Accountability and practical change in child welfare: Beyond professionalism

1. Accountability and practical change in child welfare: Beyond professionalism Mark Creekmore (creekmor@umich.edu) Getting it Right for Every Child: Childhood, Citizenship and Children’s Services Glasgow, Scotland September 23, 2008

2. Miss Jane Addams, “The child at the point of greatest pressure” • “… it is well so far as it goes, but it is not after all sufficient” to save children from dying or to protect them from harm. What is “… the next step, the one beyond the mere negative salvation of human life?” • If we look at children under greatest pressure “… we will discover the beginnings of new life, something more positive, much more beautiful, much more all-embracing than anything we have yet dealt with, because our minds are fixed only upon preservation.” • “And there is that wonderful life in the children of the most crowded quarter, living under the most untoward conditions which will sweep away our little attempts at charity and correction if we will but give them opportunity to grow and adapt themselves to the particular point of the city in which they find themselves at the present moment.” 39th annual session of the Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections,1912

3. Three stresses in child welfare in the US leading to change • Formal incorporation of child and parent perspectives into the CWS: “Nothing about me without me?” • Constraints on professional decision making to correct excesses system-wide • Separate and parallel systems for acute and chronic cases

4. Three (sometimes) competing goals • Individual and social (group) rights • Change (growth, treatment and recovery) • Protection

5. Child and parent perspectives in CWSs: “Nothing about me without me?” • About me without me: the sources of information and the objects of change • Nonprofessional volunteers as mediators, advocates and change makers • Surrogates for recipients of services • CASA • FC review boards • Alumni associations (The Chafee Program) • Research • Direct participation. Case management, permanency plans and self-help movements

6. Constraints on professional decision making • Class action lawsuits • Evidence based practice • Structured decision making • Quality assurance methods

7. Separate and parallel systems for acute and chronic cases • Special docket courts, problem-solving courts and therapeutic jurisprudence. • Acute conditions and stages: dependency caused by the acute condition, regression of one’s capacities and recovery after getting assistance from others, typically professionals

8. Chronic conditions and coerced treatment • Community courts, mental health courts, domestic violence courts, reentry courts and substance abuse (drug) courts • Elements • Chronic problems that cause (usually minor) criminal activity • Voluntary admission based on exchange • Violation of court orders • Recovery (relapse) model

9. System stresses and balance • Are we any closer to Addams’s ecological view? • What roles do professions play in post-modern organizations? • How have Scotland and the US resolved these conflicts differently?