice and can speak for themselves, individuals feel support for taking risks and venturing into the world. Sculpting helps form nurturing triads or dyads (roles are flexible and open to change). Roles can be added or discarded because not tied to self esteem.

family physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. Starts with a warm greeting and interest that may include taking each person’s hand, making eye contact, and bringing one’s full attention to each individual. Validation involves processes of appreciating pain, effort, courage or different points of view, seeing and listening, interest and fascination, warmth and caring. It is collaborative and engaging. Helps people feel welcome and safe. Reflecting feelings, clarifying and translating.Facilitates awareness uses family maps to contextualize family experience and family learning, weaving understanding of family history in new awareness and current family functioning, educating about family process, identifying dysfunctional processes, sculpting physical stances and interactions of family members.Prompts acceptance normalizes feelings, situations and interactions in families, personalizing and helping people state and own their feelings in family process, contracting to see if people ready for change, bridging, reframing with a focus on good intentions, hopes, desires and wishes. Makes changes interrupting dysfunctional processes, challenging people to change, modeling open communication, breaking rules of silence that constrain family interactions activating dialogue and reinforces changes anchoring significant changes in perceptions, feelings, beliefs or behaviors by calling attention to felt experience.



Stance on Processes that Reinforce the Problem or Maintain the


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ProblemStructural Family Therapy and Ecostructural model (Minuchin, 1974, Aponte, 1994)

Focuses on interactional patterns in the family that gives information about the structure of the family and problems.

Views the individual as part of the family context. Changing the structure of the family can lead to health.

Ecostructural model is designed to challenge oppression based on race, culture and poverty.

Repeated sequences that emerge reveal rigid structural patterns of the family. Three ways families organize themselves- alignment, force or power, boundaries.

Alignment is the joining or opposition of one family member to another as the family carries out an operation.

Force defines the relative influence of each member on the outcome of an activity

Boundary tells who is included and excluded from the activity and what each person’s role is in the operation.

Interactional patterns are external, unstable and semi-controllable by the individual.

Under-organized families have patterns and sequences that describe their processes with each other, but they are harder to diagnose and often appear chaotic. They lack consistency needed for dependability, coherency for internal compatability and flexible structure for coping.

Same patterns maintain problematic issues in the family

Proper organization of the family structure prevents problems from arising.

Assess the nature of the family, the presenting problem, and the process of change. Have to understand the family structure.

Family structure is the invisible set of functional demands or rules that organize the way family members relate to one another- watch the family interact- who says what to whom to what result?

Family subsystems- various roles such as spouse, parent, child, sibling. If members of subsystems join together to perform essential tasks that are essential for the functioning of the subsystem that is good. If one subsystem intrudes on another that is a problem.

Boundaries- need emotional barriers to protect and enhance the integrity of individuals, subsystems and families. Governs amount of contact. Rigid- disengagement to diffuse- enmeshment (no boundaries, too much support or accommodation).

Important for community agencies to be careful about boundaries so as not to make situation worse. To be coordinated and aligned with family unit. Focus on conflict and interactional patterns.





Strategic Family Therapy (Bateson, 1960s, Haley, 1973 at the Mental Research Institute in CA) This is

The use of ineffective solutions is a cause that is internal, unstable and controllable

Repeated use of ineffective solutions

Use of effective solutions Joining- help clients feel comfortable and form a partnership.

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where Brief Family Therapy was born (Watzlawick, 1978, Segal, 1991)

Blends general systems theory and metaphor.

Problems in families are simply solutions that are ineffective, given the circumstances. The client needs to act but fails to. The client needs to stop acting, but does not, or the client tries to solve a problem at a level that is ineffectiveness.

Paradox- want change but demanding everything stays the same. Need to use counter paradox, reframing, positive connotations to problems and circular questioning.

Double binds

Reframing- problematic behavior patterns that have become entrenched and rigid, reframing provides a means of reinterpreting the behavior and its context. Assign positive connotations to problems and family interactions.

Directives- used to create experiments with new behaviors or processes to undermine or reverse dysfunctional patterns or sequences.

If the worker lacks power can give indirect directives such as restraining people from changing, advising them to remain the same, imposing a paradox, metaphoric communication, absurd tasks or doing nothing and becoming a frustration.

Paradoxical interventions- to interrupt positive feedback loops that maintain or escalate problems.

A final set of theories are explored here to address the system that supports a child welfare casework practice model. Systems theory and Organizational Culture and Climate Theories have been applied in recent practice models. Other child welfare organizations implementing a casework practice model have found the theories of the Learning Organization (Senge, 2008) and Parallel Process to be useful as well as ensuring that all organizations that work with traumatized individuals become trauma informed.

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Theories describe the distribution of power and resources in organizations, how organizations function, how people interact in organizations and how organization systems maintain themselves.


Key Points Problems or criticisms Organization Practices that are derived from the theory

Implications for Child Welfare and Practice Model Implementation

Organizational Culture and Climate Theory

Parallel Process

Has ties to Psychodynamic Theory and Social Learning Theory and Systems Theory as well.

How top administration treats middle management (including front line supervisors) in terms of policies, procedures, organizational culture and climate, etc. affects those middle managers. Healthy treatment and culture leads to positive manager behavior towards workers. Unhealthy treatment and culture leads to negative manager behavior towards workers.

How a worker is treated by his or her supervisor affects how they in turn treat families. Healthy treatment and culture leads to positive worker behavior towards families. Unhealthy treatment and culture leads to negative worker behavior towards families.

One mechanism of this transfer is modeling (social learning theory).

Another mechanism of this transfer is transference or displacement (Psychodynamic Theory)

A third mechanism of this transfer is the effect of the stressful environment on cognition and affect which lead to negative behavior unless there is a mediator of social support.

Inferred from research on organizational culture and climate- needs more research to uncover the various mechanisms and when certain mechanisms are likely to drive outcomes.

Ensuring alignment between organizational practices and orientation and practice with clients (for example= if the agency wants to prevent re-traumatization of clients, then organization needs to be trauma informed).

Serves as a foundation for supporting a practice model through organizational policy, procedures, tools, training, supervision/coaching, CQI process as well as organizational culture and climate.

If we want to be strengths based, solution focused and humanistic in our orientation and approach towards clients, then management must use that same lens when thinking about the workforce.If we want to understand families in context of stress and trauma- then we must understand workforce behavior in that same context of stress and secondary trauma.If we want to understand the underlying cause of maltreatment and intervene with families using cognitive-behavioral approaches that help prevent future maltreatment and ensure future safety of children- then we must understand worker behavior using root cause analysis and other tools that help to identify community level, organizational level, team level, supervisor level and individual level contributors to the breakdown and intervene accordingly.Gives an overarching approach of the organization to commit to a practice model. Belief that how the organization functions can affect practice and outcomes. Elevates the role of the supervisor in practice. Commitment to change org culture and climate, policies, procedures, training, technical assistance, supervision, CQI and tools to align with practice model.

Organizational Culture and Climate Theory

Trauma Informed organizations and systems (could be considered a part

A system is trauma informed when it understands the impact of traumatic stress on the children and families it serves and understands how the system can

Still working on building an evidence base of what a trauma informed organization looks like, acts like- what policies should be in place, procedures, practices, etc.

According to NCTSN (Wilson, 2008)- essential elements of a trauma informed child welfare agency include:

Administration needs to change policies, procedures, practices that could further traumatize parents and children who come into contact with our system.

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of the Systems of Care Approach) mitigate the impact of trauma or prevent re-traumatization

It also understands secondary trauma and its impact on the workforce and resource families that work with families and children as well as on the system itself (how trauma affects the child welfare system)

The system becomes trauma informed when it can make use of the information about the trauma adults, children and staff experience, the impact of that trauma on thoughts, feelings and behaviors as well as the lens and culture of families and the system so as to improve services and prevent re-traumatization.

Maximize the child’s sense of safety.2. Assist children in reducing overwhelming emotion.3. Help children make new meaning of their trauma historyand current experiences.4. Address the impact of trauma and subsequent changes inthe child’s behavior, development, and relationships.5. Coordinate services with other agencies.

1, Maximize the child’s sense of safety.2. Assist children in reducing overwhelming emotion.3. Help children make new meaning of their trauma history and current experiences.4. Address the impact of traumaand subsequent changes in the child’s behavior, development, and relationships.5. Coordinate services with other agencies.6. Utilize comprehensiveassessment of the child’s traumaexperiences and their impact on the child’s development andbehavior to guide services.7. Support and promote positiveand stable relationships in thelife of the child.8. Provide support and guidance tochild’s family and caregivers.9. Manage professional and personal stress.

Make sure clients have access to trauma informed EBPs

Building a strong therapeutic relationship

Psychoeducation about normal responses to trauma

Parent support, conjoint therapy, or parent training

Emotional expression and regulation skills

Anxiety management and relaxation skills

Cognitive processing or reframing

Administration needs to pay close attention to the workforce- traumatic lens, culture, secondary traumatic stress, burnout, vicarious trauma- have mechanisms in place to prevent these problems, minimize their impact on the workforce and clients, ways to support those suffering these effects and ways to re-integrate back into the organization

Supervisors need certain skills and need to be rewarded for supervising with support, care of the staff to prevent and treat STS, burnout and vicarious trauma.

Workers need space to talk about traumatic events they experience (Resilience Alliance), watch out for one another, learn social support strategies and have places to seek help if necessary to prevent or treat STS, burnout and vicarious trauma.

The system needs to utilize tools, training, coaching and supervision and include in CQI processes and annual evaluations to reinforce positive behavior towards staff and towards families to mitigate effects of stress on workforce and families.Recognize that exposure to trauma is the rule, not the exception, among children in the child welfare system.

Recognize the signs and symptoms of child traumatic stress and how they vary in different age groups. Recognize that children’s “bad” behavior is sometimes an adaptation to trauma.

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Construction of a coherent trauma narrative

Strategies that allow exposure to traumatic memories and feelings in tolerable doses so that they can be mastered and integrated intothe child’s experience

Personal safety training and other important empowerment activities

Resilience and closure

Recognize impact of trauma on development Understand the cumulative effect of trauma. Gather and document psychosocial information regarding all traumas inthe child’s life to make better-informed decisions. Assist parents and caregiverswho have secondary adversities andtraumatic experiences of their own. Make a special effort to integratecultural practices and culturallyresponsive mental health services. Identify and build on foster parent and caregiver protective factors. Recognize that child welfare system interventions have the potential to either exacerbate or decrease the impact of previous traumas. Lessen the risk of system-induced secondary trauma by serving as a protective and stress-reducing buffer for children: Develop trust with children through listening, frequent contacts, andhonesty in order to mitigateprevious traumatic stress. Avoid repeated interviews,especially about experiences of sexual abuse. Avoid making professional promises that, if unfulfilled, are likely to increase traumatization

Organizational Culture and Climate and Open Systems Theory both undergird Organizational Learning and

The Learning Organization (Argyris, Senge, 2008)- Where the

Characteristics of the Learning Organization-Adaptation must happen so quickly that traditional, planned development is not fast enough

The entire organization must

Complicated concepts and tools

People have to be able to handle ambiguity

Managers must give employees room to think, learn, have the opportunity to develop as a result of being exposed to learning innovations. There needs to be creative tension between the vision for the future and the current

When a child welfare agency becomes a learning organization, there is a shift in the hierarchy and attitudes of leadership throughout the organization (for example, central office staff focus on facilitating learning, problem

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organization and its employees can learn to learn.

contribute to developing new products, structures and processes

The org must be structured and managed in a way that allows the employees to constantly form new ideas based on surroundings, which are collected, tested and implemented

The organization sets up systems which secure the assessment of the sustainability of the assumption that controls the organization- single loop learningWhere the org learns from consequences of previous actions and ensures that the same mistakes are not made again (like a thermostat). Double loop learning- the system is intelligent and considers what works and what does not work. All parts of the organization think independently based on the assumption that all employees are different and have different interpretations of a given situation. These different interpretations can all help the organization move in a new direction

situation.

Managers have role of designer, teacher and servants.

solving, and serving the field).

Management by data, robust CQI processes and use of environmental scanning tools can facilitate understanding of how the environment affects the organization and can serve as a platform for creative solutions through cross functional learning teams.

The learning organization is open to change and facilitates change. This is a perfect setting for the installation of a practice model because resistance will be lower and teams will be ready to develop and adopt new products, structures and processes.

The Learning Organization is one with a healthy organizational culture and climate of openness, flexibility, teamwork, creativity and learning. It is a healthy environment to install a practice model that is strengths based, solution focused, client/family centered, culturally competent, humanistic, developmentally aware and clear about the antecedents to maltreatment so that unhealthy family cycles can be interrupted, maltreatment prevented and safety, permanency and well-being obtained.


Key Points Problems or criticisms Organization Practices that are derived from the theory

Implications for Child Welfare and Practice Model Implementation

FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE AND STRUCTUREClassical Organizational Theory- Maximize productivity through Too narrowly focused on Theory X- humans inherently dislike Can be a problem for workforce

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organizations exist to accomplish production-related and economic goals. There is one best way to organize for production through systematic, scientific inquiry.

Focus on two perspectives-

Scientific Management- focusing on the management of work and workers with an emphasis on efficiency and speed (Taylor).

Administrative Management- addressing issues concerning how overall organization should be structured (Fayol, Gulick, Webe)

specialization, division of labor, use of authority

Use of job analysis, personnel selection, management cooperation, functional supervision

Role of managers is to plan, organize, command, coordinate, control (Fayol) and also staff, report and budget (Gulick)

Bureaucracy (Weber)- control with heavy use of power, authority-especially rational legal authority in child welfare- based on a code or set of rules and law with a system of abstract rules which are applied to particular cases, and administration looks after the interests of the organization within the limits of that law. A series of authorized jobs maintained by regulations

production- fueled industrial revolution but undermined craftsmanship

Little empirical support

Employees have minimal power over their jobs and working conditions.

Subordination, passivity and dependence are expected- work to a short term perspective

Employees are lea to mediocrity

Working conditions produce to psychological failure as a result of the belief that they are lower class employees performing menial tasks

work and will avoid it if possible so need control, discipline and sanctions are needed to force people to do their work (McGregor)

Theory Y- People do not inherently dislike work because work can be a source of satisfaction so management can take action so that employees will become motivated to do their work. Workers are regarded as goal-oriented and as having potential to further develop their talents and skills (McGregor)

morale and professionalism and actually create passivity, learned helplessness and poor performance.

Undermines positive organizational culture and climate, positive practice and outcomes (Glisson, et al 2006)

Modern Structural Organization Theory- organizations are rational institutions whose primary purpose is to accomplish established objectives; rational organizational behavior is achieved best through systems of defined rules and formal authority. Control and coordination are key (Blau).

There is a best structure for any organization given the objectives, environmental conditions surrounding nature of products and services and technology of the production process.

Specialization and division of labor increases quality and quantity of production particularly in highly skilled operations and professions

Same problems as those with classical organizational theory= too mechanistic, goal oriented, rational.

Organizational Structure (such as simple structure, hierarchical org, functional org, product org, matrix org)Theory of Administrative Behavior (Simon)Team OrganizationTeam based organizations

Can be a problem for workforce morale and professionalism and actually create passivity, learned helplessness and poor performance.

Undermines positive organizational culture and climate, positive practice and outcomes (Glisson, et al 2006)

Neoclassical Organizational Theory- focused more on the coordination among units within an organization and the operation of internal-external organizational relations (Bernard, Merton, Simon, Parsons)

Focus on improving processes, communication among units within an organization and across interdependent organizations. Also focuses on how to best make decisions.

Focus on process- reinforces bureaucracy.

Focus on policy, procedure, practice- completing forms, following protocols

Can be a problem for workforce morale and professionalism and actually create passivity, learned helplessness and poor performance.

Undermines positive organizational culture and climate, positive

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practice and outcomes (Glisson, et al xxx)

FOCUS ON MOTIVATIONHuman Relations/Resource Theory-Organizations exist to meet human needs. Organizations and people need each other (organizations need ideas, energy, talent while people need careers, salaries and work opportunities). When fit poor- both will suffer (individuals exploited or will exploit org). Meeting employee needs will be good for organization and vice versa (Maslow, McCelland)

Outgrowth of a study that discovered the Hawthorne Effect- people change when being observed (Mayo).

Organizations have unique cultures influenced by values of participants.

People form groups so there are informal leaders who influence behavior of co-workers and people work better in teams

Managers should use these informal groups to influence and motivate workers

Workers need control over their work and should be given rewards for performance

Perhaps too much emphasis on consideration for the employee

Oversimplifies human motivation and needs

Also Theory X and Theory YContingency Theory- employees are motivated by different things, but need to achieve a sense of competency. The manager must provide appropriate incentives to motivate individual employeesParticipatory Management- staff involvement in organizational decision making increases job satisfaction and productivity and decreases staff turnover.Expectancy Theory (Vroom)Self-Efficacy (Bandura)Herzberg’s 2 Factor Hygiene and Motivation Theory and Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristic Model extensionReward/Reinforcement Theory (Skinner)Organizational Justice (

Workforce is very important in child welfare and should be attended to extensively in order for a practice model to work because the work happens through workers- key to reaching outcomes.

Power and Politics Organizational Theory- organizations are complex systems of individuals and coalitions fighting for scarce resources (Kantor, Kotter, French and Raven)

Influence is the primary weapon for use in competition and conflicts

Goals are not so much set by people in positions of formal authority, but result from ongoing maneuvering and bargaining among individuals and coalitions.

Coalitions are transitory- they shift with issues and often cross vertical and horizontal organizational boundaries.

Raises awareness of competition but doesn’t focus on solving them.

Empowerment Model- need to find ways to empower workforce and clients through participatory management, use of a feminist approach (to minimize the social distance between administrators, staff and clients- all should be partners in decision making and reduction of the results of power-dependency theory- should incorporate principle of reciprocity so that service users contribute something back to the organization-

Interface between Human Relations and Organizational Culture and Climate- the role of power and politics in affecting productivity, worker satisfaction and client outcomes

FOCUS ON ADJUSTMENT TO EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTTheories of Organizational Culture and Change- organizational culture is comprised of many intangible phenomena such as values, beliefs, assumptions, perceptions, behavioral norms, artifacts and patterns of

Many organizational behaviors and decisions are not determined by rational analysis but are predetermined by patterns of basic assumptions held by members of an organization.

Difficult to measure and change External adaptation includes vision, mission, objectives and strategyInternal Integration process when common language is defined, reward systems are set up and status relations are clarified.

Importance of culture and climate in affecting the workforce, in guiding the change process (installation of a practice model involves organizational change) and in supporting a new practice model

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behavior (Berger, Deming, Schein, Peters, Senge, Cooperrider & Whitney)

“Culture is that pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has created, found or developed during a learning process owing to problems with external adaptation and internal integration” (Schein)

Also part of open systems thinking

Basic assumptions are the culture’s underlying level of convictions, shared by the members of the organizations. The basic assumptions define the organization’s self-image and its view on its surroundings. The assumptions are taken for granted and are described as the truth, which makes them difficult to change.

Values are opinions and norms which define what the organization presumes is important. Values are the basis for assessing what is right and wrong. The individual is more conscious of its values than of its basic assumptions.

Artifacts are the visible and tangible symbols for the values in the basic assumptions and are evidence of the cultural core of the organization (e.g. a large office with big desk for top manager which is a symbol of power distance)

Gives clues to organizational change

Can be essential to attain a competitive advantage in a rapidly changing environment.

But if the organizational culture is more fragmented, then there will be lots of cultures within the large organization and identify will be more importantTotal Quality Management (TQM)- Management produces an organizational culture based on product quality, consumer satisfaction, standardization of production and employee empowermentTheory Z- focuses on quality of production, collective accountability and loyalty. Decisions are made by consensus (Japan)Re-engineering- seek to increase productivity, flexibility, responsiveness, and customer service by reshaping organizational cultures.Empower employees and work teams with autonomy and discretion to make decisionsReduction or elimination of hierarchyAccountability to clients rather than bossesEmphasis on use of data to coordinate and correct actionsParallel Process (See above)Appreciative InquiryLearning Organization (See above)Implementation Science is a mechanism for creating change and imbedding a new practice in an agency

Organizational culture and climate need to align with the practice model and need to be healthy

See Parallel Process Above

See Trauma Informed Care Above

See Implementation Science Above

Theory of Open Systems (vs Closed Systems)- focus on the external dynamics of organizational competition, interaction and interdependency- organizational success is interdependent on the wider environment (March, Argyris, Senge, Katz & Kahn, Weiner, Pfeffer

Since a systems theory- the focus is on the complex set of dynamically intertwined and interconnected elements including loops and the environment in which it operates and with which it continually interacts.

Encourages an external locus of control

Have to develop more mechanisms for reading the environment and adapting

Learning Organization (See above)

Organizational Model with Loose Couplings (Weick)

PERT (Performance Evaluation and Review Technique)

Given the reducing resources in the environment (anti-government sentiment) child welfare agencies will have to increasingly rely on community partnerships and privatization of services for resource expansion and solving problems of families.

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& Salancik, Mintzberg)

Embedded in General Systems Theory (Bertalanffy)

A change in any element of the system causes changes in other elements. Orgs much adjust to change in env. to survive

CPM (Critical Path Method)

FOCUS ON MANAGEMENTQuinn’s Competing Values Framework-All of the dominant organizational theories of the 20th Century focus on different important aspects of organizational life and health. Productivity, smooth processes, attention to human relations and building a strong workforce in a healthy culture as well as giving attention to the larger environment and being able to change and adjust quickly as necessary to survive are all important.

Each organizational theory and management approach focuses on different values which compete.

Thus, a good leader/manager has developed skills in each area and must learn how to balance these competing values in running the organization and interacting with employees.

Complex with a focus on how to lead or manage using the best of each organizational theory to date (not really a theory)

Focused on leadership/management using all previous organizational theories and tools in order to optimally run an organization

Related to Quinn is the large literature on leadership, management and particularly leading change

Importance of both leadership and management (Kouzes & Posner)

Continuum of Leadership (Tannenbaum & Schmidt) andSituational Leadership )Hersey & Blanchard)

Transformational, Servant and Values Based Leadership

Leading Change (Kotter)

Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperider)

Leadership is critical to the success of any child welfare agency and adoption and implementation of a practice model

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Documents

calswec.berkeley.edu€¦ · Web viewChris Tappan was the head of the Capacity Building Division in New Hampshire’s child and family office, which had recently merged child welfare