Author: Andre Coleman

Achieving a balance between work and family is important to everyone. A balance between work and family responsibilities occurs when a person’s need to meet family commitments is accepted and respected in the workplace. Helping people achieve a balance between their family needs and their work commitments supports productive workers as well as committed family people.

Provisions to assist with the balance between work and family must be available to everyone in the workplace. However, not all people in the workplace will need to or wish to access these provisions.

These provisions reduce the barriers that may prevent people from entering and remaining in the workforce. They enable people with caring and family responsibilities to have equitable opportunities to progress in their career in the same way as those without these responsibilities.

Work and family balance provisions contribute to equality in the workplace by recognising that some workers have caring responsibilities. They enable those workers to have fair access to workplace opportunities.

Work-family facilitation, or the extent to which individuals’ participation in one life domain (e.g., work) is made easier by the skills, experiences, and opportunities gained by their participating in another. Frone (2003) suggested that work-family balance likely represents multiple dimensions composed of bidirectional (i.e., work-to­family and family-to-work) conflict and facilitation. Finally, Hammer (2003) called for an explicit expan­sion of the work-family paradigm to include work- family facilitation. Unfortunately, work-family facil­itation remains conceptually and empirically underdeveloped (Frone, 2003), and its distinction from conflict remains unclear.

Background

Work-family conflict is “a form of interrole conflict in which role pres­sures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect” (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985, p. 77). The conflict does not operate in one direction. Family sometimes interferes with work (FIW), and work can interfere with family (WIF).

Further, some researchers suggest that conflicts between the work and family domains can occur when (a) time consumed by one role results in a lack of time for the other, (b) strain caused by the activities of one role makes it difficult to fulfill responsibilities in the other, or (c) in-role behavior in one domain is incompatible with the role behavior in the other domain. The time conflict is fairly obvious and probably most salient to us lay people (i.e., non­work family conflict experts). So is strain-if we’re totally stressed-out at work, we may not be able to deal with our family responsibilities and vice versa. However, the behavior component is less obvious. It has been sug­gested that we may sometimes behave in ways in one domain that is incom­patible with the other domain, such that the behavior in question does not facilitate fulfilling one’s roles in the other domain. For instance, being a per­fectionist may be useful at work, but the same behaviors may lead to less effective parenting or in other ways inhibit one from adequately fulfilling family responsibilities.

It should be noted that the conceptual grounding of time, strain, and behavior-based dimensions of work-family conflict have been debated. As Mike notes, they do not have strong empirical validation and may confound the work-family construct with its putative causes and outcomes.

What happens if work-family conflicts are not effectively managed? Work-family conflict can result in a number of dysfunctional outcomes, including burnout, decrease in mental well-being, deteriorating relationships, and job and life dissatisfaction. Presumably in the hopes that a better under­standing of the causes of work-family conflict will help people avoid it, con­siderable research has been directed toward trying to understand the antecedents of work-family conflict. Some of the things that lead to conflict are fairly intuitive. For example, working long hours, long commutes to and from work, workload, lack of management support, job involvement, and level of importance assigned to one’s work, all predict the extent to which WIF. Further, marital status, number of children, level of importance assigned to family roles, and lack of family support all contribute to FIW.

Further, some people are more susceptible to work-family conflict than others. For instance, research suggests certain personality types are more inclined to experience work-family conflict. Neuroticism, Type A tenden­cies, and negative affectivity are all related to work-family conflict. As one might expect, age also relates to work-family conflict. There’s initial evi­dence that as we get older, we develop more effective strategies for dealing with these conflicts.

Objective:-Both academic and corporate research are confirming the existence of work-to-family and family-to-work spillover and the importance of healthy work-family interface for families and businesses. This is to prove that there is a need of balancing work & family in everybody’s life irrespective of the work he/she is doing & to maintain a healthy time table for the commencement of day to day activities.Our day to day schedule is becoming hectic.In such situation peoples are losing their temper, & are into wrong doings of all sort.Schedule needs to made for maintaining a healthy Work-Family Balance.People are so busy in making money that they started neglecting their family.They start giving more importance to their work and no time for family.This should not be the case as all these make a man a mechanized robot.They began neglecting all social activities,as a result their family suffers or feel their absence and sadness fill their lives. Unhappiness creeps in such family and destroys their life.We should keep in mind that Money is not everything in Life.Yes,we can say money as the need fulfiller.we can fullfill are needs with the money earned.But we should not be always money making oriented.If we neglect our family for making more money, then all money earned goes worthless ! So,apart from work giving quality time to the family is very essential.

Work-Family Balance

“Work- family balance” is a term that refers to an individual’s perceptions of the degree to which s/he is experiencing positive relationships between work and family roles, where the relationships are viewed as compatible and at equilibrium with each other. Like a fulcrum measuring the daily shifting weights of time and energy allocation between work and family life, the term, “work-family balance,” provides a metaphor to countervail the historical notion that work and family relationships can often be competing, at odds, and conflicting.

Sociologist Rosabeth Moss Kanter was one of the first scholars to critique the prevailing assumption that workplaces and jobs must be designed to separate work from family demands. She challenged this approach as being socially necessary for employee effectiveness in carrying out the dual demands of being a worker and being a family member. She noted that as employing organizations shifted to be more demographically diverse, these stereotyped views on appropriate work and family relationships needed to be re-viewed in order to prevent negative processes affecting individuals and groups who were demographically different from the majority. Women as a growing minority group in employing organizations were having difficulty rising up the hierarchy and being accepted as managers as they juggled employment, and caregiving and domestic demands. These same issues are still relevant to organizational studies today. Most men and women are juggling competing life demands outside of workplaces that still are largely designed based on a culture that work is the central role in employees’ lives, and a belief that workers should sacrifice family personal roles in order to be successful on the job.

From Work-Family Conflict To Work-Family Enrichment: Competing Negative and Positive Views

Traditionally, researchers have assumed a “win-lose” relationship between work and family and focused on work-family conflict, based on the belief that individuals have limited time and resources to allocate to their many life roles. Most research relevant to the notion of work-family balance has been conducted on work-family conflict, which can be viewed as the opposite of work-family balance.

The construct “work-family balance” is a more positive way of viewing work-family relationships. It is consistent with the emergence of a new stream of research being promulgated by such writers as Greenhaus and Powell on work-family enrichment, the idea that work and family can also enrich and complement each other. Overall, research on work-family balance can be characterized as being organized along these competing positive and negative perspectives.

Work-Family Conflict

The negative perspective on balancing work-family relationships emanates out of role conflict theory, which Goode noted assumed that having multiple roles is distracting, depletes resources, and results in role strain and overload. With regard to work family roles, when employees try to carry these competing demands out while being embedded in traditional workplaces that are designed to support separation of work and family demands, they are likely to experience higher work-family role conflict.

Greenhaus and Beutell wrote one of the earliest theoretical articles on work-family conflict. They defined work-family conflict as a type of inter-role conflict where work and family roles are incompatible and seen as competing for an individual’s time, energy, and behaviours on and off the job. Their work built on earlier role theory by Ebaugh and others who defined a role as involving behavioural expectations associated with a position in a social structure.

Early research on work and family didn’t necessarily differentiate where the role conflict was occurring, such as whether it was due to an inflexible job (work to family conflict) or whether it was due to not having back up child care for when a child was sick (family to work conflict) Later Kossek and Ozeki conducted a meta-analysis reviewing decades of studies that show that life and job satisfaction for men and women is affected by the type and direction of these competing role dynamics. Given women’s traditional greater responsibility for caregiving, work to family conflict was found to affect life satisfaction to a greater degree for women than for men. Job satisfaction for men and women was equally affected by family to work conflict. Understanding the type, direction, and source of the conflict can help organizations and managers design appropriate workplace interventions to support work-family balance.

For example, having to work overtime on a job and being forced to miss a child’s school event is an example of time-based work-to-family conflict. However, being absent from work because a babysitter did not show up is an example of time-based family- to- work conflict. For the overtime example, an organization might allow for just in time worker scheduling to allow those workers with the most interest in overtime to volunteer. In the other example, managing overtime wouldn’t solve the babysitter not showing up. Helping the employee find back-up care for emergencies or letting them work from home once in a while in emergencies would.

An example of energy-based family-to-work conflict is when an employee is too tired to work well in the morning because he or she was up all night with an ill spouse. An example of energy- based work to family conflict is when someone is too tired to cook dinner or clean the house, because of working too intensely on the job. In order to promote work- family balance to promote better energy allocation between roles, in the first example, the firm needs to provide dependent care support or leave from work. In the second example, the firm might need to increase staffing levels so the workload is dispersed among more workers, or provide stress management techniques that allow workers to take breaks.

An example of behaviour-based family-to-work conflict is when one is so stressed from a family demand, that the individual is unable to concentrate at work or exhibits private emotions such as crying at work that would be more associated with the private sphere. An example of behaviour- based work- to-family conflict is when someone comes home and yells at one’s spouse or kicks one’s pet because of anger related to work. In these cases, interventions to reduce the stress in the particular domain where it is occurring would result in better work-family balance.

Work-family enrichment.

The positive approach to studying work-family balance emanates from Seiber’s role accumulation theory which assumes that having multiple life roles can be psychologically enriching, as long as the roles are ones that the individual has high identity with, sees of good quality, and reap rewards and life privileges. Under a role accumulation perspective, a person can achieve balance by being able to regulate and have greater control over when where and how invest time and energy between work and family to ensure that they perceive they are accumulating positive outcomes from both roles. The more roles one has that provide positive rewards, the better off an individual is, unless s/he has too much too do from the sum of these roles (causing role overload) or has too many competing role demands. The assumption is that work and family balance have instrumental and affective paths. The instrumental path focuses on how positive skills and behaviours and rewards from one domain (such as income, learning how to manage people or solve problems) can help one perform better in the other domain. The affective path focused on the degree to which mood and emotions from one domain can seep in and positively impact how one feels, acts and behaves in the other domain. So if someone has a good day at work, s/he comes home and are able to have extra energy and emotions to allocate to the family. Or if one has a wonderful family life, s/he is able to bring these positive emotions to work.

A final set of studies focus on the processes of balancing relationships between work and family. Some writers focus on compensation- how having a better role quality and higher identity in one domain such as the work role may compensate for lower role quality and investment in another domain such as family. For example, an individual who highly identifies with work might invest more in work roles to compensate for a less fulfilling family life.

Other writers might focus on segmentation and integration processes, the degree to which individuals have preferences for keeping work and personal roles segmented or integrated. Job and organizational design can interact with preferences for the enactment of life roles and management of the work and family boundary. A study by Kossek, Lautsch, & Eaton on teleworking found that individuals who teleworked and adopted an integrative boundary management style were likely to experience higher work to family conflict but not family to work conflict than individuals who adopted a separation style. Their study showed that the more the workplace is brought into the home via job and organizational design, the more likely it increases work-to- family conflict, particularly for individuals who like to integrate work and family roles (say watching children while taking a work call).

Cross-over effects is another new area of study: how the work-family balance of one family member such as a wife or husband may transfer over positive and negative relationships to the other spouse. For example, if a spouse has a good or bad day at work the balance of the partner may be affected.

Direction Of Work- Family Interactions, Disciplinary Foci, and Levels of Analysis

It is also important to note that research on work-family balance is grounded in distinct disciplines that are not well integrated, which influences the direction and content of studies focus. Besides generally designing research studies as measuring generally positive or negative outcomes from balancing work and family, writers in the field have tended to focus on either how work affects family OR how family affects work. This tendency to assume a particular direction of relationship has ramifications for the measures and outcomes studies. In several handbooks such as Work and Life Integration and The Work and Family Handbook, the editors noted that researchers who study how family demands are affected by work demands often use different measures and focus on different levels of analysis in assessing work-family relationships then management scholars who might study how work responsibilities are affected by being a parent or a spouse.

One large cluster of studies focuses on how family demands affect work. Historically, much of the writing in the management and organizational literature followed this approach. A general assumption is that the more family and other nonwork demands and interests an individual has, the more likely work is going to be negative impacted. For example, researchers in this stream might measure the number of children an employee has, his or her marital status. They would then link these personal demographics to the degree to which a person experiences positive work attitudes (e.g., commitment, job satisfaction) and work behaviors (e.g., turnover, performance). The level of analysis tended to be largely individual and focused on the employees’ personal, family and work characteristics.

The other directional group of studies examines the different ways work impacts the family. Writers coming from this approach tend to emanate out of psychology and sociology and belief that the structure, stresses, and demands of work can make it more difficult for individuals to fulfill their family responsibilities as well as experiencing job stress at home. Some people refer to this negative seepage as negative spillover from work to home.

Writers from this perspective might measure the degree to which inflexible work hours, lack of supervisor support, job demands and the structure of the workplace, negatively impact family and personal outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction, equal participation in family and domestic roles, life satisfaction, work-life balance). Here the level of analysis tended to focus more on workplace, job and organizational level. Researchers also might typically study of the availability of policies to support work and family, and the degree to which organizational culture and managers provided a supportive culture and norms to facilitate use of policies as well as positive relationships between work and home. For example, an individual would not have to sacrifice their family life in order to get ahead at work.

Moving From Study of Work and Family To Study of Work and Life Integration

The future directions of the work and family field are moving from the notion of work and family balance and conflict to terms of growing acceptance of work and nonwork life balance or work and life balance. Such terms suggest that many employees, even those without dependents or visible forms of family related to caregiving can experience the need to seek work and family balance. It also suggests as men become more involved in caregiving and domestic roles and women more involved in work and breadwinning roles, conflict and enrichment may more strongly relate to the role an individual is enacting (e.g., caregiver or breadwinner) than gender.

METHODOLOGY

Managing Work and Family

Surprisingly, our literature has more to say about the antecedents and con­sequences of work-family conflict and less on strategies to effectively man­age it. However, there are some studies that have explored this issue and just knowing what causes work-family conflict can lead to an understanding of how to effectively manage conflict.

Carefully consider work-family issues when choosing a job. The prede­cessors of this column once interviewed Kevin Murphy and asked him how he manages work-family conflict. One thing he did was to choose a job that would offer him flexibility to deal with his family life. For example, if a potential employer seemed less than favorable about bringing children to meetings, that wasn’t a job he wanted. Admittedly, not all of us have so many options to choose from that we can afford to be this selective, but it’s cer­tainly worth considering the type of environment that would be ideal and aiming for such positions. Be sure to find out how the organization you’re considering feels about bringing kids into work or if there is a strict culture of coming in early and working late. If the organization frowns upon anyone leaving before 5:00 and you have kids that need to picked up from school, that’s got to factor into your job decision or you could be facing years of con­flict. Some firms are “family friendly” while others have a reputation of not being so family friendly.

Further, don’t feel guilty or feel like you are settling by considering these issues. As Lillian points out, finding a job that allows you to meet your fam­ily’s needs is an issue of fit. We consider a host of fit issues when we make a job choice; why shouldn’t we also consider how the decision is going to fit other aspects of our life? In other words, it’s important to take a holistic approach when you’re searching for a job. Don’t just jump on the most pres­tigious offer or the one that offers the most money. Work-family issues must also be considered.

Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC). SOC is a life-man­agement coping style for work-family situations. Although related, SOC is different from time management. This coping style consists of being more selective in focusing on a few goals, persistence in order to achieve those goals, and seeking additional resources (e.g., child care) to compensate for lack of time. Basically, it is suggested that those experiencing work-family conflict should take the time to evaluate which goals are most important to them and focus on achieving those goals. Take the time to evaluate your goals and if the activities you engage in on a daily basis help you to meet those goals. Does reviewing a textbook help you meet your goals, or is it a task that takes considerable time but does not help you make progress toward one of your goals? If a task does not help you make progress toward a goal and you have the ability to avoid it (i.e., it’s not a requirement of your job), don’t hesitate to say no.

Further, it’s important to recognize that you don’t need to go it alone. You should find ways to compensate for lack of time. This may involve child care, paying to have your house cleaned, having groceries delivered to your home, or getting someone to walk your dog. Lillian points out that it may be easier for folks with money to compensate for lack of time because they can pay to outsource many of these things.

Research shows that application of SOC in both the work and family domains leads to lower job and family stressors which lowers work-family conflict (in both directions). For a more detailed account of this strategy see Baltes and Heydens-Gahir (2003).

Communicate your responsibilities to those at work and at home. As Lou points out, a very important part of managing work-family conflict is simply making those around you aware of your responsibilities. For instance, if you only have daycare certain times of the week and need to watch the kids when they’re not in daycare, tell your employer this schedule so you can be sure your home responsibilities are considered when meetings are arranged. You should have similar discussions with your significant other as well. There may be days he or she will need to make dinner or pick the kids up from school. It’s also a good idea to talk often. Responsibilities at both work and home may change so it’s important to inform everyone when that occurs. Also, you may find some things are not working out and you need to devise a new strategy to accommodate all of your responsibilities.

Time management. To minimize work-family conflict, it’s important to manage your time well. I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know, but let me add to this. Macan, Shahani, Dipboye, and Phillips (1990) suggest that time management can be broken down into three dimen­sions. First, goal setting and prioritization involve daily decisions about what is most important to be accomplished. Second, the mechanics of time man­agement include such activities as making “to do” lists. Finally, a preference for organization involves maintaining a methodical, organized approach to work. Just like the SOC model, the time-management model first stresses the importance of deciding on what goals are most important for you to achieve and making sure you focus on those goals

Increase your social network. I know some of you are balking at this sug­gestion. After all, if you’re struggling to make time for work and family, how on earth are you going to fit a social life into the equation? Who has time for friends? Well, believe it or not, there’s evidence that increased social support can help decrease work-family conflict. Further, Leslie’s own research sug­gests that decreasing social involvement in nonwork activities actually leads to higher levels of work-family conflict (Neal & Hammer, forthcoming). So, don’t quit spending time with friends because you feel like you have too much to do at home and at work. Doing so could make you less effective in both domains.

Future Research Trends

Research on work-family balance is only likely to increase among organizational scholars. One reason for heightened interest around the globe in work-family balance today is changing workforce demographics. A general trend around the world is a gradual but constant growth in the labor market participation of women. Using the U.S. as an example, which has some of the highest rates, research by the Families and Work Institute shows that 83% of all two-parent families with children under 18 have both parents working at least part of this time. Another study by Cohen reports that half of all children under 18 will live in a single parent home for at least part of their childhood in the U.S.

Besides individuals with children, work-family balance concerns affect employees in general. For example, research by the Families and Work Institute reports that one

third of employees say they have to choose between advancing in their jobs or devoting attention to their family or personal lives and one third will have managed elder care- care for a parent over the past year.

Another reason for growing interest relates technological transformations that have resulted in some workplaces operating 24-7 as well as the ability to telework and be constantly accessible to work and jobs by email and cell phone and pagers even when not formally at the workplace. With 24-7 operations, the definition of the typical workday and what work hours are “normal” to support work family balance are also likely to redefined. For example, a U.S. based view of a 9-5 Eastern time zone of normal working hours, may not provide balance for workers where it is the middle of the night in India or China.

Future research on work family balance will focus on differences in cross-cultural perceptions, how needs for balance shift over the life course, and how different jobs, family structures, and demographic groups may vary in their access to, perceptions of and outcomes from the level of work family balance they are afforded on and off the job. Multi-level research integrating individual and organizational perspectives and measures, and positive and negative measures is also likely to increase in future studies.

Job design and work and family rewards and resources are likely to become of particularly increasingly importance in studying work family balance and conflict with highest stresses at either end of the economic spectrum. Individuals in higher paid managerial jobs are likely to experience higher work conflict and a lower balance due to overwork. There will be too many work hours competing for individual time and energy and too high workloads.

Individuals at the lower end of the economic spectrum will experience work and family conflict more likely due to a lack of flexibility and ability to control when one works and a lack of economic resources to buy high quality child care and dependent care. Thus, employees throughout the organization’s hierarchy will experience lower work-family balance but for different reasons. This trend makes it critical for future research to not only measure conflict, but to assess the processes and reasons for conflict and the role of organizational and job structures, as well as family and social and cultural structures (such as how family responsibilities are shared or viewed as ought to be shared) in enhancing or mitigating conflict and balance. The more that workers have access to jobs enabling higher control how when and where they do their jobs and the amount of workload, and the more that communities are design to provider greater public and private supports to enable dual enactment in work and family roles, the more likely that members of society will have greater work-life balance.

Further Readings and References

Bond, J., Thompson, C., Galinsky, E., & Prottas, D. (2003). Highlights of the 2002 national study of the changing workforce. NY Families and Work Institute.

Cohen, S. (2002). Cohabitation and the declining marriage premium for men. Work and Occupations, 29,343-383..

Ebaugh, H. (1988). Becoming an ex: The process of role exit. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Goode, W. (1960). A theory of role strain. American Sociological Review, 25, 483-496.

Greenhaus, G. & Powell. G. 2006. When work and family are allies: A theory of work-family enrichment. Academy of Management Review, 31, 72-92.

Greenhaus, J. & Beutell, N. 1985. Sources of conflict between work and fmaly roles. Academy of Management Review, 10: 76-88.

Hammer L.,Bauer T. Grandey A. (2003). Work-family conflict and work-related withdrawal behaviors. Journal of Business and Psychology.17, 419-436.

Kanter, R. (1977). Work and family in the United States: A critical review for research and policy. NY, NY: Russell Sage.

Kanter, R. M. (1977). Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books.

Kossek, E., Lautsch, B., Eaton, S. 2006. Telecommuting, control, and boundary management: Correlates of policy use and practice, job control, and work-family effectiveness. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 68, 347-367.

Kossek, E. E. & Lambert, S. (2005). Work And Life Integration: Organizational, Cultural and Psychological Perspectives. Mahwah, N.J.: LEA Press.

Kossek E. & Ozeki, C. (1998). Work-family conflict, policies and the job-life satisfaction relationship: A review and directions for work-family research. Journal of Applied Psychology.83: 139-149.fol

Pitt-Catsouphes, M., Kossek, E. & Sweet, S. (2006). The Work-Family Handbook: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, Methods, and Approaches. Mahwah, N.J.: LEA Press.

Seiber, S. (1974). Toward a theory of role accumulation. American Sociological Review, 39, 567-578

Sources of Data(References):

1.Finding an Extra Day a Week: The Positive Influence of perceived Job Flexibility on Work and Family Life Balance. Published by: National Council on Family Relations

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/585774

2. The Impact of Job Characteristics on Work-to-Family Facilitation:

Testing a Theory and Distinguishing a

The policy of health and social care is eloquent based on the care and demands of the older people. Older people as well as service providers are affected due to the continuing changes in health provision and pressures for cost containment. Many a time, older people have found themselves means-tested for services that have been provided free of cost. Arrangements from nursing care homes limit the money available all over the world, use of a formula that interprets low, medium and high need. A little contribution to the cost of care is paid. According to an international research, the principles of these kinds of agencies cover assessment, for example, the single assessment process (SAP) and the national service framework. However, the approach of any multi-national agency should expose, in both its structure and process, good and latest nursing practice.

Now it is a well-known fact that nursing assessment for older people is important. An expert nursing care and care homes for older people plays an important role in the care and comfort of older people.

Health and social care needs have been inter-related by the people who need continuing care. Nursing care in care homes has been long argued that distinctions between the two are unworkable. Thus, an interview was conducted which help older could people to communicate and balance their health needs with their chosen lifestyle.

Clinical judgment is used by the Care Home staffs to take care of older people and enable them to , improve, maintain, recover and to cope up with their problems and to achieve a better quality of life.

Older people make up a large and increasing percentage of the current population. As people grow older, with the rate of increasing their ages, they are increasingly at risk of so many health problems many injuries also. Falling down is the first indication of an

undetected illness. Major preventions should be taken for these kinds of problems as they create considerable mortality, morbidity and suffering for older people and their families, and incur social costs due to hospital and nursing home admissions.

Targeted strategies should be made which aim at behavioral change and risk modification for those living in the community appear to be most promising.

Research methods

Online research data from different web sites, different articles, and theoretical studies from different books. The methodology which had been used was collecting data from both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources were the personal interaction with the experts and secondary was the information collected from websites.

Qualitative interviews were used to explore views on maintaining dignity of 18 residents of nursing homes. A qualitative descriptive approach was used. The analysis was both deductive (arising from the dignity model) and inductive (arising from participants’ views).

LITERATURE REVIEW AND FINDINGS

Today most of the older people living in nursing homes are losing their life there itself. Model based on empirical, is of dignity which has been developed and which forms the basis of a brief psychotherapy to help in promoting dignity and reduce distress at the end of life of older people. The main objective of this study is to explore the generalisability of the dignity model to help older people in nursing homes. As a result of this study, the main categories and features of the dignity model were broadly and intuitively supported on various issues like illness-related problems, social aspects of the illness experience and dignity protecting repertoire. However, some of the sub themes which were related to death were not supported and two new themes came out. Some of the residents found their symptoms and loss of their function were due to old age rather than illness. Although residents did not emerge to experience distress due to thoughts of impending death, rather they were distressed by the multiple losses they had experienced.

These finding helps in adding to our understanding of the concerns of older people in care homes on maintaining dignity and suggest that dignity therapy may boost up their sense of dignity. This is one of the major reasons of choosing this topic related to older people as in today’s scenario, older people are loosing their existence. As per the findings we got to know that the majority of residents who are living in nursing homes die within 2 years from multiple kinds of medical pathologies. Generally they are heavily reliant on staff for their care, which can grind down their sense of dignity. Maintaining dignity are considered as the highest priority in health and social care strategy documents in most European countries and particular concerns have been raised about loss of dignity in care. Although there is a big deal about rhetoric around dignity, there is no agreed and prescribed definition of this. A brief review of the studies based on international researches exploring the concept of dignity from a nursing perspective have showed a wide range of definitions and understanding related to the construct; however, a most common and important theme was to respect a patient as a person. Two of the studies have explored the different views of people on dignity of older people in care homes. One of them found that not being a burden for others was important to residents, and their sense of dignity was threatened by illness and care needs, at the same time the other one described three main themes:

The body which can not be recognized.
Feebleness and dependence on others.
Self inner strength and a sense of coherence.

One of the approaches related to dignity-oriented care provision, which focuses directly and specifically on end of life, is Chochinov’s dignity-conserving model. This model was developed from interviews which were conducted with patients with advanced cancer and other old age problems (average age was 75 years), focusing on the factors which supports and undermines their dignity. The particularly most important aspect of Chochinov’s dignity model is that it has provided the framework for psychotherapy which helps in promoting a sense of dignity and reduces psychological and spiritual distress for older people who are reaching the end of their life.This study has shown promising results for people with advanced cancer and other diseases, along with their families. It is quite clear from different international researches that older people living in care homes are completely helpless vulnerable to having a fractured sense of dignity, which suggests that dignity therapy, may be of benefit to them. Since the therapy is brief which usually takes only two sessions and can be delivered at the bedside by a trained health care professional, it may be feasible to offer this in a care home setting. However, the dignity model, and therefore dignity therapy, is based on the views of people who are residing in home care centers, most of whom were cared for in the community. It has been shown that less than 10% of residents of nursing homes die

from diagnosed cancers and other old age distresses also. Whether or not the model is generalsable to people with no these kinds of problems or to those living in other settings such as care homes, is not known. The aim of this study is to explore and understand the generalisability of Chochinov’s dignity model to older people cared for in nursing homes. In recent years there has been a considerable increase in the need for effective health care and them oral boosting for older patients. Our society is ageing day by day, and a large number of people are going into advanced old age.ˆ ?‰dentification of treatable diseases before it stats its affect in older people, promises reduction in premature mortality and morbidity in old age. Most of the elderly and frail people are receiving long term care in the community and there are a number of home care centers for older people.

There is a perception that some early intervention and rehabilitation services, currently which are being provided in hospitals and home care centers, might be provided in community settings. More effective health care centers are available for providing care managing chronic diseases, such as chronic lung disease, cerebrovascular and coronary heart disease, diabetes, depression, and degenerative conditions such as osteoporosis, dementia and Parkinson’s disease. To be implemented for all who might benefit these interventions need to be organized into structured programs.

To be the most effective home care center for older people, and to respond to the needs of individuals, care planning should take integrated account of all of the health care needs of individuals particularly when these include both physical and mental health problems as well as the protection of their dignity. Effective health promotion and proactive health care provided by the health care centers for older people are extending the active life-span of older people, reducing the number of people who suffer disability, vulnerability and dependence.

The National Service Framework for Older People has been published to ensure the delivery of higher quality services to older people all over the world. The NSF requires the identification of service champions for older people within Each home care organization which are running for older people. Older people should have access to a new range of intermediate care services at home or in designated care settings to promote their independence by providing advanced services from the nursing care services and local authorities to prevent unnecessary hospital admission and effective rehabilitation services to enable early discharge from hospital and to prevent premature or unnecessary admission to long-term residential care.

There should be a safe and effective care for older people in enhanced care settings in the community and nursing care centers which require co-ordinated and competent care by a skilled workforce of healthcare professionals, working efficiently together. There should be a proper assessment and rehabilitation in community settings nursing care centers for older people. At the same time there should be a rapid response for acutely ill older people and also a medical support should be provided by Hospital at Home schemes.

Following services should be provided to older people:
Respite services:

Services like podiatry, occupational therapy, hairdressing, personal care, social support, shopping assistance, small group programs, carer support and domestic assistance for self funded retirees and younger people living with a disability and overnight community respite cottage.

Service like Family Support Service for families who have children with disabilities arising from a combination of physical, intellectual and sensory impairment with or without complication health issues (0-16 years). Other Services like Domestic Assistance, Personal Care, Social Support and also Other Food Services, Assessment, Case Management, Home

Maintenance, Goods/Equipment Provision and Transport and a centre-based day care,

social support and other Services like transport should be provided.

Nursing services:

Should provide nursing care and other services like personal care, allied health care, respite care, social support, domestic assistance, assessment, case management, and personal care, domestic assistance, in home respite, social support, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, volunteers & chaplaincy. Nursing care; they also provide centre-based day care, in-home respite care, allied health care, other food services, domestic assistance, social support, information and advocacy, counselling/support, language assistance. etc.

Meals on wheels:

This service used to deliver meals to the older people.

Home care services:

Should provide personal care – night time mobile attendant care service for people with physical disabilities who require personal care & assistance throughout the night. Domestic assistance for younger disability;

Should also provide centre-based day care, respite care, podiatrist, hairdresser, transport, home maintenance, minor modification, Home Assist Secure, social support, extended programs, mental health program, younger disability programs, carer support, volunteer coordination.

Other services:

Should provide other services like, Centre based and in-home respite, podiatry, occupational therapy, hairdressing, personal care, social support, shopping assistance,

small group programs, carer support and domestic assistance for self funded retirees and younger people living with a disability, overnight community respite cottage and Veterans Home Care.

Community health centers:

Should provide domestic assistance, social support, allied health care, nursing care, personal care, assessment, health promotion, indigenous health.

Allied health care services:

Services should be Centre based and in-home respite, hairdressing, social support, shopping assistance, small group programs and domestic assistance for self funded retirees and younger people living with a disability, personal care etc.

Following measures should be taken by Nursing care homes for older people:
In order to help the older people from poverty, isolation and neglect, following actions should be taken:

Make older people enjoy a better life by providing life-enhancing services and vital support.
Keep developing products that are specifically designed for older people and which are helpful in their day to day life.
Provide advice and information through their help lines, publications and online at all times.
Fund pioneering research into all aspects of getting older.
Join forces that will ensure more of their funds go where they’re needed.

In order to improve the current situation of the place, the agency needs a huge amount of money. So it should work on the following areas to raise funds for the development:

Donations

The agency should always look for donations and gifts which are always proved as the greatest source of income.

Legacies

The average value of new legacies has been increased over the years.

British Journal of Social Work 2009 39(4); doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcp024

Events
Events and sponsorship are the most valuable sources of income. Money is raised through an exciting variety of events including dances, local walks and runs, overseas treks and cycle challenges.
Chris tingle

All members of the agency should come together and help in raising over a million pounds to support their work with disadvantaged older people.

Carol singing

The members of agency should use their voice to raise money for the welfare of the older people. They can either sing door-to-door, out in their community or plan a special carol service.

Membership and sponsorship schemes:

Many voluntary organisations operate membership schemes. These often offer something to us in return – access to historic buildings, nature reserves, galleries, or magazines and the chance to attend events.

More and more organisations now offer the opportunity for supporters to sponsor a beneficiary or a project. These schemes bring us closer to the work we are supporting so we can get a real picture of what sort of difference our money is making.

Schemes that seem identical on the surface can be very different in detail – they are all valuable as far as the charity is concerned but may offer different experiences to us as a donor and we need to know what to expect.

In oder to motivate the memebers of the nursing care homes, the managers should use the following ways:

By rewarding the team members

Always implimenting new ideas

Flexible benefits

By giving responsibilities and recognitions as well

In order to get more and more amenities for the older people, the nursing homes and communities for older people along with the other members of the agencies should work on the following principles:

Their vision should see a world in which older people flourish.
Their mission should to improve the lives of older people.
They should make a real difference to the lives of older people. They can do it by combining the unique strengths, skills and experience of the great charity organizations and sponsors.
They should create one united organization that will be stronger and more influential than ever before.
They should develop excellent and sustainable services that enhance older people’s lives.
They should deliver transformational and sustainable change through their research, policy and influencing.
They should always provide definitive products and services tailored specifically for older people but available to all.
They should maximize their reach through their retail estate and quality training services.
They should create a single, powerful compelling brand by 2010.
They should try to become a world renowned organization, reaching out to enhance the lives of older people globally.
They should create an effective partnership with their national and regional networks.
Agencies for older people should implement the following strategies:

There should be a strategy which the agencies should implement, strategy and action plan following consultation on a broad range of seniors’ issues including health, transport, workforce participation and housing.

The main aim this strategy should be to ensure seniors feel safe, supported and have access to appropriate services. To achieve this, the agencies should be keen to explore

ideas for working in partnership across government as well as with business and the community. The Government is developing a whole-of-government loom for the way they support seniors into the future. The strategy will definitely identify priority areas for action with an emphasis on making positive changes for seniors who are vulnerable, disadvantaged or socially isolated.

Journal of Aging & Social Policy, Volume 21, Issue 1 January 2009
The socially isolated older people should be provided the following amenities:

Basically, the meaning of social isolation is a low level of interaction with others combined with the experience of loneliness. It is a serious issue for seniors because of the unfavorable impact it can have on health and wellbeing of the older people.

Although the majority of older people are not socially isolated, the number of people at risk of social isolation is expected to increase with the ageing of the population. The older people living in nursing care homes are also socially isolated.

The older people who are residing in these kinds of agencies are either retired, physically disabled and ill health or loss of a partner and loss of transport.

It should always be given importance that older people have the opportunity to be socially connected and, if they wish, to participate in community life.

There is a project called The Cross-Government Project which is working to reduce Social Isolation of Older People and was established in 2003 to identify and develop innovative responses to reduce the social isolation of seniors. The project has identified many key findings that can inform program design, service delivery and policy development. A number of reports from various stages of the project have been published. The project also developed best practice guidelines to assist service providers, government agencies and community groups in designing and implementing projects to reduce social isolation of seniors.

The British journal of social work

Following improvements should be made in nursing care homes for older people:

In order to improve the condition of Nursing care homes and communities for older people, the following services should be provided:

Rents of the agencies should be decreased.
The place should always be kept clean and hygienic. To keep the place clean and hygienic there should be a well managed housekeeping department.

As we know that the success any organization is totally dependent upon the employees of the organization. If the employees are getting their job satisfaction then only they give their 100% to the organization. So, If the emplyees of the agency are not satisfied with their salary, then they should be paid competitively. So the salaries should be competitive (In comparison to other organizations). Hence, agency should always do Salary survey, to settle this grievance of the Employees.

Employees’ nature of the job should be challenging at each and every stage but not so difficult that it appears impossible. It should not be boring, hence, set challenging goals for the employees of the agency.

Upward/Downward flow of communication should always be ensured.
Management of the agency should be highly effective.
All the employees of the agency should feel the sense of belongingness with the kind of work they do.
Managers of the agency should always play the role of counselors and mentors in the Organization.
At all times, the agency should identify the need of the Employees as well of the older people and should decide the motivation strategy.
The way of reaching these agencies should always be kept convenient.

If the social work agencies are facing difficulties in reaching the park, then the government should also provide transportation to them. The government can not afford to loose these social work agencies at the cost of bad transportation as these agencies play a vital role in uplifting the welfare of the older people.

The first and the most key principle of good practice is to be aware of the presence of older people in an emergency and take active steps to locate and identify them.

It is an essential step that relief interventions are developing to make consultation with the target community. To perform this activity, first it is necessary to locate, meet and assess the needs of older people through direct observation and discussion and can also be done by directly working with them to identify and address both their immediate needs and their vision for recovery. There should be some steps to achieve these goals. First that includes locating older people, checking their records in service facilities to find out if the expected numbers of older people have attended and, if not, investigate why they are not attending. There should be an ‘outreach’ approach into assessments, which can include staff, volunteers and other older people to locate vulnerable older people in particular. Mutual support networks of older people can also be used to gather information on the whole community of older people and also the civic, religious and other community leaders can be enquired because getting on track of older people is the foremost important task in order to make developments for them. Group meetings should be organized by using participatory rapid appraisal (PRA) techniques to allow older people to identify, prioritize and begin to address their problems and explore their capacities.

It should be ensured that older people are represented on relevant decision-making and advisory bodies such as disaster preparedness committees, emergency co-ordination committees, nursing care homes and special issue groups. Older people all over the world have begun to control their own lives and influence decisions in their own communities. Basic training should be provided to older people’s representatives and other home care centers to help them to identify the most vulnerable members in a community.

Several basic needs have been identified for older people.

If there homes have been destroyed, they need building materials and labor to help

rebuild shelters. To cook food, they need help for collecting fuel and other ways to share

cooking arrangements with neighbors or other individuals.

Clothing, fooding and shelter are among the basic items required for older people.

Nursing care homes should also provide some work to older people; agencies should address the basic needs and should therefore take account of the some needful factors.

Many older people are not automatically given shelter by their adult children and they need and find shelter for themselves. Nursing care homes are aiming at grouping older people together with people, whom they do not know (for example, to make up the numbers required to qualify for shelter or for allocation of supplies such as utensils, plastic sheeting and blankets) can lead to problems of exclusion and abuse

as the larger group rejects or resents the presence of the older person. There are situations where basic shelter facilities provided by agencies working for older people leave older people sleeping on cold, hard, or damp surfaces may mean that chronic but manageable joint problems become acute and severely debilitating. But there are solutions to overcome theses problems. Nursing care homes are working on that. They are providing better services to older people. Nursing centers are providing proper fooding system to them. They have simple age-related clinics to deal with issues such as joint pain and other ailments associated with ageing are especially relevant where displaced people are sleeping in the open or on hard, cold or damp surfaces. These clinics are helping in reducing pressure on limited resources by treating groups of older people together, and also they are limit ‘revolving door’ patterns of repeated patient visits to regular clinics.

They make ensured that drugs are available to treat any kind of diseases suffering by older people. Several psychosocial programs are developing that involve and support older people in all conditions. In situations of displacement this may mean dealing with issues such as the fear of death and burial in a ‘foreign’ place, as well misery for losses already sustained. These nursing care homes are also providing proper food that is digestible by older people for example: maize flour rather than whole grain maize etc.), and that takes account of digestive disorders and a common lack of teeth. They provide food which is familiar and culturally acceptable. They also provide Lobby for supplementary feeding systems to include severely malnourished

older people. They also ensure that food for work programs do not exclude older people from food provision and older people have the resources (such as fuel, water and utensils) to cook their food rations if they are not taking from the nursing care home. If the older people are living alone or in pairs, it is important that the utensils available

to them are manageable and enough for them. Older people should be linked with their families, only if the family as well the older people are ready to keep the relationship. These agencies are understanding and taking care of the particular risk factors and issues affecting the nutritional status older people. Generally, older people try to hide their sorrow and bad experiences, they stay calm and patient, they try to gather together in groups to support each other and try to share their problems. Older people always want to build, not to destroy.”

Journal of Aging & Social Policy, Volume 21, Issue 1 January 2009
CONCLUSION

Nursing care homes for older peole and agencies working for older people teke care of the their interestd and also some of them rely on fundraising income to achieve their aims. The fundraisers make sure the these kinds of organizations achieve maximum impact in their fundraising activities, drawing on the strength of organization’s ‘brand’ to encourage supporters to make whatever contribution they can to their work.The agency is working for the welfare of socially isolated and disadvantaged older people and making efforts to overcome all the obstacles coming in their way to provide the best facility to the older people.For the disadvantaged older people, Christmas was never the same without their family……but the places like Caravan Park of Queensland gave them somewhere to stay and arranged counseling for them aˆ¦..things are better now…they are looking forward to Christmas.

Most of the elderly people are living alone. From the findings we came to know that there are 1.5 million people over 70 in the Netherlands, of whom a third are living alone. Usually older people in nursing care home have lost their partner. The largest majority of the older population still surviving and staying on their own. Half of the people over 70 still live with a partner. We can say that one in three lives alone. Only less than 10% live in an old age or nursing home. Many older people are only admitted to a home when they are very old other wise they go for nursing care homes and agencies which are working for older people. Only 3% of people in their seventies live in an old age or nursing home. Among people in their eighties the showed percentage is still higher, but the people living in homes are a minority (17%). It is only when people reach their nineties that half of them live in a home. More older people still have their partner

It has been forecasted that in the next twenty years, these nursing homes are going to get older people as they are providing the best amenities to them in terms of food, shelter and cloth. The number of older people who are living on their own is expected to decrease.

Some 47% of the people over seventy still have their partner and both of them residing in nursing care centers only. It is expected to become 53% in 2020. The average life expectancy will increase, especially among men. One of the causes for the increase in the number of elderly single people living on their own is that a smaller percentage will be admitted to old age and nursing homes. Between 1995 and 2000 the population over 70 increased by nearly 7%. Government policy of Dutch advocates that older people should go for such kinds of nursing home care centers and agencies working for them. The main aim of the policy is that people only get institutionalized when they can no longer live in their own environment and not with the help of organized home care.

Statistics of Netherlands expects a increase in the percentage of older people admitted into care facilities. While the population over 70 will increase by 50% in the next 20 years, the number of people admitted to a home is expected to increase by 20%. Care in the home environment will be increasingly replaced institutionalized care. Moreover, there will be a big development in forms in between living totally on ones own and living in a home: for instance living semi-independently in an apartment complex geared to providing care on demand.

REFERENCE AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Text referencing:

News paper articles:

Electronic sources:

Websites

Publications available from websites

British Journal of Social Work 2009 39(4); doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcp024

The British journal of social work

Journal of Aging & Social Policy, Volume 21, Issue

The view of young people about being looked after was not, in the main, a happy experience. The quality of care was often inadequate, and that they were marked out as different and as troublemakers just because they were in public care.

According to Westfield Therapeutic Children’s Home,

“The quality of preparation for leaving care, and of the aftercare subsequently provided, may profoundly affect the rest of a young person’s life”.

Other researchers have looked further on the profound effect on ‘looked after children’ by identifying the lapses in many areas of their lives- such as their transition from care to adulthood at an earlier age, lower levels of educational achievement; higher unemployment rates; higher levels of dependency on welfare benefit and higher levels of emotional disturbances.

The research attempts to identify the support systems in place for care leavers and how these support systems may be improved. Therefore, the author aspires to present a literature review that will investigate on the support mechanisms by conducting a research within a social service setting.

The next chapter will discuss key findings through literature review, on the following subtopics: Young care leavers and housing; education and employment.

In chapter three the researcher will explain the methodology which he will be used to undertake the research study. The methods chosen to obtain the data will also be discussed.

The data is presented thematically, analyzed and discussed in chapter four and references are made to the research explored in the literature review.

Chapter five concludes the findings from the research and further recommendations are made

Major studies on young people leaving care

The literature review will look at the major studies on young people leaving care. The studies used to inform this research are Jackson et al. (2003), Dixon and Wade (2006), Mendes and Moslehuddin (2006) and Cashmore et al (2007). The majority of these studies cover various aspects of leaving care especially their difficulties in achieving in education, placed in a well maintained accommodation and help to find employment.

The increased recognition of the problems faced by care leavers was the consequence of a number of actions-by researchers, practitioners, by the small but powerful voice of young people belonging to ‘in care’ groups, and by managers working with care leavers in the statutory and voluntary agencies, who have all come forward supporting and advocating on the behalf of care leavers. It was through their efforts that led to the introduction of new leaving care powers and duties through legislative change in the UK during the 1990s.

Specialist teams have emerged since the mid 80s to respond to what have been described as the core needs of care leavers-for accommodation, education, finance, careers and support networks (Davies, 2000).

It has been argued by Dixon and Wade (2006) that young people were in need of quality housing, in search for employment and are in desperate need of quality education to avoid being driven to abject poverty.

Their study showed that care leavers were generally having poor employment and housing outcomes and are in need of intensive remedial support from leaving care services to assist them back on to the housing and employment ladder.

Educational attainment

The poor educational attainment of care leavers has been the subject of research for a number of years. Research carried out by Dixon and Wade (2006) stated that only a minority of care leavers have gained qualifications at school, and that most care leavers have failed to establish a stable pattern of education, training or work in the early years after care and, in consequence, the majority have continued to be financially dependent on state welfare after leaving care.

Jackson et al. (2003) study seems to be consistent with those of Dixon and Wade in relation to care leaver’s lack of qualifications, inability to enrol for long term range of courses and work-experience placements. In their study, they found that only just over one in ten care leavers were studying for a General Certificate of Secondary Education at Advance level.

Dixon and Wade (2006) conducted a base line interview regarding further education for care leavers. In their study, they stated that some 35% of young people were in education. This is considerably higher than figures reported in past studies done by Biehal et al. 1995; and Broad 1998.

Their research findings pointed out that young people also dropped out of education and training placements due to financial difficulties, through being placed on courses unsuited to their abilities or interests, through personal or emotional difficulties in their lives or through lack of support and encouragement to maintain motivation (Dixon and Wade, 2006).

Cashmore et al (2007) make a similar point to that of Dixon and Wade’s (2006) on the educational experiences of young care leavers. In their study they noted that within 12 months after young people have leaved care, just over a third (35.6%) had completed Year 12 in Australia school system. Within 4-5 years after young people have leaved care, Cashmore and Paxman stated that a quarter of young care leavers had no recognized qualifications, as they have left school without completing their Year 12 studies and done no further study, (53)

Mendes and Moslehuddin (2006) study agrees with the above studies on young people and education. In their study, they find that due to a number of factors such as lack of continuity in placements and schools, young people in care are less likely to succeed academically.

Housing

Housing is another contested area which has been the subject of research for a number of years. The Northern Leaving Care Consortium make mention of the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 (CLCA 2000) and the Homelessness Act 2002 (HA 2002). These acts are designed to ensure that local authority children’s services and housing departments work together to ensure that care leavers accommodation needs are met and have priority need status.

Dixon and Wade (2006) study points to the struggle which care leavers face once they are out of state care. They draw on other studies which have shown a heightened risk of homelessness affecting young people soon after leaving care (Biehal & Wade 1999; Dixon & Stein 2005). Their study explain,

‘Young people’s reliance on family support has been extended… the shortage of affordable housing for young people creating a more protracted context for the transition to adulthood (pg200)

Their research draw on a follow-up interview carried out by 7 local authorities, some 12-15 months after young people have leaved care. Their report finds that care leavers housing circumstances were varied. One-third (31%) were living in independent housing, two-fifths (38%) were living in supported accommodation; 14% were living with family members; 6% were continuing to live with a foster carer after formal discharge from care; and a further 12% were living in ‘other’ settings (Dixon and Wade, 2006)

Almost two-thirds of the young people interviewed (64%) had either stayed in the same accommodation or just made one move since leaving care. The study claimed that the vast majority of these were moved to permanent tenancies. However, just over one-third of the care leavers had made two or more moves, almost one in five (18%) had moved four or more times and over one-third (35%) had experienced homelessness at some stage after leaving care. This finding makes a sounding reading as it leaned towards the development which has been made by the participating local authorities.

In Dixon and Wade’s study, the care leavers who were interviewed confirmed that making a home and a successful home life is a first priority to them when embarking on the journey from care to adulthood.

Another study on housing funded by the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People’s Services (C4EO) looked at the increasing number of care leavers in settled and safe accommodation. The study acknowledged that for most care leavers, getting their own place to live is top of the list of the ‘best things about leaving care. They want a place of safety, security and somewhere that they can call their own’ (Morgan and Lindsey 2006 p 6)

Wade and Dixon’s (2006) research indicated that housing was the factor most closely associated with mental health, young care leavers accelerated and complex transitions to adulthood. Their evidence suggests that too many young care leavers become the victims of society, much of which are often profoundly associated with housing. It is widely acknowledged that young care leavers comprise a significant sector of the population of young homeless.

Employment

Mendes and Moslehuddin (2006) study into care leaver’s vulnerability argue,

‘Young people leaving out of home care are arguably one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society. As compared to other young people outside of care, they face particular difficulties in accessing educational, employment, housing and other developmental and transitional opportunities’ (p110).

Their study added that these care leavers are less likely to succeed academically, which then hinders their efforts to find and maintain employment. Many become dependent on social security and experience acute poverty (Mendes and Moslehuddin 2006).

Literature Review Conclusion

From the literature review it is evident that:

Care leavers have been found to be disadvantaged in many areas of their lives- such as:

having to be independent at a much younger age as in comparison to their peers outside of care

lower levels of educational achievement

higher unemployment rates

higher levels of dependency on welfare benefit and

Higher levels of emotional disturbances.

In comparison to the majority of their peers, care leavers lacked stability, motivation and encouragement. Research studies have evidenced that care leavers have very few role models, which in effect puts so much constraint on social workers as they may have to face with difficulties in preparing young care leavers with the realities of adulthood in the wider community.

The Children (Leaving Care) Act (C(LC)A) 2000, aim was to bring the process of moving ‘looked after’ children to independent living more in line with the experience of other children, where the main transitions between youth and adulthood are both protracted and later than in previous decades.

Methodology

Doing a research according to Kumar (2005) is similar to undertaking a journey. He stated that there are two important decisions one has to make when deciding to do a research. First, one has to decide what they want to find out about, in other words, what research questions they want to find out about. Secondly, one needs to think how to go about finding their answers. The path to finding answers to their research questions constitutes research methodology (Kumar, 2005:16).

Kumar highlight the practical steps through which one must pass in their research journeys in order to find the answers to their research questions. The sequence of these steps is not absolute (Kumar, 2005). At each operational step in the research process one is required to choose from a multiple of methods, procedures and models of research methodology which will help them to best achieve their objectives. This is where one’s knowledge base of research methodology plays a crucial role.

According to Kumar (2005) there are two types of research: quantitative (positivist) and qualitative (phenomenological). The main objective of a quantitative study is to describe the variation in a phenomenon, situation or attitude, whereas qualitative research in addition, helps one to quantify the variation.

When analyzing data in qualitative research, Kumar (2005) stated that, one must go through the process of identifying themes and describing what they have found out during their interviews or observation rather than subjecting their data’s to statistical procedures.

Marshall and Grossman (2006) summed up the differences between qualitative and quantitative research. They stated that ‘qualitative research takes place in the natural world, it uses multiple methods that are interactive and humanistic, it focuses on context and it is fundamentally interpretive. Qualitative research unlike quantitative research views social phenomena holistically, it systematically reflects on who the person is in the interview, and is sensitive to a person’s biography and how it shapes the study. Qualitative research uses complex reasoning that is multifaceted and iterative’ (p.3)

This research will be using a qualitative approach, the reason being it focuses on individual lived experience, their society and culture, language and communication. It searches for a deeper understanding of the participant’s lived experiences of the phenomenon under study (Marshall and Grossman (2006:55).

The qualitative approach focuses on people’s attitudes and reasons for something, which is usually done by way of interview or observation. The quantitative approach is applied when there is a need to test or a need to verify facts and the information is defined and precise, thus easily prepared.

This is a small scale study and therefore the researcher will not employ the grounded theory approach to demonstrate the themes and group the findings. However, the research will be using a qualitative approach, which will incorporate grounded theory instead, in order to analyse the findings and highlight the various themes and categorise the data.

In qualitative research although researchers are concerned with maintaining rigor, the emphasis is on trustworthiness, achieved through careful work in constructing the research design and approach, conducting the research ethically, honestly and analysing findings carefully. The qualitative approach would be ideal to explore the needs of young care leavers. Particular attention will be made to issues of housing, education and employment. In addition, the researcher will attempt to look at the role social workers, as well as foster carers have played in enhancing support/assistance to young care leavers prior to leaving care and after care. The purpose of this research is to build upon existing studies.

The Case Study

Case study research by definition is focused on a single, relatively bounded unit (Gerring, 2007:33). The case study, like other research strategies, is a way of investigating an empirical topic by following a set of pre-specified procedures. It is a study in which (a) one case (single case study) or a small number of cases (comparative case study) in their real life context are selected, and (b) scores obtained from these cases are analysed in a qualitative manner (Dul and Hak, 2007 p4).

The case study of an individual, group, organisation, all rest implicitly on the existence of a micro-macro link in social behaviour (Gerring, 2007pg1). Gerring argues:

‘The case study is a form of a cross-level inference. Sometime, in-depth knowledge of an individual example is more helpful than fleeting knowledge about a larger number of examples. We gain better understanding of the whole by focusing on a key part’. (2007:1)

Critics of the case study method believe that the study of a small number of cases can offer no grounds for establishing reliability or generality of findings. Others feel that the intense exposure to study of the case biases the findings.

Some dismiss case study research as useful only as an exploratory tool. Yet researchers continue to use the case study research method with success in carefully planned and crafted studies of real-life situations, issues, and problems.

Some critics believe that the case study as a research method is not representative of entire populations and neither does it claim to be. It is not methodologically invalid simply because selected cases cannot be presumed to be representative of entire populations.

Another criticism levelled at the case study as a research method is that findings are possibly unique to the particular circumstances of the case and therefore cannot be generalised to other cases. Generalisation is a fallacy that occurs when a conclusion is based on insufficient evidence. Sometimes this fallacy is simply a matter of too few pieces of information.

Validity is at the core of any research. In qualitative research it addresses whether a person’s research explains or measures what they said they would be measuring or explaining. It deals with the appropriateness of the method to the research question (Mason, 1996).

According to Onwuegbuzie (2003a), researcher bias occurs when the researcher has personal biases that he/she is unable to bracket. This bias may be subconsciously transferred to the participants in such a way that their behaviours, attitudes, or experiences are affected. Researcher bias does not occur only at the data collection stage, it can also prevail at the data analysis and data interpretation phases.

Reactivity refers to a number of facets related to the way in which a study is undertaken and the reactions of the participants involved (Onwuegbuzie, 2003a). It involves changes in persons’ responses that result from being cognizant of the fact that one is participating in a research investigation. For example, the mere presence of observers during a study may alter the typical responses of the group that provide rival explanations for the findings, which, in turn, threaten internal credibility at the data collection stage.

Triangulation involves the use of multiple and different methods, investigators, sources, and theories to obtain corroborating evidence. It reduces the possibility of chance associations, as well as of systematic biases prevailing due to a specific method being utilized, thereby allowing greater confidence in any interpretations made.

Research Methods

The methods chosen were interviews and questionnaires. Interviewing provides access to the context of people’s behaviour and thereby provides a way for researchers to understand the meaning of that behaviour (Seidman, 2006).

Seidman argues:

‘At the heart of interviewing research is an interest in other individual’s stories because they are of worth. That is why people whom we interview are hard to code with numbers… Interviewing also allows us to put behaviour in context and provides access to understanding their action’ (Seidman, 2006:10).

The weakness of interview is that interviewees does not always cooperate with the interview process, and may in fact try to disrupt the flow of the interview and take control. Interviewing is also emotionally tiring and for a novice researcher there is the possibility that they may loose the focus of the interview. Also, due to the presence of the interviewer may affect the respondent’s reply and the data may become distorted.

Another disadvantage to interview is that Interviewers may introduce bias into the data by failing to follow the interview schedule in the prescribed manner or may suggest answers to respondents. Bias may also be introduced through a respondent’s reaction to the interviewer’s sex, race, and manner of dress or personality.

Questionnaires are a practical way of collecting information, as it involves little personal involvement. Questionnaires have many advantages and the greatest of these according to McNabb (2004) is the considerable flexibility of the questionnaire. It can be short or long, simple or complex, straightforward or branched. Usually, respondent’s answers are relatively easy to code and tabulate, which can reduce turnaround time and lower project cost. They can be custom-designed to meet the objectives of almost any type of research project, whereas interviews allow the researcher to have more in-depth involvement with the participants (McNabb, 2004).

In designing the questionnaires various styles of questions were used including a number of open ended questions which are useful, especially during exploratory phases of a research. Open ended questions do not suggest possible answers, but allow the respondent to answer in his or her own words.

The disadvantages of using questionnaire are that sometimes it is difficult to “code” responses to open-ended questions because people’s answers may be ambiguous.

Questionnaires should be relatively short to maintain interest and encourage response. For example, postal questionnaires tend to discriminate against the less literate members of society, and are known to have a higher response rate from the middle classes (Curvin and Slater, 2008))

According to Curvin and Slater (2008) there are 5 possible objectives for a question, (1) to find out if the respondent is aware of the issue, (2) to get general feelings on an issue, (3) to get answers on specific parts of the issue, (4) to get reasons for a respondent’s views and finally (5) to find out how strongly these views are held’ (, p.69).

Participant observation is another recognised method within a case study. However, for the purpose of this research, it plays no further part. It was rejected due to the fact that it was difficult to arrange for a suitable time to meet foster carers and the social workers. Also, the care leaver social worker would not assure the researcher that the young person would agree to allow the researcher to observe their interactions because of the short notice given.

Proposed research design

A research design is a kind of a blue print of the procedures, methods and techniques to be used during research. It shows the sequence in which the various steps in the research will be taken in order to find an answer to the questions posed by the problem under investigation. The aim of research is to measure certain objects with regard to specific factors and to track down links between these factors. It consists of mainly one or more standard designs-case study, survey, secondary analysis, content analysis, simulation and experiment (Creswell, 2009)

The study focuses on foster carers/social workers who work directly with young care leavers in helping them to gain better education, and housing which in turn lead to care leavers securing employment. The approach which the researcher will use will be the case study approach; this is because the author will be focusing on a single organisation, which will be in a social service setting.

Once the methodology of the research has been decided on, the next step is to select the sample. Sampling is the process of selecting a subset of cases in order to draw conclusions about the entire set. It is unavoidable given the scientific goal of generalisation; and it requires special attention in social research given the inherent variability of social units of analysis.

The procedure for selecting a sample is called sampling design. Probability sampling is based on a process of random selection, which gives each case in the population an equal chance of being included in the sample, whilst on the other hand; a non probability sampling such as purposive sampling involves the careful selection of typical cases or of cases that represent relevant dimensions of the population. For this study, a non-probability sampling will be used. This is because social researchers try to approximate probability samples when a complete and accurate sampling frame is beyond reach. The goal is to sampled respondent who are relevant to the research questions that are being posed. The interviewer has decided to use social workers and foster carers but not the care leavers themselves mainly of the issues surrounding their availability when needed and also due to the limited time to complete this study as well as issues to do with consent.

For the purpose of the research, the data will be collected by means of a questionnaire and interviews (semi-structured). The researcher decided to distribute in total 12 questionnaires (6 selected foster carers and 6 selected social workers). The questionnaires were coded, so that after collection, the data could be assembled effectively.

A semi-structured interview is the preferred method use instead of a full structured interview because this will enable the researcher to probe the respondent’s answers for clarity and if necessary for more description. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted to 3 foster carers and three social workers. Interviews will also be appropriate because within qualitative research they enable the researcher to acquire more detailed data, which will support or oppose the data received in the questionnaires. The interviews will be recorded.

Within any research study raw data collected from questionnaires and interviews need to be noted, analysed and interpreted, in order to reach a sound conclusion.

Presentation of data and discussion
Introduction

The data collected during this research were organised by themes and then presented under relevant sub-headings. The interviewer will first present the questionnaire data and then followed by the interview data. For the purpose of analysing the data, the researcher has used a coding system, which has been defined below.

S.W= Social Worker, Question= Q and Interview=Int

Overall, twelve questionnaires were sent out social workers within a social care setting, working for a local authority in the South East area of London. From the 12 questionnaires sent, only 4 social workers were able to return their questionnaires.

From the interview which was conducted, only the social work manager was able to provide information regarding care leaver’s education, housing and employment.

EDUCATION

From the literature review discussed earlier, education appeared to be one of the areas in which young carer leavers are badly let down, though it is regarded as the most effective long term solution for tackling problems of social exclusion. Young care leavers without education are at a personal and an institutional disadvantage.

Questions about this area were dealt with in the questionnaires.

In the questionnaires, all 4 respondents confirmed that they were in the process of preparing a care leaver for independent or supported housing, and education. For those social workers who participated, they confirmed that they have liaised with other agencies seeking professional guidance to support care leavers to be on training schemes or on employment.

How do social workers support care leavers, who want to continue in higher education?

From the questionnaires, all 4 respondents replied this question. Their overall answer is that they felt they supported the children in every way possible, starting from attending their Personal Educational Plan (PEP) meetings, emergency school meetings and other priority meetings relevant to their educational needs. They felt that the local authority social services would always assist with future training up to the age of 21 years and this could be extended to the age of 24 if they are in higher education. They expressed that they provided them with travelling allowances and any extra cost towards buying school materials.

However, during the interview with S.W 3, she remarked that the aforementioned provision only apply for student in higher education but not those in college. This she says is due to the Emergency Maintenance Allowances (EMA) they are receiving from college. For this reason, they would not be entitled to any financial assistance.

S.W. 3 said:

“I felt awfully bad for young people who want to go to university at 19, but can’t get a grant, income support or job seekers allowance. It is appalling that Young bright unaccompanied minors are constantly denied the opportunity to further their education due to the restriction on their entitlement”

Discussion

From the literature review, Stein (2006) highlighted that care leavers face additional disadvantages because of their status or characteristics. They stated that denying them the education they so desired would exposed them to poverty.

Stein study also suggests that successful educational outcomes are more closely associated with placement stability and being looked after longer.

Stability in care leaver’s education

S.W. 4 stated:

“From my experience in working with care leavers, those who go on to do well in school after care are those who had had stable placement. …in return their education did not suffer”.

S.W.3 suggests why care leavers are in need of stability in order to attain educational success. She stated that:

“Children’s stability is about their friends, family, healthcare, school and their community and thus the service should aim to ensure that care leavers are not left out and denied this opportunity”

Discussion

Research has highlighted that local authority social services acting as ‘corporate parent’ must actively seek to reduce disruption and instability to avoid social exclusion and accumulative disadvantage in the lives of young people.

S.W. 2 commented that:

“Due to the excessive case loads which I have, once a placement has broken down, my first priority is the young person’s stability and him/her getting settled as soon as possible in another placement. However, I do realise that placement changes do affect the young person’s education”

S.W.1 did not comment on the above question and left it as blanked.

Children who are excluded from school

This is another theme which those S.W’s who were interviewed commented about. This theme was not incorporated into the literature review. The researcher would have included this issue if he had sufficient time to do so.

S.W.1 said

“She felt that some young people never settled, as they always moved from one placement to another due to placement disruptions. I have had a young person who stated that every time he got moved, he felt rejected and this affects his self esteem and confidence”

S.W.4 said:

“I found it hard to get the school to reconsider or find another school that would be willing to take a young person known to have history of disruptive behavior”

How do social workers help with housing?

3 of the 4 S.W.s shared that they did followed the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 (CLCA 2000) and the Homelessness Act 2002 (HA 2002)’s recommendations to provide accommodation for care leavers, who have a priority need status by working with housing departments.

In the questionnaire, all 6 respondents were asked to explain whether they have assist care leavers to have their own accommodation. Only 2 respondents answered this question. From the questionnaire S.W. 1 reply was:

“The first thing I would do is to help a care leaver with his/her housing application form for lodgings, hostel, foyer, housing Association flat, council flat or private flat and any interviews that may be required to aid the bidding process”

Permanent Accommodation

In the questionnaire all six respondents were asked, in the last 4 months, how many of their care leavers had secured permanent accommodation in either housing or council accommodation. Only one respondent answered this question. From the questionnaire S.W 4 reply was:

“Every 1 out of 10 housing applications made b

Successive governments have refined both legislation and policy, so that in general, the legislative framework for protecting children is basically sound. I conclude that the gap is not a matter of law but in its implementation. (Lord Laming, 2003, p. 7)

The name ‘social policy’ is used to apply to the policies which governments use for welfare and social protection and the ways in which welfare is developed. Social work practice is not only about individual needs, it also considers social context. This social context includes the range of inter-professional agencies contributing to packages of care and protection, as well as the relationships between service users and their families, friends and communities. REF “current UK social policy is the restructuring of public services in order to get them to achieve the goals of grater economy, efficiency and effectiveness, and closer links between the public sector and other providers of welfare”. (2010, p.13)

This essay will look at some of the key legislations and policies aimed to protect children from any type of maltreatment. Firstly, I will give a definition of ‘child abuse’ and before discussing the question posed on this essay, I am going to outline some of the key legislations, policies and guidelines concerning child protection, as well as brief description on each. I will then go on to discuss some of the outlined legislations and policies and their impact on social work practice and also if they have been helpful in protecting children in the UK. Finally, the last part of this essay will be a conclusion on the arguments that have been unfolded on the essay.

Child Abuse Prevention Report (2002), defines child abuse as ‘constituting all forms of physical and emotional ill treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm in the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power’ .?!

England has a long history of child protection laws dating back to 1889 with the ‘Children’s Charter’. Since then, England has passed many laws and policies as a result of death inquires. Following the death of Dennis O’Neill in 1946, the Curtis Committee was set up to examine the conditions of children deprived of a normal family life which later on resulted in the Children Act 1948 (Hill, 2003). The main principles of the Act included establishing Local Authority Children’s departments, promoting foster rather than residential care and where possible rehabilitating children back to their families (Hendrick, 2003) full ref.

As a result of many other subsequent inquires carried out in the 70’s and 80’s, as well as a need for clearer guidance in laws relating to children, the ‘Children Act 1989’ (CA89) was implemented. Its fundamental principles were that it addressed the balance between child protection and family support services introducing the concept of a ‘child in need’, it also emphasised parental responsibility rather than focusing on parental rights. The Act introduced a range of new orders including here the; Child Assessment Order, Family Assistance Order, Specific Issue Order, Prohibited Steps Order, and Educational Order) as well as extended the circumstances in which Interim Orders could be made. (Jowitt & O’Loughlin, 2006).full

Since the CA89, many new laws have been passed to strengthen the ways in which children are protected. Victoria Climbie aged eight, died from no less than 128 injuries, in February 2000. The subsequent inquiry into her death chaired by Lord Laming was the first inquiry to include all 3 key agencies, – Local Authority, Health Services and the Police. The inquiry made over 100 recommendations for restructuring child protection services, largely focussing on the responsibilities of individuals and agencies to children and families, and on service co-ordination.

The Governments response to the Laming Enquiry was almost immediate through the production of the green paper ‘Every Child Matters, 2003’ (ECM) which focused on four key themes. These included supporting families where a need is identified and early intervention in relation to child protection. In conjunction with ECM came the Children Act 2004 (CA04), the Act encompasses several components based on recommendations from the Laming Report (Allen, 2008)

The reforms presented by the ECM agenda and CA04 aimed to improve multi-disciplinary working and integrated service delivery and increase accountability. “I am in no doubt that effective support for children and families cannot be achieved by a single agency acting alone. It depends on a number of agencies working together. It is a multy- disciplinary task” (para. 130)

The Children Act 2004 however, does not introduce a range of new child protection powers, Bammer explains the CA04 as “..setting the foundations for good practice in the use of existing powers through a holistic integrated approach to child care” (Bammer, 2010, p.182)

CAF is one of the many changes introduced in the Children Act 2004 and plays a major part in improving services to children and families in line with the government “Every Child Matters” agenda.

CAF will play a key role in improving outcomes for children and young people by ensuring services are timely and responsive and based on consistent assessment of their individual needs.

Some of the benefits to children, young people and their families are:

Assessments using CAF are de-stigmatising, as they look at the whole child and take account of family strengths as well as their needs.

CAF assessments are undertaken in partnership with families, and enable them to take the lead in identifying needs.

CAF assessments are shared, with consent, between agencies so families will no longer have to repeat their information again and again to different agencies and service providers.

CAF assessments will support and enhance effective communication between agencies, enabling them to work together more effectively in order to meet the needs of children, young people and families.

This is where the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) comes in. The CAF is being introduced in all LEAs between April 2006 and December 2008. You may be familiar with the process because your school may already be piloting it.

We all want better lives for our young people and we know that some pupils don’t thrive either in or out of school or get support until it is too late. The CAF will help identify them earlier, before things reach crisis point.

The easiest and most consistent way to do this is to make sure that every person whose job involves working with young people is prepared and able to help if something is going wrong. The CAF is a tool that will help identify needs for all services, including health, social services, police and schools etc.

“The extend of the failure to protect Victoria was lamentable. Tragically, it required nothing more than basic good practice being put into operation. This never happened.” Lord Laming (2003, para.1.17).

Another key element of the ECM strategy is the introduction of the “Common Assessment Framework” (CAF) which was introduced by the CA04. CAF focuses on early intervention for children in need and although consent driven, can be initiated by any professional concerned about a child. A single lead professional would be nominated by the child or family and would be responsible for putting together a package of services to meet the child’s needs. The lead professional would also decide whether concerns by other practitioners along with information gathered warranted intervention and would be responsible for the sharing of information between all persons involved on a need to know basis (Parton, 2006).

CA04 reforms also implemented ‘Local Safeguarding Children Boards’ (LSCB) as the “aˆ¦statutory successors of Area Child Protection Committees” (ACPC), (Parton, 2006, p.159). LSCB’s were set up in 2006, when strategy plans for children and young people were published. Some of the tasks that the LSCB’s are required to perform include, agreeing how different organisations in their local area co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, provide single and inter-agency training and guidance for recruiting people applying to work with children, (Department of Health, 2006. Section 3.3).

Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) were established under the Children Act 2004 and have the responsibility for co-ordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of the work of partner bodies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (Children Act 2004, Section 14).

Changes to the child protection register where also implemented following Every Child Matters. The child protection register was abolished in 2008 as a result any child previously included on the register is now known as ‘A Child who is subject to a Child Protection Plan’. Case conferences and Core Groups are still being held for children who are at continuing risk of significant harm, however, discussion are no longer in favour for or against registration, but if the child should remain ‘subject to a Child protection Plan’ (Oldham LSCB, 2006 FULL). ‘The plan should outline what needs to change, how this will be achieved and by who, with realistic timescales to implement changes and a contingency plan should this fail’ (DOH Working Together, 2006. Section 5).

Further amending legislation such as the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 have been introduced and in the aftermath of the well-publicised ‘Baby P’ case we may see more legislative activity.

Discussion!

Over the last forty years, reform after reform has been intended to improve the quality of the protection provided to children and young people and compensate for failures in practice. Many of these reforms were a response of evidences from numerous inspections and high-profile reviews into children’s deaths, (Apendix 1)

Recently, the circumstances around the death of Baby Peter led to aˆ¦aˆ¦.

The Coalition Government has already endorsed the work of the SWRB has following the recommendations of the Social Work Task Force and within weeks of its formation the new Government has proceeded with further reforms including new statutory guidance on the publication of SCRs.

The many changes have been most striking in relation to social work practice, an area where it can be argued there was most need for improvement. While in the 1970s there was relatively little guidance on dealing with child abuse and neglect, social workers now have a range of assessment and decision making tools, access to research evidence, and software programmes that shape, often in unintended ways, how a case is managed.

The 1989 Children Act was described by the then Lord Chancellor “as the most comprehensive and far reaching childcare law in living memory” (Hendrick, H, 2003, Child welfare, pg 96.) It promoted the welfare of the child as being paramount. This meant it was the first piece of legislation that put children at the forefront of its agenda. According to Hendrick (2003) although rights for children had been advanced, it did not consult any children in the process of the forming of the Act and it is stemmed from ‘Government authorities’.

The ‘Children Act 2004’ introduced a foundation for good practice, however, section 58 of this Act as it currently stands legitimises the use of physical punishment:

“aˆ¦it has long been recognised by the law that a parent or person with parental authority may use reasonable punishment to correct a child. This is the defence of reasonable chastisement or “reasonable punishment” (CA 2004, s. 58, paragraph. 237).

The FPI believes that giving people who are smaller and weaker fewer rights to protection in this regard is unacceptable. The argument that parents have a ‘right’ in their own home to discipline their children as they choose, in other words that parents have proprietorial rights over children and a consequent right to hit them, recalls arguments that were once used in relation to husbands and wives.

There is also an issue of discrimination in the use of visible marks as a measure of the acceptability of physical punishment. This will give less protection to babies and children whose skin is not white.

Something about risk assessment and how we can not be sure that the child is fully protected as a result of this assessment.

Disabilities on Act 1989aˆ¦.

LCB

Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) are the current statutory mechanism through which the partners in local areas agree on ways to co-ordinate their safeguarding services. Their statutory functions include: developing and agreeing local safeguarding policies and procedures; providing training; making assessments about the impact and effectiveness of local safeguarding arrangements; and undertaking serious case and child death reviews.

However the current coalition government is focusing the early intervention on the first years of a childs life pretending that this way they will assure that they are going to be brought up without abuse. Young teenages!

initial assessment from 7d to 10d!

In April 2008 the Public Law Outline (PLO), a new approach to case

management, was introduced to reduce delay in care proceedings. It is

too soon to be clear about the impact of the introduction of the PLO,

and in particular whether or not it has increased workloads and added

to delays in the process. There is currently conflicting evidence, for

instance, whilst a number of contributions to this report raised

concerns about the impact of the PLO, in London, the number of care

proceedings cases being completed in under 40 weeks in care centres

has risen from 22 per cent to 36 per cent when comparing the data

for the quarter before the introduction of the PLO with the latest data

following its implementation.

Conclude

Social policy is

There are a collection of legislations, policies and guidelines that social workers must have knowledge of when practicing their profession. Lord Laming argues in his last report that ” aˆ¦further legislative change is not what is needed to protect children aˆ¦ it is vital that all professionals aˆ¦fully understand the legislative framework in relation to safeguarding and child protection, and have a clear understanding of their responsibilities in the process” (2009, p.78).

A common theme throughout all is the desire to protect and promote the welfare and safety of children. A sad reality is that some children will always need the statutory services and intervention of local authorities and the courts as parents are not always able to make the changes required to safeguard their children.

Every Child Matters is, in some ways, a refreshing and radical reform in the ways public services are expected to work with children, young people and families. On the other hand however, it also to some extent offers a sweeping vision about children and young people’s entitlements whilst delegating full accountability for the delivery of the services that enable children, young people and their parents/carers to local public services. What cannot be rejected however is the importance of the document to get agencies who work with groups of young people to develop more effective ways of working together and creating an arena of more accountability. In the construction of Every Child Matters as a favoured way of thinking, politicians and civil servants have aggressively projected individual collective and national anxieties and insecurities onto diverse, dynamic, complex and uncertain fields of practice where managers and practitioners work closely with many of England’s most vulnerable, troubled / troublesome children, young people and families.

In conclusion, the social policies, legislation and organisational context of social work are important factors that go towards the whole process of social work. It is important to know the skills and knowledge in law and policy, but also to have the knowledge and skills in interpreting and applying social work law to practice and emphasising the role of law in promoting social work values and purpose. As stated within the essay, this is part of the challenge of social work, certain laws and policies conflict with other laws, including policies of multi-professional organisations, and where ethical issues come into place allowing the social worker to draw on knowledge and life experience, empowering the service user by using the skills knowledge and values, which will help in challenging inequality, oppression and discrimination. There is also the requirement of the GSCC framework that social workers must be able to work in accordance with statutory and legal requirements, and carry out their work with professional conduct within multi-professional organisations and to be accountable if they fail to do so.

Baby peter and the cuts!

Jonathan Dickens sees social work “poised between the four points of a diamond – its duties to the state, its obligations to service users, its responsibilities to its own professional standards, and its accountability to organisational imperatives” (2010, p.11)

‘The aim is to make it harder for people to do something wrong and easier for them to do it right.’ US Institute of Medicine (1999, p.2)

Word Count:

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State

Profession

Service Users

Organisation

Figure 1.1 The social work diamond

State:

Social policy, social work and other social professions as parts of the machinery of state support and control.

Key factors: Roles of central government and local authorities. National policies, legislations, taxation and government spending. Roles of the Parliament, courts, regulatory bodies. Overlaps and tensions between these different parts of the state. Political conflict about the proper role of the state.

Profession

Social policy, social work and other social professions as ‘top-down’, expert-led activities.

Key factors: Professional: Professional attributes such as training and expertise, standards and skills, service ethics, self-regulation, But there are criticism of elitism, self-interest and status, and the disabling effects of professionals.

Service users

Social policy, social work and other social professions as ‘bottom-up’, user-led activities.

Key factors: Roles of individuals, families and neighbourhoods; campaign groups and self-help groups. Concepts of participation, inclusion, empowerment, control. But there are tensions between different service users, and questions about how much power and choice they really have or should have.

Organisation

Social policy, social work and other social professions as activities that shaped by their organisational setting.

Key factors: Type of organisation – statutory (e.g. local authority), Voluntary or business. Inter-agency working. Processes for user involvement. Bureaucracy, regulation and managerialism. Budgets and profits.

(Dickens, 2009 p.12-13)

Social workers, as a profession, exist in a contested domain, within a framework of rights and duties that are defined by law, by employers and professional codes of conduct (Swaine and Rice, 2009: xi). To be effective a social worker must have an understanding of statutory and legal requirements, and while using the law attempt to balance conflicting principles and practices. It is important to note that ‘the law does not tell us what we ought to do, just what we can do… most decisions in social work involve a complex interaction of ethical, political, technical and legal issues which are all interconnected’ (Banks 1995). In answering this question I intend to focus on the Children Acts 1989 and 2004 detailing the background to the acts and applying them to the Smith case study.

The courts in England are managed by Her Majesty’s Courts Service, an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (Brammer 2010). The courts are divided into criminal and civil courts. Criminal courts deal with criminal cases and civil courts deal with non-criminal disputes. The role that social workers play in courts can be broken down into public law and private law. Public law cases are circumstances where the state, acting through local authority social services, takes steps to intervene in family life. This includes applications for care orders, supervision orders and emergency protection orders. Proceedings where individuals bring cases in their own name are known as private law cases. Contact and residence cases, applications for specific issues orders, prohibited steps orders; parental responsibility and adoption are examples of private law cases. The English court structure is hierarchical with the Supreme Court at the top and the Magistrate’s Court and Tribunals at the bottom. This means that cases are seen in the inferior courts first before proceeding, when necessary, to the superior courts. A decision made in the Supreme Court would bind all inferior courts. Social workers can be involved at all levels of the court structure and undertake tasks such as writing reports, appearing as witnesses, or providing support to a service user. As such it is essential for social workers to have a good understanding of the law as it applies to their role. Most court proceedings are held in public in accordance with Article 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing. However, in certain circumstances the public and press are excluded and cases are heard privately or ‘in camera’ (Brammer 2010:65).

For social work practice the Human Rights Act 1998 provides an opportunity to empower service users and professionals while promoting best practice, ‘as well as an extra layer of responsibility’ (Cull and Roche 2001:80). Local authorities can no longer use budgetary constraints as justification for decisions as discretionary policies and decisions can be challenged on the basis of an alleged breach of human rights. (Cull and Roche, 2001). The Human rights Act 1998 incorporates the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms into UK domestic law (Brammer 2010). The European Convention for Human Rights contains rights, prohibitions and freedoms arranged in articles. The focus of the Human Rights Act 1998 is to promote and uphold rights contained in these articles and it provides opportunities to promote anti-discriminatory practice.

Social workers legal areas of responsibility are classified as duties or powers. Social services are obliged to carry out a duty. There is no discretion or allowance and failure to carry out a duty ‘could found an action for judicial review’ (Brammer 2010:17). For example, under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 local authorities have a duty to investigate if they have ‘have reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives, or is found, in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm’ (Children Act 1989, Section 47(b)). Powers give a social worker the authority to act in a particular way but there is discretion to decide how to act. For example, a local authority has power to make payments to parents in ‘respect of travelling, subsistence or other expenses incurred by that person in visiting the child’ (Para. 16 of Sch. 2 to the Children’s Act 1989).

Specific pieces of legislation are more relevant to social workers in their specific roles. The Children Acts 1989 and 2004 are of particular relevance to those working with children and families. Prior to the implementation of the Children Act 1989 the law as it related to children was found in various acts and judicial hearings. The Children Act 1989 combined and simplified existing legislation in order ‘to create an enlightened and practical framework for decision-making, whether the decision is taken in the family home, in a local authority office, in a health centre or in a court room’ (Allen, 1998, quoted in Cull 2001). Various forces led to the implementation of the Children Act 1989. Firstly, the need to address numerous child abuse and child death scandals such as Maria Colwell and Jasmine Beckford. Central themes that emerged from inquiries into the deaths of these children were the need for better cohesion between agencies to better protect children and consideration of the child’s welfare as paramount (O’Loughlin and O’Loughlin 2008). Such themes subsequently emerged in the Laming Inquiry (2003) following the death of Victoria Climbie, and other subsequent inquiries. These continual failures seem to indicate that the Children Act 1989 does not seem to be fulfilling its purpose. Secondly, international commitments made to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 meant the need to provide legislation highlighting the importance of children’s rights. The Children Act 1989 recognised the right of children to have their voices heard in the decision-making process and made provisions for children’s guardians to be appointed by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) representing the child and the child’s interests in court (Children Act 1989, s.41). Under section 44(7) of the act children of sufficient age and understanding were enabled to refuse to undergo medical assessment, something that the children involved in the Cleveland Inquiry (1988) had not been able to do (O’Loughlin and O’Loughlin 2008). The Act gave flexibility to the court to meet individual children’s needs in particular circumstances and to act in the best interests of that child (Brammer, 2010). The Children Act 1989 ‘brought together public and private law to ensure that the welfare of the child is paramount’ (O’Loughlin and O’Loughlin, 2008:21) and reaffirmed the belief that children were best brought up within their families, with minimal intervention from the state (Brayne and Carr, 2008).

In response to the Laming Report (2003) into the death of Victoria Climbie the government published the Green Paper, Every Child Matters. This document had four key themes; more focus on supporting families and carers, timely intervention and protecting children from falling through the net; addressing issues of poor accountability and ensuring that childcare workers are valued, rewarded and trained (Brayne and Carr, 2008). The Children Act 2004 was passed following consultation on this Green Paper. It provides the legislative framework required to address the issues highlighted in the Laming report. Its main aim was to develop ‘more effective and accessible services focused around the needs of children, young people and their families’ (Brayne and Carr, 2008 p.155). The main provisions of the Children Act 2004 include a duty to co-operate to improve the wellbeing of children, especially in light of failings by multiple agencies to protect children like Victoria Climbie. Under the Act local authorities have a duty to make arrangements to improve wellbeing and partner agencies have a duty to co-operate with local authorities. To enhance the duty of agencies to co-operate Section 8 of the Children Act 2004 imposes the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Agencies are encouraged to prioritise their responsibilities to children and share early concerns in order to prevent crises. Legislation in the 2004 Act requires that all agencies in contact with children recognize that their needs are different from those of adults and safeguard and promote their wellbeing in the course of their normal duties. Section 17 of the Children Act 2004 introduced the requirement for local authorities to produce Children and Young people’s Plans (CYPP). ‘The CYPP should be the single, strategic, overarching plan for all services and all relevant partners’ (Brayne and Carr, 2008 p.160). The 1989 Act focused on child protection, the key term in the 2004 Act is ‘safeguarding’. ‘Child protection is linked to legally based state intervention, safeguarding is a means of ensuring that children receive the support that they need for their wellbeing’ (Brayne and Carr, 2008 p.161).

The Children Act 2004 required the establishment of Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards in order to promote better collaboration between agencies in safeguarding the wellbeing of children; the creation of an information database known as Contact Point to facilitate contact between professionals involved with individual children to secure ‘early, coherent intervention’ (Brayne and Carr, 2008 p. 163); and the appointment of children’s services directors in children’s services authorities to ensure ‘political leadership and accountability for the performance of children’s services’ (Brayne and Carr, 2008 p. 164).The Children’s Act of 1989 and 2004 have both gradually endeavoured to develop legislation and administrative roles to do with children in a broader sense and to make official provision for children better and safer. With the Children Act 2004 the functions of social services did not change but how they are delivered has been modified. (O’Loughlin and O’Loughlin, 2008)

The Children Act 1989 outlines the responsibilities that local authorities have towards children in their area. Practice is guided by three underlying principles. Firstly, enforced intrusion into family life should be avoided wherever possible. Secondly, local authorities should work in partnership with parents and provide support to try to keep families together. Lastly, local authority resources should be targeted on families in need to ensure support is available to avoid children suffering ill-treatment or neglect and in extreme circumstances being taken into care (Cull 2001). With the Smith family the starting point under the Children Acts 1989 and 2004 must be to help safeguard and promote the welfare of Andrew and Annie. Under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 if the local authority ‘have reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives or is found in their area is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm, they must take such enquiries as they consider necessary to enable them to decide whether they should take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare’ (Children Act 1989, s.47 (1) (b)). Enquiries made are the beginning of a process and the intention is to decide whether or not action is necessary. ‘Effectiveness of the assessment of the child’s needs (and those of the family) is key to the effectiveness of subsequent actions and services and ultimately to the outcomes for the child’ (Department of Health et al., 2000b). A social worker carrying out this assessment must do so in a manner that causes the least distress to Annie and Andrew, while being respectful to Clare and David. ‘Families affected by parental learning disability are also particularly likely to experience negative attitudes, and worse, from those with whom they come into contact’ (Department of Health 2007).Practicing in an anti-discriminatory manner would require not making assumptions about David and Clare’s parenting due to their learning disability. In order to work in partnership with the parents as the Children Act requires the social worker must ensure that the parents do not feel marginalised by explaining the purpose of the investigation and the likely outcomes. How the investigation is handled could affect the relationship between the family and social services and the way the family view input from professionals and other agencies that may become involved.

The Children Act 1989 introduced the terms ‘children in need’ and ‘looked after children’ and comprised various duties to promote the welfare of such children (Brammer, 2010). The Act even went further by putting in place provisions for children leaving care (Brammer, 2010). ‘Looked after ‘children refers to children who are subject to care orders and those who are voluntarily accommodated by the local authority. Children are considered to be ‘in need’ if they are unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development without intervention by the local authority; health or development is likely to be impaired or further impaired without local authority support; they are disabled (s. 17 (10) Children Act 1989). Local authorities have specific duties to children considered to be ‘in need’. As both David and Clare are known to professionals it is possible that the children have already been classified as ‘in need’. In this case the local authority has a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of such children, provide services appropriate to their needs and ascertain and give consideration to the wishes of the child/ren (Children Act 1989, s.17, as amended). Following a section 47 investigation if it is deemed necessary the local authority would also have the power to provide training, advice, guidance and counselling for David and Clare (Cull 2001). David and Clare have co-operated so far and if this remains to be the case the local authority will carry out its duties in partnership with David and Clare, until no further formal intervention is required. It is particularly important to avoid a situation where poor parental care, which does not meet the threshold of significant harm to a child, later declines because of a lack of support. Failure to provide support in this type of situation can damage a child’s right to remain with their family (Department of Health, 2007).

If the Smith case was considered an emergency it would be possible to apply to court for an Emergency Protection Order (EPO), this would allow for immediate compulsory intervention in order to protect the child/ren (s. 44, Children Act 1989). Those with parental responsibility must be given a minimum of one day’s notice of impending action; however, action can be taken without notice. If the parents are not present at the initial application for the EPO they have the right to challenge the basis of the intervention after 72 hours. The order lasts a maximum of eight days, but can be extended for a further seven days following application. The applicant has parental responsibility of the child for the duration of the order. This is very much a control aspect of the act as the parent’s rights are removed in order to safeguard the child. The child must be returned as soon as it is safe to do so. (s. 44(10) Children Act 1989). The need for an EPO can arise when the referral is received or at any point in the involvement with children and families. Such an order seems to contradict Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998(Right to private family life). Although important it may prove difficult to balance David and Clare’s right to private and family life while protecting the children’s right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 3, Human Rights Act 1998).

If the out of hours social worker had initially failed to gain access to the children to initiate an investigation but concerns were not urgent the local authority could apply to court for a Child Assessment Order (CAO) (Children Act 1989, s. 43). The order would supplement to powers of the social worker in assessing the child. A court can only grant a CAO if there is reasonable cause to suspect the child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm and that assessment is required to ascertain if this is the case; without the order it is unlikely that assessment can be carried out. A CAO may give direction on how an order is to be carried out, for example, directing that children be kept away from home, or giving direction for a medical assessment to be carried out. With this particular order parental responsibility remains with the parents. Only a local authority or the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children can apply for a CAO.

In some circumstances it may be necessary to separate the child from an alleged abuser. As it may be considered too distressing and confusing to remove the child from the home the Family Law Act 1996 amended the Children Act 1989, giving the court power to order the removal of an alleged abuser from the home. In order for Exclusion Orders (EO) to be made the court must be satisfied that there is reasonable cause to believe that if the person is removed the child will no longer suffer or be likely to suffer significant harm. The court must be satisfied that there is someone else willing and capable of caring for the child and that they consent to the exclusion requirement. Four principles generally apply to all orders under the Children Act 1989: paramountcy of the welfare of the child (s1 (1)); reducing delay (S1 (2)) to avoid prejudicing the welfare of the child (in this respect many of the orders that could be granted by the court had specific time limits); no order unless considered in the best interests of the child (s1 (5)) and limiting litigation (s91 (14)) (Open University, 2003). The Children Act 1989 provides a welfare checklist s.1 (3) detailing what factors a court has to consider in certain proceedings relating to children. This list includes issues such as the child’s wishes/needs, sex, background, etc. Although the law is attempting to impose control when applying an order it also attempts to provide some balance and promote anti-discriminatory practice with children and families.

The relationship between social work practice and the law is an extremely complex and ever-changing one. The law is constantly developing especially with the influence of the Human Rights Act 1998 becoming more visible in court decisions. As a result social workers must have an understanding of how the law applies to practice situations recognising the strengths as well as the limitations of applying the law. ‘Sound knowledge of the law is not only essential to ensure that the actions undertaken are legal and proportionate, such knowledge is … essential for the social workers own professional protection’ (Brammer 2010: Foreword by Andrew McFarlane).

This short study concerns my experiences in dealing with an adopted service user who wishes to establish contact with her birth mother. The essay takes up the case of J, a 46 year old divorced lady who finds out about her history of adoption after the death of her adopted parents. J tries to directly establish contact with her biological mother, who refuses to meet her, leaving J traumatised and emotionally devastated. The case scenario is provided in the appendix to this essay and is considered as read.

This reflective and analytical account concerns (a) my experiences in dealing with J’s problems and needs, (b) my thoughts and theoretical knowledge of social work theory and practice with regard to children who are put up for adoption at birth, (c) their various emotional and physical challenges, and (d) the desire that is sometimes manifested by them during various stages of their lives to establish contact with their biological parents. It makes use of established social work theories like the attachment theory and the separation anxiety theory.

I also take up the growing prevalence of the use of social networking sites by adopted children to establish contact with their long separated birth parents, and the social work mechanisms available in the UK to facilitate meetings between adopted children and their birth parents.

The Challenges of Adoption

J was put up for adoption at birth and was adopted by foster parents. She grew up in her foster home in the company of her siblings, who were the birth children of her adoptive parents. The fact of her adoption was however concealed from her by her adopters. J grew up with some feelings of unease between her and her siblings and adoptive parents and suffered from low self esteem when she was young. She also displayed some behavioural problems and found it difficult to establish friendships with other children.

Adoption is undoubtedly an important and beneficial social process. It serves the critical needs of different individuals (Howe and Feast, 2000, p 34). It relieves natural parents of the onerous responsibilities of bringing up children when their circumstances make it impossible for them to do so, on account of social and economic reasons. It ensures safety, security, physical and emotional nourishment, education and improved life chances for unwanted, orphaned or abandoned children (Howe and Feast, 2000, p 34). It also fulfils the needs of childless couples, single people, and families for a child. Whilst adoption is undoubtedly an important social process, it brings along with it different types of social, economic and emotional challenges for all involved people, the child placed for adoption, the birth parents and the adopters (Howe and Feast, 2000, p 34).

Adopted children, numerous studies have revealed, are prone to the adverse consequences of attachment disorders and separation anxiety (Cassidy & Shaver, 1999, p 11). John Bowlby, well known for his advancement of the attachment theory, explains the critical importance for infants to develop secure attachments to their primary care givers. Bowlby states that attachment processes between infants and caregivers are biologically based, chosen by evolution to maximise survival chances, and aim to provide infants with feelings of security (Cassidy & Shaver, 1999, p 11). Such security provides infants with the foundations required to explore their environments, with the full knowledge that their caregivers will be able and available to provide them with protection in the face of adversity or stress (Cassidy & Shaver, 1999, p 11).

The separation of children from their primary caregivers often results in feelings of separation anxiety and the development of attachment disorders if their attachment needs are not met or resolved effectively (Blum, 2004, p 538). Studies on adopted children show that positively formed attachments between children and caregivers improve chances of well adjusted lives, irrespective of the biological relationships of attachment figures with children (Blum, 2004, p 538). Whilst it is known that J was put up for adoption at birth, the exact age at which she was adopted is not clear. Research shows that that children adopted after 6 months of age are at greater risk for development of attachment disorders (Blum, 2004, p 538). Such attachment disorders can lead to emotional disturbance, eating disorders, bedwetting, lack of performance at school, difficulty in development of positive relationships, withdrawal from society and poor life outcomes (Blum, 2004, p 538).

The adoptive parents need to take special care to ensure good adjustment of their adopted children. It is important for them parents to meet the needs of infants for love and nurturing on a consistent basis (Brisch, 1999, p 79). Adoption requires an active role from adoptive parents who assume the role of caregivers. As adopted infants explore their new and alien environment, adoptive parents must provide the required guidance, supervision and structure to ensure their safety (Brisch, 1999, p 79). Caregivers must also have the capacity and ability to provide levels of stimulation that do not overwhelm or stifle the infant’s developmental level. They must be attentive to the internal world of infants by being emotionally available to help them during periods of frustration, rejoice in their achievements and share their joy of exploration (Brisch, 1999, p 79).

Secure attachments create positive feelings in children that relationships can be helpful, fulfilling, and valuable and provide adequate protection in an occasionally overwhelming world (Blum, 2004, p 545). Whilst secure attachments do not secure immunity from subsequent psychopathology, childhood security is certainly related to (a) increased capacities for stress management and ability to rebound after periods of psychological disturbance, (b) capacity to manage family stressors, (c) increased self-esteem, (d) good peer relationships, and (e) good psychological adjustment (Blum, 2004, p 545).

Contemporary psychiatric theory states that adopted children often need therapeutic parenting, rather than normal domestic environments. Such parenting should be based on principles like sensitivity, responsiveness, following the lead of the child, the sharing of congruent and inter-subjective experiences and the creation of an environment of safety and security (Goldsmith, et al, 2004, p 2). Parents, in order to engage in such therapeutic parenting, require to be committed to adopted children, have reflective abilities, good insightfulness and secured mental states with respect to attachment (Goldsmith, et al, 2004, p 2).

With J showing evidence of emotional disturbance and behavioural problems during her childhood, it is possible that her parents, whilst providing her with a normal and secure domestic environment, did not place great emphasis in responding to her specific emotional needs. Their concealment of her adopted status is possibly an indicator of their concern for the child and their desire to protect her emotions and feelings. Contemporary psychological and social theories however recommend that children be informed of their adopted status (Hollingsworth, 1998, p 303). Such information, when provided with sensitivity and in appropriate circumstances and environmental surroundings, prevents adopted children from experiencing emotional traumatisation when they otherwise inevitably come to know of their history of adoption and helps them in adjusting to their new homes (Hollingsworth, 1998, p 303). Knowledge of birth parents is also important, both for the adoptive parents and the adopted children, in order to effectively cope with possible medical problems (Hollingsworth, 1998, p 303).

J came to know about her adopted status by accident when she was 42, after the death of her adoptive parents. The knowledge left her emotionally traumatised and brought back memories of her childhood and of feelings of strain in her relationships with her adoptive parents and their birth children. It is however but fair to realise that J’s parents very possibly had her best interests at heart and were also unaware of the future impact of not informing her of her adopted status.

Reunion of Adopted Children with Birth Parents

J, on knowing of her adopted status and the name of her birth mother, became emotionally disturbed because was not informed of the facts of her adoption, or about her birth parents. Adopted children, as they grow older, often become curious about their birth parents, especially so in situations of little or no contact (Adoption UK, 2010, p 1). Studies by Adoption UK, a national charity operated by adopters, reveals that all adopted children do not wish to know or contact their birth parents. Such desires are essentially personal, with some adoptees wishing to know more and others having little interest (Adoption UK, 2010, p 1). It is however also true that people who are not interested in contacting their birth parents when they are young, change when they become older, especially after they become parents and experience desires of knowing, contacting and establishing relationships with their own birth parents (Adoption UK, 2010, p 1).

The emergence of social networking sites like Facebook and My Space have made it far easier for adopted children, who wish to know more about their parents, to establish contact with their birth families (Fursland, 2010, p 1). Such accessibility has introduced significant complexities in the social relationships of adopted children with their adopted and birth parents and is creating difficult challenges for social workers when they are asked for assistance by individuals in need (Fursland, 2010, p 1).

Establishment of contact between adopted children and birth parents is an extremely sensitive issue and needs to be handled with care and sensitivity (Adoption UK, 2010, p 2). Adoption reunion can be a truly enriching and joyful experience, full of anticipation, twists and turns, joy, confusion, excitement, and fear. However reunion, like adoption, is not simple and can turn out to be a difficult, complex and sometimes saddening event (Adoption UK, 2010, p 2). Reconnecting with birth parents and children is rarely seamless and easy. It requires dedication, motivation, and a leap of faith (Adoption UK, 2010, p 2).

Adoption reunions often give rise to complicated issues that have been dormant for decades and have to now be dealt with and resolved. Many birth parents may have never have shared their child’s adoption with anybody else (Howe and Feast, 2000, p 57). Some birth mothers protect their secret because they are afraid of how others might or will react. For some mothers it is a matter of shame and they are instructed not to reveal their secrets to others (Howe and Feast, 2000, p 57).

The National Adoption Standards for England, (Department of Health, 2001), along with the Adoption and Children Act 2002, provided birth parents in England and Wales entitlement to a support worker, apart from the child’s social worker, from the point of identification of the adoption plan for the child (Goldsmith, et al, 2004, p 4). The Standards state that birth parents (a) should be able to access different types of support services, including counselling, advice and information before and after adoption, which recognise the long term implications of adoption, and (b) should be treated with transparency, fairness and regard during the adoption process (Goldsmith, et al, 2004, p 4).

Most adopted children now have plans for direct or indirect post-adoption contact with birth relatives. Agencies are required to identify contact arrangements in adoption plans and consider post-adoption support requirements of all concerned (Goldsmith, et al, 2004, p 4). Existing regulations like The Adoption Support Services Regulations entitle adopted children, adoptive parents, and birth relatives for need assessment regarding contact arrangements and mandate agencies to maintain services to help such contact arrangements (Adoption UK, 2010, p 2).

Helping J

J contacted us for support on making contact with her birth parents. The Adoption and Children Act of 2002 has established a framework that provides adopted people, who are more than 18 years old and their birth relatives, rights to request for intermediary services if they wish to make such contacts. Such intermediaries are provided by registered adoption agencies, (either voluntary or local authority), or registered adoption support agencies and act as mediators between adopted people and their birth relatives. It is recommended that people wishing to make contact with birth relatives do so through intermediaries. J was informed about the intermediary process and services that could be provided by me in mediating with her birth mother but decided to contact her directly.

When J contacted our agency and the case was assigned to me to help her with her emotional challenges and her desire to establish her birth mother, I engaged her in a long discussion in order to assess her emotional status, her views about her adopted childhood and her desire to meet her birth mother. I met her at her home on two occasions after taking prior appointments in order to ensure that she was prepared for the meeting and would be able to convey her thoughts better in familiar surroundings.

I took care to adopt the person centred approach and deliberately avoided all judgemental feelings about her background as a relinquished and adopted child. The adoption of a person centred approach is necessary for the true implementation of anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory approaches and I was able to understand J’s emotional and mental condition with greater clarity and empathy (Mearns and Thorne, 2007, p 9). Whilst my choice of open and close ended questions did help her in opening up and in shedding her inhibitions and reservations, I found her to be disturbed about her adopted status. She appeared to be disturbed with her adoptive parents for their concealment of information about her birth, her birth parents and her adoption, and kept talking of small incidents of her childhood about her parents and siblings. She also spoke about her behavioural problems, her disturbed sleep and her difficulties in making friends at school.

J was however determined to establish contact with her mother and decided to contact her as soon as she found out her contact details. I offered to act as intermediary and contact her mother in order to assess (a) her views on the relinquishment of her birth child, (b) her current emotional status and (c) her attitude towards establishing contact with J. The lady (J) was however unwilling to wait even for a few days and was convinced that her mother would like to meet her as much as she did. I did mildly explain to her that her mother could have different opinions on the issue and even offered to expedite the process. Whilst J did provide some indication of being ready for my help at the closure of our second meeting, she subsequently changed her mind and established direct contact with her birth mother. Her birth mother, from what J told me later, was absolutely surprised at receiving the call and was taken aback by the development. She responded to J’s introductory communication with brusqueness and asperity, informing her that she did not wish to respond to her overture or to establish contact.

I do feel that J acted with great haste and the result of the initiative could well have been very different with the use of an intermediary. I would have telephoned J’s mother and asked for a personal meeting. I would have again adopted a person centred approach, refrained from being judgemental, and would have engaged her in discussions about her reasons for relinquishing her birth child. I would have then gently brought up the matter of J, her adopted childhood, the concealment of information about her adopted status, and her current emotionally disturbed condition. I do feel that such an approach would have yielded a better response from her mother than J’s arbitrary method of establishing contact.

Conclusions

This reflective account details my experiences of dealing with an adopted service user, who tried to unsuccessfully establish contact with her birth mother. Modern day theory on social work and psychology stresses upon the complexity of adoption and the various challenges that the process brings up for the adopted children, the adopters and the birth relatives. Adopters have particularly significant responsibilities in ensuring, possibly through the use of therapeutic parenting methods, that their adopted children do not suffer from separation anxieties and do not develop attachment disorders. It is important for social workers to understand the emotional implications of these complexities and consider the emotional needs of all involved people with empathy and understanding.

It is also important, as my experience with J reveals, for adoption reunion processes between adopted individuals and their birth relatives to be handled with great care and thought. I do feel that I should have been more persuasive and possibly more forthright, without being judgemental, with J on (a) the possibly very different perceptions of her birth mother towards the meeting, (b) the compulsions that forced her to relinquish her birth child for adoption and (c) her current emotional condition and social environment.

Such an action would have possibly produced better results at the end. My knowledge of social work theory and practice has been significantly enhanced by my experience with J and will help me to deal with such situations much better in future.

Word Count: 2625, without citations and bibliography
Bibliography
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Bowlby, J., & Parkes, C. M., 1970, “Separation and loss within the family”, In E. J. Anthony & C. Koupernik (Eds.), The child in his family: International Yearbook of Child Psychiatry and Allied Professions, pp. 197-216, New York: Wiley.

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Feast, J., & Howe, D., 1997, “Adopted adults who search for background information and contact with birth relatives”, Adoption & Fostering 21:2, pp 8-15.

Fursland, E., 2010, “Facebook has changed adoption forever”, www.guardian.co.uk, Available at: www.guardian.co.uk/…/19/facebook-adoption-tracing-birth-mother (accessed January 30, 2011).

Goldsmith, F. D., Oppenheim, D., & Wanlass, J., 2004, “Separation and Reunification: Using Attachment Theory and Research to Inform Decisions Affecting the Placements of Children in Foster Care”, Juvenile and Family Court Journal, pp. 1-12.

Hollingsworth, L., 1998, “Adoptee dissimilarity from the adoptive family: clinical practice and research implications”, Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal 15, (4): pp 303-19.

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Appendices

The rate of teenage pregnancy has decreased greatly within the past years but it is still an immense problem which needs addressing. Pregnancy rates in the United States are still higher than those in other industrialized nations aa‚¬” this is the case even though American teens are no more sexually active than teenagers of other nations. Recent statistics concerning the teen birthrates are alarming. About 560,000 teenage girls give birth each year. Almost one-sixth of all births in the United States are to teenage women and eight in ten of them are of unintended and unanticipated pregnancies. By the age of eighteen, one out of four teenage girls will have become pregnant.

The rate of teenage pregnancies may be high among low income African-American, Hispanics, and those in inner city ghettos; it is higher still among poor, white, young women who live in small cities. The question of which teenager is most likely to become pregnant can be answered by knowing attitudes towards the social consequences of adolescent parenthood. Those individuals understanding that parenthood at an early age will limit their chances of education; will most likely be influenced to not have an unplanned pregnancy, if they are highly motivated to become professionals in the future. The higher a woman’s level of education, the more likely she is to postpone marriage and childbearing. Adolescents with little schooling are often twice as likely as those with more education to have a baby before their twentieth birthday. Some 58% of young women in the United States who receive less than a high school education give birth by the time they are twenty years old, compared with 13% of young women who complete at least twelve years of schooling. Young women who become pregnant who become pregnant during high school are more likely to drop out due to the excessive workload which is hard to balance. A teen mother leaves school because she cannot manage the task of caring for a baby and studying, and a teen father usually chooses a job over school so that he can pay bills and provide for his child. Teen mothers usually have fewer resources than older mothers because they have had less time to gather savings or build their resumes through work experience, education, or training. Because of this, teen mothers are generally poor and are dependent on government support. The welfare system is usually the only support a teen parent will receive. Welfare benefits are higher for families with absent fathers or dependent children.

Emotional stress is also another issue which teenage mothers have to deal with along with financial strains. Teen mothers may have limited social contacts and friendships because they do not have time for anything other than their baby. Lack of a social life and time for herself may cause the teenage mother to become depressed or have severe mental anxiety. Depression may become worse for a teenage mother because she usually does not know much about child development or about how to care for their children. Children who are born to teenage mothers usually suffer from poor parenting. Also, children of teenage parents start being sexually active before their peers and they are more likely to become teenage parents themselves. These children may also suffer from financial difficulties similar to that of their parents. Children whose mothers are age seventeen or younger are three times as likely as their peers to be poor, and are likely to stay poor for a longer period of time. Children born to teenage mothers are also at an intellectual disadvantage.

Teen mothers face greater health risks than older mothers, such as anemia, pregnancy induced hypertension, toxemia, premature delivery, cervical trauma, and even death. Many of these health risks are due to inadequate prenatal care and support, rather than physical immaturity. The teenage mother is more likely to be undernourished and suffer premature and prolonged labor. Death rate from pregnancy complications are much higher among girls who give birth under age fifteen. Poor eating habits, smoking, alcohol and drugs increase the risk of having a baby with health problems. The younger the teenage mother is, the higher the chances are that she and her baby will have health problems. This is mainly due to late prenatal care, if any, and poor nutrition. An adolescent mother and her baby may not get enough nutrients and, because the mother’s body is not fully mature, and thus she may have many complications throughout the duration of her pregnancy.

Along with the mother, the children of teenage parents too often become part of a cycle of poor health, school failure, and poverty. Infants born to teenage mothers are at a high risk of prematurity, fragile health, the need for intensive care, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and mental retardation. Low birth weight is the most immediate health problem. Babies born to teenagers are often born too small, too soon. The death rate for babies whose mothers are under fifteen years of age is double that of babies whose mothers are twenty to thirty years old.

Some research indicates that the percentage of teenage birthrates has declined simply because fewer teenagers are having sexual intercourse and more adolescents are using contraceptives. Researchers say that the recent trends in sexual activity and contraceptive use are the result of a number of factors, including greater emphasis on abstinence, more conservative attitudes about sex, fear of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, the popularity of long-lasting birth control methods such as the contraceptive implant, Norplant, the injectable Depo-Provera, and even because of the economy. In addition, researchers state that young people have become somewhat more conservative in their views about casual sex and out-of-wedlock childbearing. Some attribute this change in attitude mainly to concern about sexually transmitted diseases. Others say that it is because of the involvement of conservative religious groups in the public debate over sexual behavior. Many researchers believe that the strong economy and the increasing availability of jobs at minimum wage have contributed to fewer births among teenagers. Americans, however, seem to be against some of the methods used by these various organizations to reduce the teen pregnancy rates. The most controversial aspect of adolescent pregnancy prevention is the growing movement to provide teenagers with easy access to contraceptives.

Teenage pregnancy does cause many problems for the mother, child, and economy. There are, however, some incidences where the mother overcomes this down-hill trend and makes a successful life for her and her child. The outcome of teenage pregnancy turns out better if the mother goes back to school after she has given birth. Staying in school may help to prevent teenage mothers from having a second pregnancy. The outcome is also better if the mother continues to live with her parents so that they can help to raise the child. Young, teen mothers need health care for themselves as well as their children. An adolescent mother also needs a great deal of encouragement to get her to remain in school. Single teenage mothers also need job training so that they can get a good job to support themselves and their children. Teen mothers need to be taught parenting and life-management skills and also need high quality and affordable daycare for their children.

Schools that provide daycare centers on campus reduce the incidence of teenagers dropping out of school. These school programs also decrease the likelihood that the teen mother will have more children. Because the government has begun to take action in preventing teen pregnancies, the rate has continued to decline. The large numbers of young people in America–as well as the values, health, education, skills they gain–will greatly affect the future of society.

The levels of education available to younger individuals is much greater than that which was available to their parents and the expectation is that young people take the opportunity and initiative to obtain higher levels of education. The numbers of women become pregnant during their teenage years is declining, although slowly, as many young women recognize the impact which childbearing has on education. It has also decreased as parents and communities discourage sexual activity, marriage and motherhood at young ages. These recent trends will most likely educate young adolescent teenagers about the consequences and risks of teenage pregnancy and reduce the incidence of teen pregnancy and childbirth altogether if continued.

Social work practice has shown that understanding different psychological, sociological and biological theories can help in working effectively with families going through difficulties (Adams, Dominelli and Payne, 2009). This assignment will discuss relevant theories that would enable a social worker to better understand and assess this family’s circumstances and behaviour.

A brief history of Sam states that he was previously adopted by the family when he was 4 years old. One of the theories to consider within this case study is the Attachment theory. It has become more relevant in social work, especially when applying to adoption and fostering. Walker (2008) has highlighted the relevance of attachment theory to child protection in social work. Social work now understands the importance to assess the capacity of carers that would substitute the previous that would provide a secure base. Bowlby (1988) states that children would then develop and grow if they have this secure base. A possible problem would be that Sam has already entered the care system. He may have already experienced significant loss or trauma. This would affect his relationships with others. Children who have experienced significant loss or trauma will need help from their substitute carers to manage their feelings, which could be too strong for the child to manage alone. Therefore their carers need to have resolved any issues similar to the child’s in order to be affectionate and cognitively aware when the child remembers their experiences. (Walker, 2008)

Attachment was originally used to describe affectional bonds between children and their main care givers. The term has now been expanded to include other periods of development like adulthood. (Adams et al, 2009) The primary function of the attachment relationship is to ensure closeness to the caregiver for food and safety. (Brodzinsky and Schechter, 1990)

A large amount of research has found that attachment at infancy has a huge effect on the child’s psychological functioning. Researchers Hazen and Durrett (1982) found that toddlers more securely attached as infants are more willing to explore their environment, than those who were more anxiously attached to their caregivers. Other researchers have found that there is a continued link between behaviour from childhood when involving terms of attachment. (Brodzinsky et al, 1990)

As Sam was adopted at a later developmental stage this would have an effect on his attachment. The foster home or placements before adoption is critical in that he needs support from the carers both psychologically and emotionally if he has experienced trauma or neglect. Children can have numerous attachments but according to Brodzinsky et al (1990) if they have suffered abuse or neglect in early infancy then this may affect their level of basic trust.

Bowlby described the attachment system simply. If the child perceived its attachment figure as accessible it will have confident behaviour. However if the child doesn’t believe this they will exhibit anxiety. This behaviour may have been produced by Sam up until he ‘gave up’. Sam may not believe his attached figure is still accessible as she’s caring for a newborn. Bowlby believed that after this time he may experience depression and despair.

Work by Tizzard (1977) found that children adopted from age’s two to four showed that on average demonstrated no more problems that those children living with their family. They were however more likely to be over friendly and have attention seeking behaviour. (Berryman, Smythe, Taylor, Lamont and Joiner, 2002)

Some researchers have found that there is an over dependence on using the attachment theory in adoption cases. Barth, Crea, John, Thoburn and Quinton (2005) found that the scientific base of attachment theory is limited when underpinning theory for future interventions. Barth (2005) did state that social workers needed to understand what works when using the attachment theory in adoption cases but to use what works and develop an intervention that has a more appropriate evidence based approach.

Applying Attachment theory to practice involves looking at the child’s present relationships, relationship history and the context of their life and concluding which particular stresses may affect their behaviour the most. In this case looking into Sam’s school life and financial problems the family may be having. Social workers work with families to provide support and psychotherapy. In this case they should help provide support in getting the family help regarding emotional support and financial. According to Payne (2005) understanding how attachment experiences can relate to difficulties they are currently facing is one of the therapeutic tasks Bowlby highlighted. A criticism highlighted by some psychologists is that the theory uses ideas from different theories. Bowlby didn’t set exact ideas of how to practice this theory, although Payne (2005) does recognise that the theory does have a good basis for explaining childhood problems.

When practicing this theory social workers must understand the importance of linking it to other theories as they support further work for example the cognitive behavioural supports the idea of using therapy as a learning tool much like what the Attachment theory describes.

Sam has shown a change in behaviour since his baby brother was born. He’s been rude to teachers, argues at home, he’s not eating properly and is withdrawn from his family. This change in behaviour may be because of a number of reasons however it is important to highlight that even though he displaying avoidant behaviour now he can still be securely attached. Avoidant behaviour means he is more likely to be withdrawn although still securely attached. However some of his behaviour shows signs of stronger avoidance. Sam is fighting at school, one example of avoidant of behaviour is bullying and focusing on those weaker than him, he has showed signs of this towards his baby brother which is a cause of concern. (Walker, 2008)

Social workers should be aware of this change in behaviour. Children who have experienced neglect or trauma will present challenging behaviour to their care givers, these carers then need to be more understanding as this behaviour may be due to past experiences and high levels of anxiety. (Berryman et al 2002)(Walker, 2008)

When working with Sam at assessment level its essential that the social workers use anti discriminatory practice they need to be non judgemental. It may be that they have seen cases like this several times, but to understand that each case is different and assessing Sam with no assumptions and treating him as an individual is an important attitude that the social workers would need to have.

The history given has shown that the parenting styles may have changed recently, as Sam has been more disruptive his parents have been firmer, sending him to his room. This authoritarian parenting style produces children that are anxious, aggressive and have low self esteem, all behaviour styles that Sam has presented. (Baumrind, 1966) This may not be the best way to deal with his behaviour, especially as he has become more withdrawn from the family and not eating. This may highlight an underlying problem for example an eating disorder or ADHD.

Research by Harris (1998) a major critic of the attachment theory found that Nature is an assumption. Society assumes that parents who are kind and honest will have kind and honest children. Harris believes that peers may have more of an effect on the child’s personality. Using the example of identical twins, she highlights that when living in different homes they will more likely have the same habits. She also highlights that children who live in high crime areas will be more susceptible to committing crime themselves. Personality also comes from genes, as shown in separated twin studies. In this case it’s important to investigate Sam’s friends at school and also his maternal mother to find out what could be influencing Sam’s behaviour.

Once more social workers when working with Sam would need to understand that although society can make assumptions social workers cannot. When working with Sam it’s also worth noting that the social workers must have controlled emotional involvement. Sam may explain situations which could be very emotional the social workers would need to have the capacity to be sensitive when working with him.

An additional theory that social workers should consider when assessing Sam is the Social Readjustment rating scale. Invented by Homes and Rahe (1967) the higher the number you have when counting the number of life events you have faced the more likely it is that you will have an illness. The scale denotes that if you have a score higher than 150 then you have faced mild life stress. Using the scale Sam’s social rating scale was 153. This scale is useful when considering the life events that Sam has faced in a relatively small space of time. However Lazarus and Folkman (1984) found that this approach is narrow and has the ability to ignore difference between individuals when considering their vulnerability to these life events. Lazarus et al also found that the Social readjustment rating scale ignores chronic stressors which may distress individuals greatly over a length of time.

An approach to understanding stress was produced by Lazarus, DeLongis, Folman and Gruen (1985) they consider stimulus and response, coping style and defence mechanisms. Called the Model of Adoption adjustment it focuses on two types of coping, problem focused and emotion focused. The emotion focused strategies can involve attempts to reduce the individuals stress with behaviour such as avoidance, distancing or selective attention. These changes in behaviour help in reappraising the life event and redefining it as less intimidating than the individual previously thought. This type of cognitive appraisal process and coping strategy Lazarus et al argues can be influenced by environment. Using this approach can help investigate other factors. This cognitive appraisal process provides the bases of highlighting differences between individuals and what their psychological stress reactions are in response. (Lazarus et al, 1985)

As Sam has faced so many life events it’s important for social workers to understand how much they can affect his psychological well being and behaviour and to understand the importance of recovery in these very traumatic situations. This approach can help expand the social workers understanding of how much these events could be part of the cause of his change in behaviour. Criticising different aspects of these similar theories can establish how useful it would be to individuals and how differently each individual responds to certain stressors.

Applying the Model of Adoption adjustment theory to practice would involve investigating Sam’s relationships and past history of emotional events to gain a better insight into how well he has used emotion focused or problem focused strategies and what his psychological reactions have been in response to the events he has faced.

Bronfenbrenners Ecological theory is another theory the social workers should consider when assessing this case study. This theory takes into account the relationship between the family, immediate environment and also the larger environment. It understands a structure of five layers. These layers involve different systems which would all affect Sam differently. The microsystem contains direct relationships and interactions of the child, the structures in the microsystem can be the family and school. Bronfenbrenner believed that the relationships between this system impact away and toward the child. For example the child affects the behaviour of the parent and the parent affects their behaviour onto the child. The mesosystem includes the child’s connections between the microsystem’s structures, e.g. Between Sam’s parents and their community neighbourhood. The exosystem identifies the child’s larger social system, although Sam will not directly function with it. For example Sam may not be directly involved with his father’s work hours but may be affected by its interaction within his system. The fourth layer, the macrosystem involves the wider society. (Payne, 2005) (Adams et al, 2009)

The ecological theory focuses on the unique influences of the service user and the relevance of the immediate environment as well as larger society. It focuses on the service user as the centre of the process.

Assessments use an ecological framework as a basis although in practice Francis et al (2006) argue that comprehensive assessment tools may affect crisis intervention assessments because this assessment is very time consuming. This theory provides a basis on which social workers can work from to consider the impact that these layers would have on Sam’s relationship and behaviour.

In this case it would be sensible to consider this theory. Sam has faced multiple life events each could affect his behaviour. This approach recognises that multiple factors could be affecting Sam’s behaviour. It provides a holistic framework to understand these factors, then analyses them and finds solutions. A major criticism involving social work using this approach is that as the assessment is so lengthy and needs a lot of organisation to produce a solution. Many social workers have shown a poor record of good quality assessments. (Petch, 2002) Some social workers seem to focus on the immediate future of the child rather than long term solutions. The GSCC (2004) have produced aims because of this to highlight that it is important that practitioners understand that it’s a central part of their core principles. It’s important to note the use of Anti discriminatory practice within the use of assessments using an ecological approach. Understanding that individuals all have different cultures, behaviours and history is essential especially when Sam is vulnerable both as a child and as a previous service user who may have experienced past neglect or trauma.

Jan (mother)

A brief history of Jan explained that she has previously used IVF treatment a number of times with no successful pregnancy. After realising the emotional and financial difficulties that may follow if they decided to carry on trying they applied for adoption. They were matched to Sam, who was four at the time and despite initial reservations he seemed like the ‘model child’. Jan then gave up work to care for him. At 24 weeks she found out she was pregnant which she was told by doctors would be virtually impossible. Jan has found motherhood a struggle and has stated she feels useless. Her Parenting style towards Sam has changed as she has been stricter because of his behaviour change. She is also worried about the health of her baby.

Attachment is also an important theory to consider for this individual. Research on Attachment in adults focuses on the assumption that the same bonds between parents and children are responsible for the bonds between adults in personal relationships. (Bowlby, 1988) If this were the case then the relationship between these individuals should reflect how they attached when they were younger; younger children may have secure attachments. Therefore when they grew up have equally secure romantic attachments. However if they had less stable attachments when they were younger they may have less secure relationships when they reach adulthood. Similarly children who have secure attachments but have had inconsistent secure attachments as they grow up may well have a change in their attachment pattern.

Jan and her husband Tony seem to have some relationship problems. Tony isn’t able to provide the level of emotional support that she needs because of the increased hours he has to work. Jan may be slightly insecure about her relationship with Tony it’s important to explore this relationship at both an individual level and together to work out solutions together. To provide support and work out what each individual needs both emotionally and psychologically, especially as Jan seems to be becoming more upset about her situation and because she doesn’t seem to have anyone to turn to for help.

Jan’s relationship with her mother seems problematic. Firstly she seems over dependent on her mother, who she expected to help with the baby. The relationship she has with her mother may have consequences on how she attaches to future individuals affecting both her attachment with her husband, the attachment she has with her baby and with Sam.

As Jan didn’t realise she was pregnant until she was 24 weeks pregnant she didn’t have as much time to become emotionally and psychologically ready to prepare to have her baby. A paper by Bernstein, Lewis and Seibel (1994) found that women who were previously infertile have difficulty transitioning to parenthood some women may show high levels of anxiety, avoidance behaviour and problems with preparing for a newborn. They found that guidelines need to be developed to meet the needs of these women who have become pregnant after infertility. Not only could the attachment between her partner and mother be problematic but as these papers suggest the attachment between her and the newborn may be the most affected because of her infertility the effects it has on her emotionally, psychologically and biologically. Creating further levels of anxiety and producing negative behaviour.

Social workers assessing and working with Jan who have been involved in IVF or have experienced it themselves may be too embroiled in the situation as the social workers may unintentionally direct Jan into making decisions. It would be more responsive as a social worker to understand this and move away from this case.

The Spoilt identity theory is an important sociological theory to consider when understanding Jan’s behaviour. Goffman’s (1990) spoilt identity theory or social stigma explores behaviour and how certain behaviours or attributes can be socially shameful. The Collins dictionary describes stigma as distinguishing mark or social disgrace. Goffman (1990) refers to stigma as an attribute that is discrediting.

This theory is significant to this case as Jan has had to deal with a number of life events especially one that is socially discrediting. Stigma theory predicts that childless women deviate from ordinary and normal life courses and are deeply discredited by society. Jan had expectations before she got married that she would have children by birth and became increasingly obsessed with having a child because of the amount of IVF treatment she used. A recent paper by Whiteford and Gonzalez (1995) posed the question “Why do some women become consumed to give birth to a child, even to the detriment of their own health, marriage and financial status?” They found that society was the main cause that pressures women into having children. That the women used within their research suffered because they had internalised the norms within society and because of this described their selves as defective. As well as society it is also the mediatisation of intervention that has also affected women infertile. Media is constantly highlighting how many infertile women are now with child because of medical interventions what this does psychologically to the women still not able to become pregnant is even harder to comprehend.

When infertility does affect you the individual is then not living one’s life via the social “norms”. It affects women differently compared to other stigmas as infertility stigma is not a physical one like a limp. Looking at a woman who is infertile would not tell you that she is, it’s their own knowledge that has such a profound effect on their psychological wellbeing.

It can create stress and crisis to both the individual and family, affecting them financially, emotionally and physically. Jan and her husband have both been affected through this trauma and it may benefit both of them if they have counselling together, even though they have now become pregnant and had a child it is still affecting their relationship. The husband has to work long hours to be able to afford living costs because of the cost of treatment for the IVF.

Post natal depression may also be affecting Jan. Since she has had her baby she has become emotional and found motherhood a struggle feeling useless and low. Biologically speaking post natal depression is a form of depression. Depression usually develops within three or four weeks after childbirth it has the same symptoms is depressive disorder these include increased sleeping, lethargy and affected appetite. New mothers would also be anxious about the baby and have thoughts about her failure as a mother which Jan has showed signs of. Jan has faced a number of life events which may increase the risk of post natal depression.

Fortunately there are a lot of different types of diagnosis for post natal depression. The Edinburgh post natal depression scale and the Hamilton rating scale for depression which uses a point system to assess their level of depression.

There is a wide range of treatments for post natal depression the type the patient needs would be dependent upon the severity of their depression. Firstly support and advice is offered to give the family an understanding of how they can recover. Independent advice is given regarding any social problems that may be affecting their relationships. Antidepressants may be prescribed, these would then allow the body to function more normally. Although there are several types of side effects which may cause further problems.

Counselling and psychological treatments may be the best form of treatment as they look at the individual wholly and what within their lives could be affecting their depression. Cognitive behavioural therapy helps indentify thought patterns which could make the patient more depressed. It achieves changes in the way people think. Interpersonal therapy may also be useful to consider in this case as this therapy identifies problems within relationships and relates it to the individual’s depression. There will always be positives and negatives of using these different treatments post natal women may find it hard to commit to psychological therapy because of the time commitments and may find it easier to just use prescribed medication. The main criticism with this treatment is that it doesn’t look at the patient’s problems holistically if there are problems within the relationships facing them now and finding solutions rather than putting them off would be more beneficial in the long run. According to research by Dennis (2005) the most promising intervention is intensive professional post natal support.

Whilst working with Jan and her family it’s essential that the social workers give purposeful expression of feeling, giving them the chance to say what they want from the social workers and what they really need and feel about everything that’s affecting their relationships and what they want their goals to be.

Considering each type of theory for this case study then establishing how they all correlate to one another is the best way to understand how to find solutions for these individuals. Understanding biological, sociological and psychological theories and human growth and development plays an essential part in assessing and intervening in a positive way. The International Federation of Social Workers guideline states that “The social work profession draws upon theories of human development and behaviour and social systems to analyse complex situations and to facilitate individual, organisational, social and cultural changes.” (2000) Considering each type of theory gives a broader understanding of individual’s experiences and how social workers can find solutions when they are needed. Social workers need a broad knowledge base of professional experiences, evidence based research and service users experiences to gain the best understanding of that situation.

The Experience of Domestic Abuse Amongst South Asian Women – How issues of domestic abuse arise in Asian families – is it prevalent amongst Asian communities more than Western European communities, or is this a myth created by media – what are underlying cultural issues (ie. Forced marriages, honour killings/violence, mental abuse, physical abuse, rape, etc) – how does the community/family respond to domestic abuse when it is perpetuated, how are the women treated, is their support from within the community for these women

Domestic violence can have an enormous effect on your mental health. It is now well accepted that abuse (both in childhood and in adult life) is often the main factor in the development of depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders, and may lead to sleep disturbances, self-harm, suicide and attempted suicide, eating disorders and substance misuse. (See References.)

Abused women are at least three times more likely to experience depression or anxiety disorders than other women.

One-third of all female suicide attempts and half of those by Black and ethnic minority women can be attributed to past or current experiences of domestic violence.

Women who use mental health services are much more likely to have experienced domestic violence than women in the general population.

70% of women psychiatric in-patients and 80% of those in secure settings have histories of physical or sexual abuse.

Children who live with domestic violence are at increased risk of behavioural problems and emotional trauma, and mental health difficulties in adult life. (See also Children and domestic violence.)

An audit in Greenwich found that 60% of mental health service users had experienced domestic violence. Another survey of women using mental health services in Leeds found that half of them had experienced domestic violence and a further quarter had suffered sexual abuse.

How your mental health can be used to abuse you further

If you have a mental health diagnosis, your partner may have used this to abuse you even more. For example, by:

Saying you couldn’t cope without him.

Saying you’re ‘mad’.

Not allowing you to go anywhere alone because he is your ‘carer’.

Speaking for you: “You know you get confused/you’re not very confident/you don’t understand the issues”.

Telling you you’re a bad mother and cannot look after the children properly.

Forcing you to have an abortion because ‘you couldn’t cope’.

Threatening to take the children away.

Threatening to “tell Social Services” – the implication being they will take the children away.

Telling the children “Mummy can’t look after you”.

Deliberately misleading or confusing you.

Withholding your medication.

Withholding or coercing you into using alcohol or drugs.

Undermining you when you disclose the abuse or ask for help: “You can’t believe her – she’s mad”.

These tactics will almost certainly add to your emotional distress and exacerbate any existing mental health issues.

If you have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, you will be in a particularly vulnerable position, and are likely to find it even harder to report domestic violence than other women. You are likely to suffer from a sense of shame because of the stigma attached in our society to having mental illness of any kind, and you may feel even more powerless. Furthermore, the response of the service providers is also likely to be more problematic, due to the stigma of being ‘mentally ill’:

They may not believe you when you disclose abuse.

They may see you only when your partner is present.

They may accept your partner’s account at face value.

They may feel sympathy for your partner – “After all he has had to put up with” – or blame you for the abuse.

They may judge you (particularly if you are self-harming or have attempted suicide, or if you use alcohol or drugs).

Don’t blame yourself! Your mental health difficulties are not your fault, and you are not responsible for the abuse: the abuser is. You are entitled to help as much as any other abused woman, and if you have additional support needs, you should get help with them too.

Some refuge organisations are unable to offer accommodation to women with severe mental health needs because they have insufficient resources to provide suitable support. However, other refuges will be able to accommodate you – and all refuge organisations should be able to find you somewhere else to go. If you have decided to leave your abuser, you could ring the Freephone 24 Hour National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247, run in partnership between Women’s Aid and Refuge, which will be able to put you in touch with a refuge organisation that can provide accommodation that meets your support needs.

Mental health services

Despite the frequent overlap between domestic violence and mental ill health, mental health professionals seem generally to ignore the issue of abuse. They are unlikely to ask you about it and may therefore be unaware of it. You yourself may feel unable to disclose the abuse to your GP or to your community psychiatric nurse (CPN) or your psychiatrist (if you have one). So you may find that the reasons for your depression or other difficulties are ignored. You may feel blamed for the abuse. And you are very likely simply to be offered medication (such as tranquillisers, anti-depressants or sleeping pills) instead of being given an opportunity to talk about what is happening or has happened to you.

When mental health professionals do take domestic violence into account, they may still disagree about the causes of your condition and how to treat it. For example, some psychologists believe that the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), most often associated with wars or natural disasters such as fire or earthquake, or experiences such as torture or being held hostage, can be appropriately applied to survivors of domestic violence. Other people argue that anxiety and depression, and even self-harm or suicide attempts may be the normal response to the experience of long-term abuse.

While depression tends to ease when women are no longer being abused this will not happen immediately. It may take a long time for you to come to terms with what has happened. You may suffer continued abuse and harassment long after the relationship itself has ended – and you are likely to live in fear of it for much longer. You may also experience flashbacks long after the violence has ceased.

See Surviving after abuse: Looking after yourself and moving on for some suggestions on how to deal with this.

Counselling

All women who are experiencing or have experienced domestic violence will need emotional support of some kind, but their needs will vary. All women need to be listened to with respect and without being judged when they choose to talk about their experiences. They want to be believed – and to feel they have been understood. Mutual support from other women who have had similarly abusive experiences can be very valuable: it will help you to feel less isolated and to recognise that none of the abuse you experienced was your fault. You will get this kind of support if you go into a refuge, or if you use a Women’s Aid outreach service, or join a support group.

Some women may benefit from more formal counselling or psychotherapy – though not usually while they are still living with their abuser or immediately after escaping from the violence, when physical safety and practical issues are likely to be of greater concern. If you decide you would like some counselling, the following information may help you.

Counselling is a two-way relationship, in which the counsellor listens to whatever you want to say, in confidence and without making judgements. Counsellors are not supposed to give advice, but they may ask questions or challenge you in ways which may help you to look more carefully at some of the assumptions you may have taken for granted. Usually you will have regular sessions, for an hour or slightly less, each week or every two weeks. Psychotherapy tends to be more intensive than counselling, and may continue for a longer period of time, as issues are explored in more depth. Some people, however, use these terms interchangeably.

The aim of counselling is to help you understand yourself better and come to terms with what has happened to you. Good counselling will help you to break away from past abusive relationships and work towards living in a way which is more satisfactory and fulfilling for you. It can also help you to build up your self esteem. However, counselling is not for everyone – and you have to decide whether it is right for you and whether this is the right time for it.

If you decide you want some counselling, it is important that the counsellor or therapist you choose is right for you, and that she is appropriately qualified and experienced. She should also have a good understanding of domestic violence and its effects, and should take care not to appear to blame you or make you feel guilty in any way for the abuse you experienced. Styles of counselling differ a lot – depending in part on the theoretical approach of the counsellor or therapist – and you may find some approaches more helpful then others.

In some parts of the country, there are counselling services specifically set up by women for women, and many of these have a particular focus on issues of violence and abuse. Some also offer support groups for survivors of domestic violence. Some of these are listed at the end of this section. If you contact your local Women’s Aid organisation, they may be able to put you in touch with a counselling service or support group in your area. Some counselling organisations offer sessions that are free of charge; others charge a fee dependent on your income.

Your GP surgery may have a counsellor to which your doctor could refer you, or he or she might refer you to an NHS psychologist – though there could be a long waiting list. NHS services will be free of charge, but may be time-limited. Alternatively, you could contact an organisation such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) which can give you a list of trained and accredited counsellors in your area. These will charge an hourly fee, though some may have concessionary rates for those on low incomes. In each case, it is important that you feel happy with your counsellor, and are able to build up a rapport and a sense of trust in the relationship.

Further information

Freephone 24 hour National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247, run in partnership between Women’s Aid and Refuge: They will be able to put you in touch with your local Women’s Aid organisation or other domestic violence service.

Saneline: For anyone concerned about their own mental health or that of someone else. Local rate helpline: 08457 678 000, open 1pm – 11pm every day. Website: www.sane.org.uk

Samaritans: Provides a listening service for those in distress or considering suicide. 24 hour helpline: 0845 790 9090.

Rethink (formerly the National Schizophrenia Fellowship): Rethink provides a wide range of services throughout the UK, including supported housing, helplines, employment projects and support groups. To contact the Rethink National Advice Service, please call 020 8974 6814. The Service is available from Monday to Friday 10am – 3pm, except Tuesday and Thursday 10am – 1pm. Website: www.rethink.org

Mind: Mind offers information and support on mental health issues, and where to get help. The national information line can put you in touch with local Mind groups, which may run local helpines, support groups and other activities. Mind also produces a wide variety of leaflets and other publications on mental health issues. Mindinfoline: 08457 660 163, Monday – Friday 9:15am – 5:15pm (not bank holidays). Typetalk for callers with hearing or speech problems who have access to minicom: 0800 959 598. Email: [email protected] Website: www.mind.org.uk

Threshold: The helpline, due to lack of funding, can only provide information and a signposting service to women, their carers and workers during 10am – 1pm on Tuesdays. Women’s Mental Health Infoline: 0808 808 6000, Answerphone at other times. Email: [email protected] Website: www.thresholdwomen.org.uk

No Panic: Provides a free information pack, and their answerphone refers callers to other numbers where they can talk to one of their volunteers for support. Also refers to local services when available. Freephone: 0808 808 0545, 10am – 10pm, for those suffering from anxiety disorders and panic attacks.

Depression Alliance: Depression Alliance has a national network of self-help groups. It also offers a correspondence scheme. It does not offer a helpline scheme. Phone: 0845 123 2320 (local call rates) for a free information pack and to find out contact numbers for services locally. Email: [email protected] Website: www.depressionalliance.org

National Self-harm Network: For those who self-harm or for those supporting them. The network offers information (and debunks myths) about self-harm and lists organisations which provide support. Website: www.nshn.co.uk

Bristol Crisis Service for Women: This service is for women in emotional distress, particularly those who injure themselves. The service provides a range of booklets on topics such as self-help for self-injury. Although Bristol-based, it serves the whole of the UK, and can refer to local services if needed. Address: PO Box 654, Bristol, BS99 1XH. Helpline: 0117 9251119, Friday and Saturday 9pm -12:30am; Sunday 6pm – 9pm.

Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (RASASC): Helpline will take calls from women nationwide, and refers to local services if appropriate. Also offers face-to-face counselling and group counselling for women in Croyden who have been raped or sexually abused. P.O.Box 383, Croydon, CR9 2AW. Helpline: 0845 122 1331, weekdays 12 noon – 2:30pm and 7:00pm -9:30pm; weekends and bank holidays 2:30pm – 5pm. Minicom: 020 8239 1124. Email: [email protected] Website: www.rasasc.org.uk

Young Minds Parents’ information service: Provides help for parents concerned about a young person’s mental health. Has a variety of leaflets and booklets, including one which explores how divorce and separation affect children and young people. Phone: 0800 018 2138, Monday – Friday 10am – 1pm; Tuesday and Thursday 1pm – 4pm; Wednesday 1pm – 4pm and 6pm – 8pm. Website: www.youngminds.org.uk

Counselling services for women

British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy: This is the professional body for general counselling services, and can give you names of qualified and BACP-accredited counsellors in your area. The website includes a note on ‘Finding the right therapist’, as well as a directory of therapists throughout the UK. Phone: 0870 443 5252. Email: [email protected] Website: www.bacp.co.uk

Womankind Helpline: Offers face-to-face counselling and support groups for women in the Bristol and South Gloucestershire areas. Phone: 0845 458 2914, Monday – Friday 10am – 12 noon; Tuesday and Wednesday 1pm – 3pm; Monday and Tuesday 8pm – 10pm. Answerphone at other times. Website: www.womankindbristol.org.uk

The Maya Centre for women living with violence: Services are provided free for women on benefits or low incomes who have not had the opportunity to use other counselling services and have not had the benefit of degree-level education. Phone 020 7281 2728. Address: Unit 11, City North Trading Estate, Fonthill Road, London N4 3HN. Email: [email protected]

Women’s Therapy Centre: For psychotherapy by women, in the London area. Phone: 020 7263 6200. Address: 10 Manor Gardens, London N7 6JS. Email:

[email protected] Website: www.womenstherapycentre.co.uk

Woman’s Trust: Provides free one-to-one counselling and weekly support groups for women who have been abused. It also offers an advocacy service, currently for abused women in the Westminster, Kensington, Chelsea and Greenwich areas, which is also free of charge. Emergency 24 hour help phone: 0774 708 0964. Office phone: 020 7 0340 304. Address: Lighthouse West London, 111-117 Lancaster Road, London, W11 1QT.

Political and ethical values have great impact on Social Sciences. While conducting research, the researcher should always be aware of those issues that may arise during time of the research process. Ethics in social research means linking individual responsibility to broader moral principles and to professional codes of conduct. Research ethics helps: to maintain the profession integrity, maintain the standards that have been set already; protects the reputation of good research; acknowledges research context; seeks funding and approval for ethical research (Z, O’leary, 2004 p42). Thus, power, politics and ethics should be analysed thoroughly by the researchers during the research process.

Harm to participants: social researchers should try to minimize disturbances to both subjects and subjects’ relationship with their environment. Maintaining privacy and confidentiality of the participants are vital things in the research process. Researchers should be fully aware of data protection act 1998 and be recorded accordingly.

Informed consent: individuals should be powered to make free decisions and be given all the information needed to make good decisions. Researchers should explain about the research including who is undertaking and financing, and why it is being undertaken and how it is to be promoted.

Invasion of privacy: the anonymity and privacy of those who participates in the research process should be respected.

Deception: The involvement of research participants must be entirely voluntary. If the participants do not understand fully or remember, they might not do what is expected or withdraw due to misunderstandings. Thus, participants should be empowered by full information along with the nature of the research. Indeed, it protects participants as well as researchers.(Bryman, A, 2008, p118-129)

Similarly, professional practice and ethical standards should be maintained during the process of research by choosing relevant research methodology. Likewise, reporting should be accurate, fabrication and falsification of data are considered as misconduct and interpretation of the data should be according to the general methodological standards. Furthermore, the researcher- researcher relationship should be maintained by not misusing the authority or role given and researchers should not list authors in their report without their permission. The research in fact should be guided by the accepted ethical standards(S, Sarantakos, 1998, p20-25).

Meanwhile, the political dimensions of the research should also be maintained during the research process in order to avoid biasness. Likewise, the political consideration of research includes the issues of outsider pressures, researcher’s own political position, the applicability of research findings and use of them by those who are in power, choice of research topic and research procedures, sponsors’ influence, funding bodies and governmental policy towards social science research (Bryman A, 2008, p131), as well as credibility of findings all should be considered throughout the research process.(S, Sarantakos,1998, p27-29)

Two empirical research studies have been selected and analysed from political and ethical point of view .Those studies are : (1) Factors That Predicts How women Label Their Own Childhood Sexual Abuse, and (2)Family Environment in Hispanic College Females with a history of Childhood Sexual Abuse. Both journals are derived from the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, vol 15(2) 2006 and; vol 16 (3) 2007 respectively. In both studies, all participants are females. Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is a private crime, enshrouded in the “Syndrome of secrecy” (Furnish, 1991, p22). One’s personal appraisal of sexual abuse may depend on societal definitions that recognize extreme behaviours as abusive, but leave other behaviours.

Although centuries of novels and autobiographies have dealt with the subject of child abuse in all its forms, society has been slow in term of recognizing the frequency with this committed assault. Since the last 20 years, research has understood the importance of CSA as a public health problem, yet the actual extent of CSA remains unknown. It is because of the efforts of a small number of researchers. The issues involved have been ignored, and there is correspondingly little mention of them in historical and anthropological studies (The political Consequences of Child Abuse, Alice Miller, The journal of psychiatry 26 (2) Fall 1998). For example, in May 2008 the world woke to the shocking news that a 71 years old Austrian man had imprisoned his own daughter in a small soundproofed windowless cellar of his family home for 24 years. During this time he raped her repeatedly and fathered seven children with her. Although around 100 people live on and off that house, none reported their concern to the authorities, preferring to turn a blind eye to what was going on.

Moreover, most of the available information about CSA’s distribution and determinants has not been based on methodologically valid and reliable measures. The lack of accurate estimates inhibits the development of effective preventive and treatment interventions. Similarly, S, Sarantakos (1998) illustrates further that data and materials already collected can only become available to researchers if the government allows it. The political bias may arises when government and funding bodies set priorities on issues they wish to be studied, promoting only what they consider as important and suppressing research in areas which they do not wish to see explored. Priorities are often biased, and certain minority groups and problems are neglected and certainly disadvantaged. The government appoints assessors of research grant applications to select the proposals that deserved support. But who are the assessors and who determined the parameter of choice? (S, Sarantakos, 1998). For example, Child abuse, that is actually neglected. Empirical sociological research studies based on data collected from children themselves are relatively few (Amit-Talai and Wuff, 1995; Mayball 1994a).

The method used in the first journal “How Women Label their Own CSA” was cross-sectional followed by structured interviews. The study was supported by a grant from the Texas Academy of Family Physician foundation. The main objectives of the studies were: to compare victims of CSA who labelled their experiences as “abusive” with victims who did not, examining differences in abusive experiences, victim characteristics, perpetrator characteristics, and family relationships. Interestingly, it illustrates that despite the psychological impact of sexual abuse, many victims do not acknowledge that their experience were “abuse”. Abuse whether acknowledge or unacknowledged, is associated with more psychological and sociological adjustment problems (Varia et al, 1996). Layman et .al (1996) found that acknowledged victims of rape reported more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms than unacknowledged victims, who had more symptoms than non-victims. Although CSA is widely prevalent in the United States, an estimated 16% of males and 27% of females report some experiences with unwanted sexual experiences during childhood (Finkelhor, 1994). Likewise, Stander, Olson, and Merrill (2002) discovered that self-identification as a victim of CSA was associated with threats-force, incest and younger age of onset. In addition to the characteristics of the abuse, other factors may affect how an individual defines the experience: victim characteristics (for example, gender, cultural background and education) and family environment. The study is a secondary analysis of the Childhood Experience and Adult Stress (CEAS) database conducted in the Family Health Centre of the University Health Centre-Downtown in San Antonio, Texas. In the study, 100 women were assessed for major depressive episode(MDE), panic disorder, agoraphobia, substance abuse, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder(BPD), bulimia and suicidal where only 68 women met criteria for at least one adult disorder; several had multiple co-morbidities.

Re-using the qualitative data has several ethical and legal concerns. These include the use of whether and, if so, when researchers should seek consent to re-use data in secondary studies (Alderson, 1998). This could be done at the time when data are collected. However, information on exactly how data will be reused, by whom and for what purpose, is likely to be scant at this time. Alternatively, consent could be sought retrospectively, when particular secondary studies are planned. But this requires that participants’ identity and contact details are known and can be used for this purpose. Re-contacting participants also presents researchers with logistical and ethical difficulties where people might have changed address or may have died; being re-contacted may also be unwelcome to some former participants. In addition, whether or not researchers decide to seek fresh consent for a secondary study may depend on the data collection and the type of planned qualitative secondary analysis (Sage, social research methods, 2008). Moreover, in the study, researchers didn’t do any attempt to re-contacting and taking fresh consent for the studies; which are relatively difficult task. Doing research under such situation brings conflict for future policy and practice. Likewise, the original study sought to identify predictors of mental health and mental disorders in women with a history of CSA whereas the second analytic research on the same data was to identify factors that predict how women label their own experience of CSA. Such research findings might not be reliable and replicable.

Similarly, it has been observed that several women in the sample had not labelled their childhood sexual experiences as “abuse”. Therefore, this analysis was conducted by using dependent variable “acknowledgement of abuse”, in an attempt to understand how women subjected to sexual abuse as children come to define their experiences as “abuse”. A variable is a concept that can take two or more values where dependent variable is affected or explained by another variable (S, Sarantakos, social research methods, 1998, p73). Measurement relates to variables. In the study, several variables were associated with labelling in the bivriate comparisons, but did not reach significance in the logistic regression: (1) racial/ethnic background, (2) use of force/threats, and (3) duration of abuse. Hispanic was less likely than non-Hispanic whites to acknowledge the sexual activities as abuse.

In the sample, only English speaking females aged 18-40 were approached where 65% of the women were from Hispanic family. Thus, these responses may have uniquely reflected local culture and values in a young adult cohort. The population of Sant Antonio has majority of Hispanic ethnicity and other dominant groups include non-Hispanic and African Americans. Those groups represented in the clinic population and in the sample were low income, which reflected the entire community. It is not appropriate to generalize whole population on the basis of findings of such limited study criteria. Furthermore, the sample included only those who were willing to tell and describe the childhood experiences of abusive activity in a face-to-face interview. One third of those who met the criteria were not willing to disclose and participate in the research. This is the fact that they may not have differed in the nature of their experiences because they did not differ demographically from the 100 participants.

The CSA screening consisted of three main questions about their childhood sexual patterns. Women saying “yes” to any of the question were asked to complete a structured interview concerning the sexual abuse experience and their childhood environment and taken informed consent as well. The family-of-origin questionnaire describes the household environment throughout childhood. The 25-item parental bonding instrument assessed the quality of the parent-child relationship during the subject’s childhood. The demographic questionnaire collected information on subject’s gender, age, marital status, household size, educational attainment, occupation, income, and racial /ethnic background. The study has several limitations. Firstly, the outcome variable, “acknowledgement of abuse” had a single question and therefore may lack reliability. Secondly, the use of multiple comparisons may have inflation alpha level. Thirdly, the sample was small and unique, limiting statistical power and generalizability. In fact, the sample differed from other studies demographically. Finally, researching about traumatic childhood experiences biased politically because of the unattainable objectives. Furthermore, interviewing adult can result in data biased by poor recollection, re-interpretation of events, and failure to disclose. The study was funded by the private sponsor of the same study, so the applicability of the findings are surely related to political factors and it will totally depend on the sponsor to apply findings.

The second journal “family Environment in Hispanic College Females with a History of CSA” sought to examine the family environments of a sample of Hispanic college women who reported childhood sexual abuse. The qualitative method with individual interview was used in the study. The main objective was to explore the relation of child maltreatment in ethnic diversity associated with cultural factors and prevalence through the study of Hispanic female college students .In the study, eighteen women, ranging from 20 to 49 years , were taken from a larger college sample. Those women were individually interviewed and administered the Family Environment Scale (FES, Moos and Moos, 1994). The qualitative methodology was employed to the study. The larger the sample size, the grater the precision (Bryman, A, 2008, p180). The sample size in the study were relatively small, in such circumstances, the scope of the findings of qualitative investigation is restrictive. On the other hand, the findings can not be generalized to other settings because of its subjective nature and small sample size. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to conduct a true replication.

The study illustrates that ethnic diversity and cultural factors which may affect the prevalence of such abuse, so, the victim’s emotional and behavioural response, as well as the disclosure of the sexual abuse should be ignored (Kenny and McEachern, 2000). Existing research that has examined Hispanic victims compared with victims from other ethnic group have found that Hispanic victims were more likely to have been abused by extended family members (Arroyo et al.1997) because of the given cultural value to the family with strict rules. However, good relationship among family members, caring each other, sense of obligation, loyalty and duty; because of those values placed in the family, they would not like to reveal the CSA, which would be marked as shame and guilt in the society. Furthermore, the participants were evenly distributed across all socioeconomic levels. However, it was impossible to analyze the data separately by Hispanic group because of small sample size.

The project received approval from the University Research review Board and committee for human Subjects. Since the beginning of the research project, frequent announcement were made in a number of educational classes during the year. Potential participants were instructed to call the author and take an appointment for the participation. The participants who were participated in the research process were granted extra credit to their academic career. It implicated that they are just attracting and motivating the participants to participate and their motive was just to finish the research. In such circumstances, the research findings will be politically biased due to motives of the research funding. It does not actually seem to produce knowledge and generate theory. Such research would definitely have negative influence to future researchers. (May, T, 1997)

Furthermore, the following questions can be asked in any piece of research: who funded it? How was it conducted and by whom? What were the problems associated with the design and execution and how were the results interpreted and used? This enables to understand the context in which research takes place and the influences upon it as well as countering the tendency to see the production and design of the research as a technical issue uncontaminated by political and ethical questions (May, T, 1997 p45-46) .For example, in the study, even after several announcement and with incentives (credit) there were only eighteen participants.

During the process, informed consent was taken assuring confidentiality prior to the interview. Individual interviews were chosen owing to the sensitive nature of the material .The interview consisted of open-ended and closed questions about the demographic information including the participant’s potential history of sexual abuse. Following the use of a closed question, such as “what age were you when the abuse began?” further questions were elicited for more information during the interview. Furthermore, after interview, Family Environment scale (FES) was provided to the participants and allowed as much time as they like to complete. It is unstructured and often reliant upon the researcher’s ingenuity where conducting a true replication is almost impossible. Furthermore, there are hardly any standard procedures to be followed (Bryman, A, 2008 p391). Not only that, the researcher him or herself is the main instrument of data collection, so that what is observed and heard and also what researcher decides to concentrate upon is very much a product of his or her predictions. For example, some researchers are likely to empathize with other issues; while others choose to focus upon what strikes them as significant. Similarly, the responses of participants to such a qualitative research are likely to be affected by the characteristics of the researcher (personality, age, gender, and so on). Because of the unstructured nature of qualitative data, interpretation will be influenced by the subjective leaning of a researcher (A, Bryman, 2008, p391). Because of those factors, it is difficult, not to say impossible-to replicate such qualitative findings.

The goal of the study was to learn more about the family experiences of the women who reported CSA to generate future directions for future research and contribute to the understanding of Hispanic women’s experiences with CSA. The FES measure consisting of 9-item subscale was used to measure the respondent’s perceptions of the topic. The results highlighted some important areas for future inquiry. Some of the hypothesis was confirmed. The first hypothesis, that this sample would report elevated scores on the EFS of family conflict and decreased scores on Organization, was not supported. They did not demonstrated elevated scores on the conflict subscale of EFS because of focus on general conflict among family members. The second hypothesis, the organization of these families found some support, but the study showed a rather hierarchical structure with the father or parents at the top in most families; for example; male authority 50% and 39% of mothers made decisions. The third hypothesis was regarding the issue of sexuality; these women would report repressed sexual attitudes in their homes seems to have been confirmed for example, majority of them reported that their parents did not discuss issue related to sexuality.

In the study, all women were from a voluntary college population that is not representative of the greater Hispanic population; hence, making generalization to other groups is difficult. Similarly, the study used non-contact sexual experiences, so, careful examination of definitions of sexual abuse used in other studies should be made before comparisons are conducted. Future studies should focus on disclosure process including family reactions and level of parental support following disclosure. Likewise, comparing the responses of these participants to those who are not college students would be helpful for future comparisons.

In conclusion, both studies used relatively small sample that contained especially Hispanic female individuals from varying subgroups. Making generalization to others is difficult. Both studies are retrospective in nature, which required women to recall past incidents of child abuse as well as other dimensions of their families, poses limitation. Re-evaluation of past experiences and error in recall may affect responding in unknown ways (Clemmons et al, 2003; Rafaelli and Ontai, 2004); some claims that retrospective studies probably underreport abuse (Bolen, 1998). Furthermore, interviewing adult about past experiences of childhood sexual abuse can result in data bias. In addition, it is difficult to measure validity and reliability of the research. To a large extent, both studies lack transparency from research process to findings. The power that exercised in the research and sponsors’ influences over procedures are highly remarkable in both studies.