Category: Free Essays

There has been ongoing research to decide which is “better” or more beneficial, parental care or day care, in terms of child rearing. Day care is care for a child, or children, that is provided by trained or untrained caregivers in a specific day care center setting. Parental care is more informal and takes place in the home by the mother or father of the child. In regards to socio-emotional development of the child, there are both positive and negative effects of mother care and day care during childhood, but which is better? Socio-emotional development during early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence depends on the quality of care, the type of care, and the amount of time spent in care.

Socio-emotional development includes relationships, social skills, work habits, and behavioral problems, but it also includes peer pressure, emotions, and personality. Development is “the pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the lifespan” (Santrock, 2008, p.5). This is important to consider when raising children. Education is key to making informed decisions about what type of care the child should be introduced to. With the amount of parents, both mothers and fathers, working full-time jobs, the amount of children in day care is rising. Parents need to know just what to expect when sending their children to day care, such as behavioral problems and a low work ethic, but also the emphasis on social skills and relationships. They need to understand the importance of the quality of care their children are being provided with, as well as the importance of education in day care. People who do not have kids, for whatever reason, will still be affected as it is the first step in education for the up and coming generation. They might be future co-workers, or even the person taking care of them in a nursing home one day.

Early childhood is a time period from the end of infancy to about five or six years of age in which “children learn to become more self-sufficient and care for themselves, develop school readiness skills (following instructions, identifying letters, etc), and spend hours in play with peers” (Santrock, 2008, p.17). A more concrete example would be the typical preschool child. Middle childhood is a period of age from about six to eleven years old. In this age period, children learn “fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, they are exposed to a larger world and its culture, and achievement becomes a central theme while self-control increases” (Santrock, 2008, p.17). This would typically be seen in elementary school children. Adolescence is broad and ranges from ten to twelve through eighteen to twenty-one which is the transition from being a child to an early adult. Within this range, there are “rapid physical changes, a pursuit of independence and identity prominence, logical, abstract, and idealistic thought, and more time spent away from the family” (Santrock, 2008, p.17). Quality, type, and amount of time spent in care all play a role in the benefits of child care. Behavior, social skills, relationships, and work habits are affected by the quality, type, and amount of time in child care.

In terms of research there are many mixed opinions on how child care affects behavior. For the most part, the consensus is that the more time spent in day care facilities during early childhood, the more aggressive and disobedient the child was to become. This can lead to future problems related to schoolwork, or even legal issues down the road. If the child learns these acts now, they might continue them in the future and get themselves in major trouble. Some studies showed that the effects of daycare, such as disruptiveness and aggression, had vanished by kindergarten (McMartney, 2004) (Carey, 2007) or third grade (Jacobsen, 2005), and others found the problems lasting until fifth or sixth grade (MSNBC, 2007). Even though some studies did show problematic behavior, all the studies concluded that its effects did not last further than the sixth grade. Lalli (2010) argued that the quality of care made the decision to whether or not the students behaved badly, but one study in particular showed that “Even high quality care did not reduce the number of behavior problems among those in childcare” (Marano, 2007). Overall, the more time children spend in non-parental care arrangements up until early childhood, the more problematic behavior and conflict with adults they had around the age of kindergarten (McMartney, 2004). There is also the opposition that states “aggression, impulsivity, and egocentrism may reflect the American values that are often prompted or approved of by teachers and day care providers” (Lalli, 2010). This could be for any such reason, such as lack of training or time to address the behavior. “Environmental factors such as cultural expectations, adult and peer pressure, and social agents that award aggression have been proposed to account for aggression that is mainly physical in boys and mainly verbal in girls” (Santrock, 2008, p.365). Overall, there is more research to defend that child care in a day care setting contributes to more behavioral problems than does parental care. “Every year spent in [child care] centers for at least ten hours per week was associated with a one percent higher score on a standardized assessment of problem behaviors” (Carey, 2007). Most of these results are studied and observed in early and middle childhood, but it can leave lasting effects on the child and can lead to behavioral problems in the future such as delinquency. This may be truer for those who are awarded for aggression and might be trying to prove themselves in their community or uphold a naughty reputation such as in a gang.

Relationships and attachment are also affected from the type, quality, and amount of child care. Again, the consensus was that the more time spent in day care, the more reports of conflicts between child and parents or teachers in all ages, especially adolescence. Regarding attachments, some, like Lalli (2010), say that there is a fear that separating the child from the mother can cause emotional harm and disrupt the bond, but it largely depends on the child and the attachment already formed between the mother and child. Attachment can be measured on a scale and tested by “Strange Situation.” This is when the mother and child go through a series of separations and reunions and the behavior of the child is studied to decide which type of attachment the child has with the mother. This is often researched in infants, but the types of attachments can serve as a prediction for future relationships. One study proved that “children who were considered to have secure attachments to their mothers experienced negative effects from day care, while insecurely attached children appeared to benefit from the out of home care” (Lalli, 2010). This could be due to a variety of reasons and can largely depend on the home situation. The mother child relationship is an important one as it serves as a boundary for future relationships. If the mother is neglectful towards the child, the child might seek someone who actually does care for him or her, which can, in turn, make the child to be extremely dependant. This will also make relationships with peers difficult. The child can become so attached and dependent on friends that the child could fall prey to their every wish and command, or the child can have the complete opposite effect and will not trust anyone and find it hard to form any type of relationship at all. If the attachment is secure, the child can form healthy relationships with peers during early and middle childhood, and healthy relationships during dating in the adolescent time range. It’s not just the quantity of time parents spend with their children that is important in forming relationships and child development, but the quality of parenting is important as well (McMartney, 2004). The relationships and attachments formed in infancy are important in adolescent relationships with parents. “Attached adolescents were less likely than those who were insecurely attached to engage in problem behaviors, such as juvenile delinquency and drug abuse” (Santrock, 2008, 430). During adolescence there is expected conflict between the child and the parents, but is there a correlation to child care?

Social skills are the ability of the child to actively communicate with peers and adults, which thus includes forming relationships. Social skills can also stem from how actively involved the child is in a hobby or extracurricular activity. Ultimately, it is making the child open up to new experiences and “get outside the box.” There is evidence noting that “time spent in high quality day care was positively related to the number of peers the child had in grade school and the number of extracurricular activities they were involved in” (Lalli, 2010). In childhood, the focus of peer relations is to be liked by classmates and ultimately to be included. Friends are important in shaping the development of children and adolescents. Being overlooked or rejected can have damaging effects on the child. “Adolescents say they depend more on friends than parents to satisfy the need for companionship, reassurance of worth, and intimacy” (Santrock, 2008, 434). Not having friends may or may not be linked to suicide attempts in adolescence. Regarding social skills in the classroom environment, one study in particular believed “children who experience high-quality [day] care show better social skills and fewer behavioral problems” (McMartney, 2004), but others claim that day care centers merely encourage social interaction, between peers and adults, which builds their social skills, but the behavior problems still exist.

There was not much research on the child’s work habits, but for the most part, according to Marano (2007), independence is taught more in a home, parental care setting than in day care. In day care, they encourage group work and peer relations and that is why “the more time spent in [day] care, the more the child did not work independently, did not use their time wisely, and didn’t complete their work promptly in grade school” (Marano, 2007). This also has to do with the quality of the care. If the day care is one with complete organization and high educational value, of course the child will perfect these simple tasks. That covers early childhood, but in terms of middle childhood and adolescence, this could be related not only to procrastination, work ethic, and motivation later on in life, but also the drop-out rate in adolescence and what types of education and jobs they receive.

There is no definitive answer to which is more beneficial. Day care has a positive effect on both relationships and social skills, but a negative effect on behavior and work habits. Even though this might be true, day care still gives the child an idea of what he or she is going to experience in the future, such as relationships and education. Although day care does not benefit behavior and work habits, those are both things that a parent could work on as well. Unless neglected, there are many opportunities for a parent and child to interact and build a strong work ethic and work on obedience. Since some day care centers are not of high-quality with no organization and educational value, they may be more detrimental to child development as they could expose the child to behaviors and such that are not disciplined or cared for by the caregiver. In quality centers, caregivers are sensitive and responsive to the needs of the children and most offer an enriching and educational environment that promotes development and encourages children to be pro-social. It is understandable that every situation is different and that everyone has their own opinions and views that they are welcome to. “Attention from the parent is far more important than the type, quality, or amount of care the child receives” (MSNBC, 2007). The effects of childcare are complex. “Family factors (maternal sensitivity, quality of environment, income) are more consistent predictors of children’s socio-emotional outcomes than any aspects of early nonmaternal care experiences, but the quality of the child care can be significant for children who do not receive care at home” (Child Day Care Center, 2009). Overall it seems that certain types of children benefit more than others from day care, such as those with secure attachments, and those coming from disadvantaged homes where they would otherwise experience impoverished and unstimulating environments. Day care promotes socio-emotional development more so than parental care in regards to behavior, social skills, relationships, and work habits.

According to the multiple studies reviewed, relationships, social skills, education, and group work are prompted in quality care settings and problematic behavior is promoted generally in day care. Both in-home care and day care have positive effects on socio-emotional development of children that carry on positively throughout the years, but day care seems to have a better and more educational value for the child, especially if the day care is of high quality and/or the child is from a neglectful home. It largely seems to depend on each child as an individual to determine the “best.”

High profile investigations since 2000 highlight failures in child protection (Laming, 2003 and Laming, 2009), causing nationwide concern, media comment and public debate and putting social work under the microscope.

Working Together to Safeguard Children: A Guide to Inter-agency Working to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children (H M Government, 2010) sets out how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in accordance with the Children Act, 1989 and the Children Act, 2004. The document sets out statutory guidance from primary legislation and responsibilities for professionals and agencies.

The Children Act, 1989 is designed to help keep children safe and well and, if necessary, help a child to live with their family by providing services appropriate to the child’s needs. It places a general duty of every local authority to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area who are in need. Section 17 defines a ‘child in need’ as a child who is “unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for him/her of services by a local authority” or “his/her health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired without the provision for him/her of such services” or “he/she is disabled” (H M Government, 1989, section 17)

The local authority has a duty to ascertain whether Sean and Laura are in need of an initial assessment addressing whether there are concerns about impairment to the children’s health and development (HM Government, 2010). Learner and Rosen (2002) describe that the duty of the referral and assessment team is to ascertain the degree of need of the child and the degree of risk to the child.

The social worker may initiate an initial assessment using the multi agency Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (DoH, 1999b) which must be completed within a maximum 10 days from the referral. If there was evidence that the children were suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, the social worker would then investigate this and conduct a core assessment under Section 47 (HM Government, 2010). Broadhurst et al (2010) describe that the level of safeguarding response remains a challenge in social work as decisions are often made in difficult circumstances with limited information. Munro (1996) describe how decisions made by social workers during this initial contact which determine how cases are responded to.

Social workers need good observation and analytical skills to understand the nature of the relationships, the signs of noncompliance, to work alongside families, and to come to safe and evidence based judgements about the best actions (Laming, 2009). Intervention is direct social work input that is based on understanding of the situation or problem presented and can involve providing services or trying to effect change in the social environment in order to improve outcomes (Kadushin 1993). It requires that social workers have clarity in why they are intervening and justification to do so (Doel and Shardlow, 1994). Intervention can be distressing for families so it is paramount that social workers employ a variety of skills, theories and knowledge when making decisions in the process.

The common core of skills and knowledge for the children (DfES, 2005) sets out skills to be used when working with children, aiming to promote equality, respect diversity and challenge stereotypes, helping to improve the life chances of all children and to provide more effective and integrated services. The document acknowledges the rights of children.

Sean and Laura are of dual heritage, their culture and context should be considered. Phillips (2002) suggests that a colour-blind approach, common practice in the 1980s, was actually the process of judging families according to a white and middle class view of normality. This led to an imbalance of power for many service users. The paper Protecting Children (DoH, 1988) challenged this view, recognising that cultural patterns within families will influence parenting styles and the ways children are reared. Practice was required to change as legislation laid definite responsibilities for local authorities to recognise religion, race, culture and language (DoH, 1988).

The Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (DoH, 1999b) provides guidelines for white staff who undertake assessments with black children, but all staff should be willing to reflect on their own practice. Race, culture, religion and language are central to children’s identity. Assessments should address identity holistically considering these elements (DoH, 1999a)

Sean and Laura lost their mother 3 years ago. Rando (1988) states children who are bereaved at that age may experience reawakened feelings of childishness, may repress feelings, putting them at risk for grief reactions consistent with Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development of inferiority versus industry (Erikson, 1970). Longress (2000) and Anderson et al (1999) describe that there would push for a child to become industrious and confident during this stage of development and admitting helpless feelings at this time may be difficult. Worden (2002) states when a death of a parent occurs in childhood , the child may not mourn effectively and this may create problems with depression and inabilities to maintain close relationships with others. The role of the position of the lost parent within the family system would give meaning to systemic loss. According to Bolwby’s attachment theory, the loss of a parent means a loss of stability, security, nurturing, and affection (Despelder and Strickland, 2005, Davies, 2004). The child’s understanding of the death of a parent can be a shock. Piaget stated that the child can make sense of this process by the formal operating stage of development (Longress, 2000, Berger, 2001). In working with the family, the social worker must understand that the loss of a parent will affect the roles and expectations of those left behind. Gaining better understandings of child an adult reactions to loss and examining it through cultural perspectives will be important.

Trevithick (2005) discusses the importance of non verbal communication, acceptance, empathy, warmth, listening skills, the use of silence and observation in working with children along with asserting that the relationship that is built between practitioner and service user is central to achieving change.

It is noted that parents who voluntarily engage with services make more progress while a more coercive approach can deteriorate into an adversarial relationship which blocks progress. Becoming more intrusive carries both gains and losses and so creates a complex decision (Munro, 2011).

.

Egan’s SOLER model (Egan, 2002) employs a counselling skills approach to communication and would be of benefit. Engaging in meaningful and reciprocal dialogue allows for collaborative meaning-making and joint-knowledge construction where the social worker is no longer the expert but rather a partner and an equal contributor (White, 2007).

A social worker may utilise systems theory, considering how the family, community, economic and political factors affect the children (Hoffman and Salle, 1994). It allows the social worker to consider possibilities for change in the whole system, i.e. James having sleeping problems has an effect for the family. Systems theory acknowledges strengths i.e. the children have good family links, are involved in the community and a church group and they have had bereavement counselling. System’s theory acknowledges that a change of one part of the system can change another part. The limitations of systems theory is that it is descriptive, not explanatory, can disempower individuals as it does not allow for individual responsibility (Kemp et al, 1997).

A strengths perspective, which focuses on a belief that however bad things seem, people can discover strengths within themselves, may also be used (Mullaly, 1993). The perspective is seen through a role of enhancing personal strengths and resources, helping service users solve both interpersonal and environmental problems, and helping clients mobilise for change (Saleebey, 2003).

Consideration of oppression and discrimination of children would be appropriate. MacDonald and Winkley (2000) discuss the vulnerability of young people and state that each child has the right to “expect that professionals intervening in their lives will do so on the basis of the best available knowledge” (MacDonald and Winkley, 2000, page 1). The social worker would need to remain sensitive to power differences and the difficulties that some young people experience in relating to adults. In terms of the specific interventions chosen, initially these focused on building up trust, as well as attempting to identify risk factors.

Social workers have an obligation to conduct themselves ethically, engaging in ethical decisionaˆ?making, including partnership with service users. The Code of Ethics for Social Work (BASW, 2011), provides a moral code and a regulator of behaviour and moves uneasily between the two. There are moral imperatives that could place social workers in conflict with their employers or government policies i.e. social workers need to “challenge ways in which the policies or activities of government, organisations or society create or contribute to structural disadvantage ” (BASW, 2011, p. 3). In practice, social workers may meet pressures from managers to keep children within the family unit, sometimes resources may mean it is not possibly to challenge service provision, and service provision is met with barriers in eligibility (Dalrymple and Burke, 2006).

If social workers are to practice anti-oppressively, they must first understand their roles as oppressors in order to create a space for deeper empathy and understanding. Bishop (2002) argues that ignorance to oppression simply compounds the issue.

Section 53 of the Children Act, 2004 gives due consideration to the wishes and feelings of the child as far as is reasonable before determining what services to provide or action to take (H M Government, 2004) Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989) places children as a top priority for services, being child focused.

James has been suffering from insomnia and suffering from grief from the loss of his wife. A referral for a mental health assessment may be appropriate for support such as counselling

1653 words

References

Anderson, R. E. Carter, I., & Lowe, G.R., (1999). Human Behavior in the Social Environment; A Social Systems Approach. 5th ed. New York: Aldine De Gruyter Inc

BASW The College of Social Work (2011)

Accessed 10th February 2011

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3522570/signup/codeofethics.pdf

Berger (2001). The Developing Person Through the Life Span. New York,: Worth

Publishers

Bishop, A. (2002). Becoming an ally: Breaking the cycle of oppression in people (6thed.). Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.

Broadhurst, K., White, S., Fish, S., Munro, E., Fletcher, K., & Lincoln, H. (2010), Ten pitfalls and how to avoid them: what research tells us, NSPCC

Dalrymple, J. and Burker, B. (2006) Antiopressive practice. Social care and the law. Open University Press.

Davies, D. (2004). Child Development; A Practitioners Guide. 2nd Edition. New York:

Guilford Press

Despelder, L. A. & Strickland, A. L. (2005) The Last Dance; Encountering Death and Dying. 7th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

DfES ( Department for Education and Skills) (2005) Common Core of skills and knowledge for the children’s workforce. London HMSO.

Accessesed on 5th February 2011 http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/assets/0000/9297/CWDC_CommonCore7.pdf

Doel, M. And Shardlow, M, (2005) Modern Social Work Practice

Modern Social Work Practice: Teaching and Learning in Practice Settings, Ashgate Publishing Limited.

DoH (Department of Health) (1988) Protecting Children: A guide for social workers undertaking a comprehensive assessment. London: TSO.

DoH. (Department of Health) (1999) Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to interagency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. London: TSO.

DoH (Department of Health). (1999b) Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their families. London: TSO

Egan, G. (2002) The skilled helper: A systematic approach to effective helping, Pacific Grove, CA: Brookes/Cole.

Erikson, E.H. (1970). Reflections on the dissent of contemporary youth., International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 51, 11-22.

H M Government (1989) The Children Act London HMSO

Accessed on 6th February 2011 at

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents

H M Government (2004) The Children Act London HMSO

Accessed on 7th February 2011 at

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/31/contents

H M Government (2010) Working together to safeguard children: a guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, London. Department for Education and Skills

Accessed on 6th February 2010

http://www.education.gov.uk/publications//eOrderingDownload/00305-2010DOM-EN.PDF

Hoffman, K. S., & Sallee, A. L. (1994). Social work practice: Bridges to change. Boston: Allyn & Bacon

Kadushin, A. (1993). What’s wrong, what’s right, with social work supervision. The Clinical Supervisor, 10, ),19.

Kemp, S. P., Whittaker, J. K., & Tracy, E. M. (1997). Person-environment practice: The social ecology of interpersonal helping: New York: Aldine De Gruyter.

Laming, (2003) The Victoria Climbie enquiry: a report on the inquiry by Lord Laming. HMSO. London

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4008654 (accessed 20/10/10)

Laming, Lord (2009) The protection of Children in England: A progress Report. Norwich: HMSO

Learner, E. and Rosen, G. (2002) Duty first: Developing practice with children and families duty teams, London: NISW.

Longress, J. E. (2000). Human Behavior in the Social Environment. 3rd Edition. New

York: Peacock Inc.

MacDonald, G and Winkley, A (2000) What Works in Child Protection? – Summary, Barnardos, Essex

Munro, E. (1996) ‘Avoidable and unavoidable mistakes in child protection work’, British Journal of Social Work, (1996), vol 26, pp 793-808.

Munro, E. (2011) The Munro review of Child protection: Interim report: The child’s jounry. DFES.

Accessed on 6th February 2011

http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DFE-00010-2011

Mullaly, R. (1993). Structural social work: Ideology, theory, and practice. Toronto, Canada: McClelland and Stewart

Phillips, M. (2002) Issues of ethnicity and culture. In: Wilson, K., James, A. (eds) The Child Protection Handbook. Edinburgh/London: Balliere Tindall.

Rando, T. A. (1988). Grieving; How to Go on Living When Someone You Love Dies.

Canada: Lexington Books.

Saleebey, D. (2003). Strengths-based practice. In R.A.English (Ed.in Chief) Encyclopedia of

social work (19th ed. 2003 supplement, pp. 150-162). Washington, DC: NASW Press.

Trevithick, P. (2005) Social Work Skills: A Practice Handbook, 2nd ed. Maidenhead:

Open University Press.

UNCRC (1989) The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Accessed on 6th February 2011 at

http://www.getreadyforchange.org.uk/images/uploads/UNCRC_CYP_version.pdf

White, J. (2007). Working in the midst of ideological and cultural differences: Critically reflecting on youth suicide prevention in indigenous communities. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 41(4), 213-227.

Worden, J. W. (2002). Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy. 3rd Edition. New York: Springer Publishing Company

ADULT CARE CASE STUDY

The NHS and Community Care Act 1990, imposes a duty on local authorities to carry out an assessment of need for community care services with people who appear to them to need such services and then decide whether those needs call for the provision of services (H M Government, 1990). This makes the task of assessment a key activity as it establishes a person’s needs but also if a person meets the criteria or threshold for support (Crisp et al, 2003). Fair Access to Care Services provides councils with an eligibility framework for adult social care to identify whether or not the duty to provide services under the following legislation is triggered (DoH, 2003)

Preparation for assessment involves reading all relevant information. A lack of knowledge of older people’s social history may lead to presenting behaviours being misinterpreted and emotional needs ignored (Feil 1992).

Tact, sensitivity and empathy must be employed in communicating with Mr and Mrs Smyth as the situation may be very distressing for them. Employing Egan’s model of SOLER (Egan, 2002) would be useful. The National Framework Service for Older People (DoH, 2001) requires that we recognise and respect the individuality of older people, that we listen to them and encourage their choice about care options. Effective communication is essential to fulfil these requirements (Milne and O’Byrne, 2002).. Parker and Bradley (2007) state that feelings of powerlessness and humiliation can be provocative for vulnerable people. Social workers should attempt to empower people by communicating openly and by providing as much information as possible (Parker and Bradley, 2007)

All people have a desire to be understood, to be accepted and for our lives to have meaning (Howe, 1995). Service users want to be listened to and respected as individuals and have choice and control of their support. Crawford and Walker (2008) state older people share traditional social work values, such as a concern for relationships, and appreciate social work skills, for example, in carrying out comprehensive assessments and regular reviews. Bauld et al (2000) state that people place importance on relationships with professionals and that these relationships impact on their wellbeing. Effective social work with older people draws on distinctive aspects of the social work role, sensitive communication, moving at the individual’s pace, starting where the service user is, supporting through crisis, challenging poor practice, engaging with the individual’s biography and promoting strengths and resilience (Crawford and Walker, 2008).

The person centred approach explores fundamental skills for effective communication, building on listening skills, congruence, empathy and unconditional positive regard (Rogers, 1957). However, social work involves the use of authority and this opposes unconditional positive regard. It is not always possible for social workers, who have a responsibility to protect not only the service user but also other people, to be non-directive, empathetic, unconditionally accepting and congruent (Dalrymple and Burke, 2006)

Mrs Smyth has cried when talking to the community nurse. It may be that Mrs Smyth is experiencing depression. The white paper, Our Health, Our Care, Our Say (DoH, 2006) acknowledges older people with depression and states that many other supports (i.e. transport, social contacts) must be considered alongside health and social care if practitioners are to make a reality of independence, well-being and choice all of which are often seen as potentially helping to addressing depression and its prevention. Mrs Smyth has new physical problems with which depression also tends to be associated (Copeland et al, 1999) Factors that contribute to depression include loss (e.g. of a relative or of mobility) and social circumstances, such as isolation (O’Neill, 1999).

The Mental Health Foundation (1999) suggests about 15% of older people experience depression. Literature also suggests that older people are less likely than younger people to take up mental health services (Ashton and Keady, 1999). There is a tendency for professionals and older people treat late life depression as an inevitable consequence of aging (O’Neill, 1999). However, there is evidence of the effectiveness of a range of interventions, including environmental changes, psychotherapies and cognitive behavioural therapies, and anti depressant medication (Snowdon, 1998).

Maintaining good social relationships is a key to quality of life for older people (Percival, 2010, Bowers, 2009). Yet isolation and loneliness are problems shared by many older people with support needs (Manthorpe and Moriarty, 2010, Cattan and Giuntoli, 2010). Those with mobility, cognitive or sensory impairments are at particular risk of being excluded from social life (Callaghan et al, 2009). Mr Smyth has experienced confusion and Mrs Smyth’s mobility has decreased.

Thompson (2001) describes anti ageism as a dimension of social justice which increases active and independent lives for older people and that assessment should consider the impact of ageism on people’s lives, including low self esteem and feelings of being a nuisance. Dominelli (2004) states that portraying older people as dependent and in need of care is an ageist construction. Care must be taken to ensure that ageist assumptions are not influencing assessment. As with racism and sexism, if we are not actively “swimming against the tide of cultural and institutional ageism we shall be carried along with it, such is the strength of ageist ideology” (Thompson, 2001, page 12).

Mr and Mrs Smyth are experiencing loss of health. Phillipson (2002) suggests that social work with older people is inseparable from managing loss.

The life course involves transitions, including the developmental stages associated with the work of Erikson (1977). Thompson (2002) suggests that an understanding of each transition should be understood, seeing older people in the context of life history stressing the importance of individual life stories and include activities such as reminiscence and storytelling. This approach also takes account of people’s environment and the impact of wider social issues including gender, class and race (Crawford and Walker 2004).

Danny is concerned about violence from his father to his mother. The risk of abuse of older people is not a new phenomenon but it has only recently been addressed (Penhale, 2003). Pritchard’s (2001) study of older abused women highlight the importance they attach to being able to talk to somebody about their experiences. It is important that social workers are trained not only to identify abuse but also to understand and be equipped to work with survivors to address longer term as well as short term practical needs. Danny states that there have been “many years” of violence. Research conducted to determine older women’s understandings of elder abuse has emphasised the importance of looking at the quality of care giving relationships, rather than simply analysing action or behaviour when assessing risk and vulnerability (Morbey, 2002).

Social work is complex in these potential risk situations, raising difficult questions about how to balance empowerment with protection. Preston-Shoot (2001) argues that the value of self determination is highly influential in social work practice but should not absolve practitioners from finding ways to protect vulnerable users. The literature on elder abuse emphasises the importance of social workers: using communication skills e.g. building trust and support assessing, especially the vulnerability of the service user and circumstances of the abuse, providing information about services and consideration of different options protection planning, monitoring and review understanding the law relating to welfare provision, incapacity, common law and criminal justice (Preston-Shoot, 2001). The Social Care Institute of Excellence stated that “Improving dignity, respect and human rights should be a priority in all policy development for older people. But to implement these principles social care needs to identify good practice and produce guidance for everyone who works in the sector ” (SCIE, 2006).

Danny and Mr Smyth are providing care to Mrs Smyth. Under the Carers Recognition Act, 1995, they may be entitled to an assessment of their ability to provide care (H M Government, 1995) . We also know that there is a significant group of older people providing care (typically for partners) who may themselves fit the definition of having ‘high support needs’ (Blood, 2010). Service users and carers are not easily distinguished.

The dog needs to be considered. Cusack (1988) states that older people can be deeply affected by the loss of a pet who can be important attachment figures in people’s lives, bringing their owners physical, psychological and social benefits. Garrity et al (1989) discuss how strong pet attachments are linked with decreased depression rates. Danny currently walks the dig every day but Mrs Smyth may be struggling with looking after it. Sensitivity will be needed in addressing this.

Direct payments were extended to older people in 2000 and are empowering for service users as they have more control over their care provision.

They live in a rural community.

Viewed from a social model of disability, Mr and Mrs Smyth could have low support needs as they live in accessible housing with enabling technology, within a supportive community

1471

Introduction

The profession of child and youth care requires a great amount of effort, determination and skill. Within the field, child and youth care workers are expected to acquire and uphold a trusting bond with the youth involved (Quinn, 2004: 18). Although the main aim of the child and youth care worker is to care for, love, and protect the child, this may prove difficult in many circumstances. Therefore, the youth care worker needs to have acquired skills in order to overcome these challenges while still succeeding in building a strong relationship with the child involved. This essay will discuss the elements of child and youth care work as well as the expectations of child and youth care workers. In particular, it will focus on the skills needed within the profession and the difficulties faced when trying to care for children and youth.

Elements of Child and Youth Care

Maier (1987) describes the core elements of child and youth care work as providing children with physical comfort, knowing the different temperaments of each child, rhythmic interactions with children, predictability, dependability and also behavioural training.

When practicing within the field of child and youth care, the worker is required to have an understanding of these elements in order to do their work to the best of their ability. More specifically, the elements of child and youth care includes fulfilling the physical and privacy needs of the children and also knowing the differences in their temperaments, in other words, knowing the differences in their personalities and attitudes. Also, the child care worker needs to make time for rhythmic interactions with the patient so that they can both have an experience of closeness .e.g. singing or dancing (Maier, 1987).

Children have a strong need for predictability, and rhythmic interactions also play a role in this. “Rhythmic activities seem to confirm the experience of repetition and continuity of repetition” which, as a result, provides the child with a feeling of lasting commitment and predictability. Children and youth need to know that they have a reliable adult to depend on. Lastly, child and youth care workers need to add in a personal element to the behavioural training of their patients. Children generally learn quicker from those who have meaning to them and therefore will learn more readily from their care-giver once care has been established (Maier, 1987).

Expectations and Skills Required

The main role of a child and youth care worker is to work with children and youth in ways that are educative, participative and empowering. The worker is expected to encourage equality of opportunity and social inclusion amongst the children that they are working with (Pittman, 2004: 90).

Communication plays an important role within the profession of child and youth care. Workers are required to create and maintain relationships of trust with the children and youth involved and should deliver information so that it is received in the manner intended. Child and youth care workers need to communicate well and convey and explain information assertively and “in language of the community” (Quinn, 2004: 18).

Child and youth care workers are also expected to implement programmes which aid the children and youth in their growth, learning and development. In order to do this, workers are required to have knowledge on group work and should know how to assist groups in times of need. Child and youth care workers should continuously be planning and implementing new activities for children to participate in. While doing this, the patients should be motivated and encouraged to engage in these activities (Quinn, 2004: 18).

In order to show respect for the family of the child and the community in which they reside, it is vital that the worker gains an understanding of the family culture and structures (Quinn, 2004: 19). This will allow workers to deal with conflicts easier as they will then be more sensitive when holding discussions on certain topics and will thus be-able to create relevant strategies in order to satisfy the child’s needs.

Child and youth care workers should show a high level of understanding of children and should be able to “recognise need for intervention” so that they can help with the child’s problem with immediacy.

Difficulties in the Field

Providing good child care means “providing children with authoritative control and giving them responsive nurturance” (Cancian, 2002:65). However, it may be difficult to carry out good child care effectively at times.

Difficulties in the field may include communication problems like not being sensitive or authoritative enough. Being in the profession involves a lot of stress as it is a challenge to care for children and youth and to achieve a professional image amongst society for the child and youth care profession. It is also challenging in the fact that it requires us to be flexible in changes that may occur. Child and youth care workers need to be willing to grow and learn from good and bad experiences in the profession and thus prevent certain bad aspects from occurring in the future, which may prove difficult for people who do not like change and who don’t take bad experience and criticism lightly.

Conclusion

It is concluded that the child and youth care profession involves providing children with basic and essential needs such as love, care and protection. Child care workers need to communicate effectively with the children in order to efficiently help with their problems and establish a trusting relationship with their patients so that proper care can be given. However, the profession does provide a few challenges but none which cannot be overcome with time and more experience in the field of child and youth care.

References
Cancian, F.M. (ed). 2002. ‘Defining “Good” Child Care: Hegemonic and Democratic Standards’, Child Care and Inequality: Rethinking carework for children and youth. Great Britain: Routledge. p.65.
Maier, H.W. (1987). ‘Essential Components in Care and Treatment Environments for Children’, Developmental Group Care of Children and Youth: Concepts and Practice, USA: The Haworth Press, Inc. p.40-58.
Pittman, K.J. (2004). ‘Reflections on the road not (yet) taken: How a centralized public strategy can help youth work focus on youth’, (In Garza, P., Borden, L.M., & Astroth, K.A. (eds.), New Directions for Youth Development: Professional Development for Youth Workers, 104: 90, Winter.
Quinn, J. (2004). ‘Professional development in the youth development field: Issues, trends, opportunities, and challenges’, (In Garza, P., Borden, L.M., & Astroth, K.A. (eds.), New Directions for Youth Development: Professional Development for Youth Workers, 18-19, Winter.

Child abuse/child protection and welfare: The client needs and the role of the social care practitioner in responding to those needs.

Many countries in the developed world, including Ireland, have seen a significant shift in attitudes to what constitutes as child abuse. Society has become more knowledgeable about different types of child abuse and about the impact the abuse can have on the child throughout their lives. The child’s needs and the role of the social care practitioner will be the main focus of the essay. The essay will discuss the needs of a child who has suffered abuse and propose an intervention to address the importance of care for the child and education for the carer. The role of the Social care practitioner in relation to child abuse will also be a central part of this discussion. Types of child abuse include emotional abuse, neglect, physical abuse and sexual abuse. However, this essay will focus mainly on emotional and physical abuse. Suggestions on interventions will be put forth as the different types of child abuse are being discussed. Relevant policies and guidelines will be discussed in regards to how these policies have helped children by giving them rights whilst also giving them hope for a better future.

Child abuse can be defined as ‘any act of commission or omission which deprives children of equal rights and liberties and/ or interferes with their optimal development’ Gil 1975 (cited in Daniel and Ivatts 1998, p.196). The above definition accords with the spirit of Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child which states that it is the duty of the state to safeguard children from all types of abuse and neglect, to give ‘support to those who have been abused and to investigate instances of abuse’(Children’s Rights Alliance 2013). However, it can be difficult to give a precise or exact definition of child abuse because there are many different types of child abuse. Some types, such as physical abuse can be much more noticeable but may not have the same impact on the child as emotional abuse. Bensley et al (2004) argues that if a parent calls their child stupid and belittles them on a regular basis, the child will start perceiving these comments to be true, and will carry them into their teens and adulthood. Children’s First, the national guidance that promotes the protection of children from abuse and neglect, describe emotional abuse as generally to be established in the ‘relationship between a parent or guardian and a child rather than in a specific event or pattern of events’. It arises when a child’s need for love, support, stability and security are not met (Children’s First 2011 p.8)

Social care practitioners work closely with the child, their family and other professionals to ensure the child’s needs are being met. Social care practitioners should possess a wide range of personal and professional attributes.

A health or social care profession is any profession in which a person exercises skill or judgment relating to the preservation or improvement of the health or wellbeing of others, the diagnosis, treatment or care of those who are injured, sick, disabled or infirm, the resolution, through guidance, counselling or otherwise, of personal, social or psychological problems.

(Health and Social Care Act 2005, p.09)

Professional attributes of a social care practitioner should include a comprehensive awareness of the social care field, to be able to work on their own initiative, and as part of a team, research skills and problem solving. On a personal level, social care practitioners should be open-minded, reliable, trustworthy, and empathetic and compassionate (Lalor and Share, 2013).

Social care practitioners might find it more difficult to recognise and substantiate emotional neglect or abuse as there are no physical injuries or abrasions (Nauert 2014). Evaluation of what is occurring to a child ‘requires that each aspect of a child’s developmental progress is examined, in the context of the child’s age and stage of development’ (Department of Health 2000, p.18). By doing an assessment wheel or triangle with the child, the practitioner will get a good sense of the child, which involves more than just factual data (Buckley et al 2006 p. 40). The assessment process is designed by way of three concurrent activities and five steps. The three concurrent activities are Engaging, Safeguarding and collaborating and the five steps are Responding, Protecting, Devising, Gathering & Reflecting and Sharing/analysing/planning. The child is at the spiral in the middle. See Appendix A for diagram of The Assessment Wheel and Triangle. The aim is to deliver a consistent and organised way of collecting, recording, studying and figuring out the information required to inform ‘effective and appropriate levels of child protection and welfare interventions’ (Buckley et al 2006 p.10). Such as with Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory 1969. The theory states that that we come across diverse environments during our life that can affect our behaviour in various ways. The different environments include the ‘micro system, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macro system, and the chronosystem’ (Mae Sincero 2012). Yet, child abuse can be hidden from professionals and the outside world for many years before the child in need is discovered.

One of the most famous cases of severe and wilful neglect is the case of Genie Wiley. For the first thirteen years of her life, Genie was kept locked in a small room, naked and quite often tied to a potty. Her family rarely spoke to her and the times that her father did communicate with her it was through barking and growling (Rymer 1994 p.46). She was discovered by a nurse when her mother brought her to the doctors at age thirteen. The nurse believed her to be no more than seven years old. Rymer (1994) stated that extreme neglect and physical abuse had prevented Genie from developing cognitively and physically. See appendix B for the indicators of neglect from the Tusla’s practice handbook. One of the roles of the social care practitioner in cases of child emotional abuse or neglect is to be vigilant and look out for signs as noted in appendix B and to contact the necessary authorities. The main emphasis and concern of any enquiry into the emotional abuse or neglect of a child is the child (Platt and Shemmings 1997). Under the Child Care Act 1991, the HSE has certain statutory obligations for the protection and welfare of children such as taking the appropriate action to promote the welfare of the child (Children’s First 2011 p.19). When carers show kindness, love and affection in meeting the child’s needs, they support the child to develop into a ‘stable, caring, healthy and independent’ adult (LaMeaux 2014). As with neglect and emotional abuse of a child, physical abuse can have a detrimental effect on a child.

Physical abuse can be described as someone intentionally injuring or hurting a child and it can cover an assortment of negative behaviours such as smacking, shaking, repeatedly hitting, burning, cutting and the suffocation of a child (Beaver et al 1999, p. 207). Citizens Information (2014) describe physical abuse as any injury inflicted on a child due to the ‘deliberate failure of the child’s carer to protect the child’. Over the years, many Irish people have heard and read the harrowing stories and reports on the physical abuse perpetrated on countless children at the hands of their “so called” carers in Irish industrial schools. One of the major reports is the Ryan Report. The Ryan Report (2009) is an inquiry into the abuse in which children in the industrial schools in Ireland suffered while under state supervision.

The litany of terrible wrongs inflicted on our children, who were placed by the State in residential institutions run by religious orders, was collated by the Commission and presented for Ireland and the world to read. The healing process involves listening to, understanding and consulting with survivors on how the wrongs of the past can be addressed and how their needs can be catered for into the future.

(Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, 2009 p.9)

The Ryan report, brought light to the severe physical, emotional and sexual abuse of many children. Following the report, the state was pressured to draw up a plan with the articulated aim of replying to all of the 20 separate recommendations, outlined in the Ryan Report, which were grouped into six categories. This plan also brought about the implementation of the Children’s First guidelines (Ryan 2009) (See Appendix C for the full 20 recommendations and six categories). In light of these recommendations, policies and procedures such as garda vetting and reviews into serious incidences have been implemented. However, it is not just industrial schools and services that have caused major concern, for social care practitioners regarding child abuse.

Child abuse can happen in any part of society and, rich, poor or whatever the family circumstance, any child may be subjected to the awfulness of child abuse (Childline 2015). This can have a detrimental effect on the child throughout their lifespan if not dealt with or handled appropriately. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory shows that if one’s physiological needs such as food, shelter and clothing are not being met they cannot reach their safety needs such health and family security or reach a sense of belongingness (Gawel 1997). See Appendix D for Maslow’s hierarchy of needs triangle. According to Maslow (1970 p.38) a person’s most important need is the lowermost unmet need in the pyramid. The assessment triangle analyses the child’s condition and state of affairs and gives the social care practitioner a good and informed plan of action to safeguard the best outcome for the child (Department of Health 2000).

To conclude, as mentioned above, the impact of neglect, emotional abuse and physical abuse can have a harmful and damaging effect on a child. The aim of the essay was to outline the client needs and the role of the social care practitioner in responding to these needs in cases of child abuse. “Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul” (Pelzer 1995 p.98). Children need love, support and affection to grow to be confident and happy adults. In an ideal world, all parents and caregivers would give this love and support to the child in order for the child to grow contently. However, in reality many children face unwarranted hardships on a daily basis, through no fault of their own. It is our role as social care practitioners to help and support these children who need help, so they can be assured a deserved brighter future.

REFERENCE LIST

Nauert, R. (2014). For Kids, Mental Abuse Can Be Worse than Sexual, Physical Abuse. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 16, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/10/09/for-kids-mental-abuse-can-be-worse-than-sexual-physical-abuse/75945.html [accessed 16 Feb. 15]

Daniel, P. and Ivatts, J. (1998) Children and Social Policy, London: Palgrave

Children’s First (2011) National Guidance for the protection and welfare of children [online] available: http://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/Publications/ChildrenFirst.pdf [accessed 16 Feb. 15]

Rymer, R. (1994) Genie: A scientific tragedy, New York: Harper Collins

Health Service Executive 2011) Child protection and welfare Practice handbook, pp19-21, [Online] available: http://www.tusla.ie/uploads/content/CF_WelfarePracticehandbook.pdf [accessed 17 Feb. 15]

LaMeaux, E.C. (2014) ‘5 Needs your child must have met at home’, Gaiam Life: Your Guide to Better Living. [Online] available: http://life.gaiam.com/article/5-needs-your-child-must-have-met-home [accessed 17 Feb. 15]

Beaver, M., Brewster, J., Jones, P., Keene, A., Neaums, S. and Tallack J. (1999) Babies and Young Children: Early years care and education, Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes

Citizens Information (2014) Child Abuse: What is child abuse? [Online] available: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth_family_relationships/services_and_supports_for_children/child_abuse.html [accessed 18 Feb. 15]

Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (2009) Implementation Plan, Dublin: The Stationary Office

Mae Sincero, S. (2012). Ecological Systems Theory.(Mar 14) Retrieved Feb 19, 2015 from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/ecological-systems-theory

Maslow, A. (1970) Motivation and Personality, (2^nd ed), New York: Harper and Row

Children’s Rights Alliance (2013) Uniting Voices for Children: Summary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [Online] available: http://www.childrensrights.ie/sites/default/files/information_sheets/files/SummaryUNCRC.pdf [accessed 19 Feb. 15]

Department of Health (2000) ‘Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families’ , Department for Education and Employment Home Office, London: The Stationary Office

Bensley, L., Ruggles, D., Simmons, K.W., Harris, C., Williams, K., Putvin, T., Allen, M. (2004) ‘General population norms about child abuse and neglect and associations with childhood experiences’,Child Abuse & Neglect, 28(12), 1321–1337.

Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005, No. 27/2005, s.3, Dublin: Stationary Office

Childline (2015) Physical Abuse | Abuse and Safety | Explore [online], available: http://www.childline.org.uk/Explore/AbuseSafety/Pages/Physical.aspx [accessed 24 Mar 2015].

Gawel, J. (1997) Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, [Online] available: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED421486.pdf [accessed 24 Mar. 15]

Van Devall, T. (2013) ‘Printable Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Chart / Maslow’s Pyramid Diagram’, available: http://timvandevall.com/printable-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-chart/ [accessed 25 Mar 2015].

APPENDIX A

The Assessment Wheel:

The Assessment Triangle:

APPENDIX B

Indicators of Neglect Tusla (2011)

Indicators of neglect are likely to be visible in the appearance or behaviour of the child. Individuals/agencies concerned should consider making a referral to the HSE Children and Family Services if they notice that a child:

• Wears soiled clothing or clothing that is significantly too small or large, or is often in need of repair;

• Seems inadequately dressed for the weather;

• Always seems to be hungry, hoards, steals or begs for food, comes to school with little or no food;

• Often appears listless and tired, with little energy;

• Frequently reports caring for younger siblings;

• Demonstrates poor hygiene, smells of urine or faeces, has dirty or decaying teeth;

• Seems emaciated or has a distended stomach (indicative of malnutrition);

• Has unattended medical or dental problems, such as infected sores;

•Displaying apathy, unresponsive to affection;

• States that there is no one at home to provide care;

• Presents with frequent accidents and/or minor injuries

• Growth not within the expected range

• Signs of developmental delays, poor attention/concentration, lack of self-confidence/poor self-esteem, low academic achievement (including erratic or non-school attendance);

• Behavioural signs, e.g. overactive, aggressive, poor coping skills, impulsive behaviour, indiscriminate friendliness, withdrawn, poor social skills development, bed-wetting, soiling or destructive behaviours, substance misuse, running away, sexual promiscuity, self-harm, offending behaviours.

APPENDIX C

The Commission’s 20 Recommendations

•Commission’s Recommendation 1: A memorial should be erected

•Commission’s Recommendation 2: The lessons of the past should be learned.

•Commission’s Recommendation 3: Counselling and educational services should be available.

•Commission’s Recommendation 4: Family tracing services should be continued.

•Commission’s Recommendation 5: Child care policy should be child-centred.

•Commission’s Recommendation 6: National child care policy should be clearly articulated and reviewed on a regular basis.

•Commission’s Recommendation 7: A method of evaluating the extent to which services meet the aims and objectives of the national child care policy should be devised.

•Commission’s Recommendation 8: The provision of child care services should be reviewed on a regular basis.

•Commission’s Recommendation 9: It is important that rules and regulations be enforced, breaches be reported and sanctions applied.

•Commission’s Recommendation 10: A culture of respecting and implementing rules and regulations and of observing codes of conduct should be developed.

•Commission’s Recommendation 11: Independent inspections are essential.

•Commission’s Recommendation 12: Management at all levels should be accountable for the quality of services and care.

•Commission’s Recommendation 13: Children in care should be able to communicate concerns without fear.

•Commission’s Recommendation 14: Child care services depend on good communication.

•Commission’s Recommendation 15: Children in care need a consistent care figure.

•Commission’s Recommendation 16: Children who have been in State care should have access to support services.

•Commission’s Recommendation 17: Children who have been in child care facilities are in a good position to identify failings and deficiencies in the system, and should be consulted.

•Commission’s Recommendation 18: Children in care should not, save in exceptional circumstances, be cut off from their families.

•Commission’s Recommendation 19: The full personal records of children in care must be maintained

•Commission’s Recommendation 20: Children First: National Guidelines for the

Protection and Welfare of Children should be uniformly and consistently implemented throughout the State in dealing with allegations of abuse.

In examining the Commission’s 20 recommendations, it was decided to group them into six categories.

1.Addressing the effects of past abuse;

2. National child care policy and evaluation of its implementation;

3. Regulation and inspection;

4. Management of children’s services;

5. Voice of the child;

6. Children First, the national guidelines for the protection and welfare of children.

(Ryan Report 2009)

APPENDIX D

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

(Tim’s Printables 2013)

1

INTRODUCTION

Child abuse may be common among African families who have voluntarily or forcefully immigrated to the UK due to reasons such as tribal wars, poverty and political turmoil in their country of origin. Available research evidence tends to suggest that black African children in living in the UK are over-represented in the child protection system. It is against this backdrop of over-representation of black African families in the child protection system, which has prompted researchers, authors, policy makers and educationist to undertake a number of studies examining child abuse among African families living in the UK, so as to understand and ascertain the causes of this unacceptable behaviour and its consequences on social work practice. Many recent research work show that culture and religion are the most pertinent factors that influence and shape the parenting skills and behaviours of African families. This culturally-oriented approach of raising children by African families, though widely acceptable within the African community could be one of many reasons why many black African families are alleged to abuse their children, and making social workers to investigate and even take these children into local authority care.

Bernard & Gupta (2006) study found that black African children and families are more likely than white families to be drawn into the child protection system on the basis of inherent differences in beliefs and child-rearing practices. With the rise in multi-cultural influences on the lives of many black African families living in the UK, it is particularly important to shift focus from culturally-centred behaviours onto poverty-centred behaviours. Where literature exist, not many research work on child abuse cases among African families living in the UK have really considered the devastating effect of poverty on parenting behaviours, which is a prerequisite for proper child upbringing.

Many African children viewed under the Children Act 1989, may be classified as children in need as their parents struggle to provide them with adequate child-care needs, and not seen to be deliberately causing harm to these children. Poverty is strongly linked with reports of abuse and neglect and a significant number of black African families and children live far below the poverty line. Arguably if social workers develop a fuller understanding of the effect of poverty on parenting behaviours of African families, it may curtail many unnecessary interventions which draw black African children into the child protection system. African families living in poverty are always suspicious of social workers who lack the understanding of their values and their way of raising children and therefore make negative judgement about their way of parenting children. This negative perception of social work practice by African families and children living in the UK breed grounds for mistrust and apprehension and make working with such families a major challenge for social workers. Therefore the poverty status of African families living in the UK is an important factor to be considered by social workers working on child abuse cases with African families. As explained by Bernard & Gupta (2006), black African children and their families are more likely than white families to be subjected to unnecessary social work interventions and therefore are over-represented on the child protection register under the category of poor parenting behaviours. However, black African families are also under-represented in receiving preventative supports such as housing needs, financial benefits that is required to address any family needs and improve children welfare. For many years social work interventions with black African families and children alleged of child abuse cases have been a controversial topic.

On the contrary Singh (2006) maintains the view that African families and their entrenched cultural and social perceptions of parenting behaviours is difficult to understand in the context of contemporary social work practice and therefore social workers may intervene unnecessarily in such families. The potential consequences of this misunderstanding among social workers working with black African families could lead to unnecessary investigation of these families under the child protection system and eventually the children may be admitted to local authority care. Sometimes social workers may hesitate to make intervention into child abuse cases with black African families due to poor understanding of whether certain parenting behaviours are really an abuse or not (Bernard & Gupta, 2006). This misconception may result into inappropriate or no intervention by social workers working with black children who are at risk of significant harm, and children may continue to be harmed or even die. This has been highlighted by the tragic deaths of two African children: Victoria Climbie (Laming, 2003) and the young boy known as Adam, whose torso was found floating in the River Thames (Sale, 2005).

Bernard & Gupta (2006) found in their research work that majority of black African families who are living in the UK as a result of war, poverty, and tribal anarchies in their home countries have difficulty not only how to adapt to the western culture they find themselves but how they may be viewed by social workers involved in child care. Most social work professionals working with black African families tend not to appreciate the poverty background of such families and would feel justified to make negative judgements resulting into mistrust and disengagement from both parties. Although the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (Department of Health, 2000) places a requirement on social workers to consider families’ backgrounds and cultural perspectives when dealing with cases of child abuse.

The issue of poverty among many black African families living in the UK is a challenging issue for many social work professionals responsible for safeguarding and protecting vulnerable children from abuse, as it affect how parents raise their children. Moreover, as explained by Korbin (2004), difficulties in social work intervention in child abuse cases may arise, because the processes involved in child abuse assessment may be complex and parental behaviours may not be the same in different cultures and socio-economic settings.

In view of this perception, Platt (2005) states that ‘child abuse within ethnic minority, which include Africans, can risk stereotyping this ethnic minority as deficient, thus fostering pathological viewpoint of African family relationships’. This raises the question of what type of social work intervention need to be deployed by social workers working with black African families living in economic poverty so that vulnerable children are fully protected, and not just drawing these children into the child protection system. This professional dilemma among social workers possess a major challenge and therefore, calls for a new perspective in terms of skills, knowledge, training and conceptual tools to help distinguish between the styles of parenting inherent in African families living in poverty which is not necessarily harmful to the children, but at the same time safeguarding and protecting children from parenting behaviours that put children at significant risk.

The dissertation built its theoretical framework on social work theory, policy and practice and uses key conceptual framework from the socio-contextual approaches to intervention. The main emphasis of this dissertation looks at the available literature on black African families involved in the child protection system, focusing on specific poverty-related parenting practices that give rise to issues of child abuse. The methodology for this work was mainly qualitative and the available literature has been obtained from primary and secondary sources.

The dissertation touches on various issues regarding how social work professionals need to perceive and handle child abuse cases among black African families, who are living in poverty and thus to provide appropriate interventions that would help these families provide adequate child-care to their children.

The first chapter provides literature on black African children and the child protection system. Chapter two provides a discussion on the increased complexity of social work intervention in child abuse cases involving black African families living in poverty. It continues to analyse how poverty could cultivate a particular parenting behaviours that impact on the quality of children upbringing which, could be drawing black African children living in the UK into the child protection arena. Then chapter three draws on legislations and policies regulating social work practices in the UK. It also examines contemporary social work practice in child abuse cases among African families. Chapter four critical analyse the various methods of interventions available to social workers when working with black African families. Finally chapter five discusses the implications of social work intervention made by social work professionals among African families living in poverty.

CHAPTER ONE
BLACK AFRICAN CHILDREN AND CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEMS
The prevalence of Black children on child protection systems

Many children are drawn into child protection system for many different reasons. Majority of children goes through distressing and damaging experiences, which may include physical, emotional, sexual abuse and neglect. Some children come under the child protection system as their families are poor and could not look after them properly. Considering the child protection system and black African families, Bernard & Gupta (2006) have critically analysed the evidence on the disproportionate representation of black African families on the child protection register. A research by Gibbon et al (1995) shows that black African families are over represented than white families in the child protection system on the basis of physical abuse of children.

Brophy et al (2003) study expressed a contrary view, that the proportion of minority ethnic families represented on the child protection register shows that many involved several allegations about parental behaviour. A similar research conducted by Gibbons & Wilding (1995) found out that referrals made by social workers of black African children onto the child protection register was due to inadequate supervision of children by their parents who have taken employment to enable them meet any financial obligations and to provide adequate child-care for their children. Therefore, Chand (2000) commented that ‘different child-rearing methods used in different cultures mean that as an outsider, understanding what is the norm and what is deviant is problematic…and trying to distinguish the risks in one family from the another, social workers may fall back on moral judgements'(p.72)

The crucial factor is the challenges social workers encounter when assessing and making decisions about African children and families who lives in chronic poverty compared to the majority of the population living above the poverty line. Social workers need to consider these families’ financial backgrounds and their cultural identity, which determines style of parenting practices that are paramount in proper child upbringing. However, some African families hide under the umbrella of poverty and social exclusion to inflict physical and emotional harm on their children. If social workers understand the causes of parental behavioural patterns of African families, it is obvious that such families would not be unnecessary intervened and where necessary children would be adequately safeguarded and protected from harm.

The challenges social work practitioners experience when developing assessment processes as defined in Climbie Inquiry (Laming, 2003) is crucial to the safety and protection of black children whose families have immigrated into the UK. Sometimes social workers may be stereotype as racist and ethnocentric, as they do not factor poverty-related parental behaviours of African families in the assessment process, and this breed mistrust among the social workers and the families leading to many African families not properly investigated of child abuse (Chand, 2000). It is clear from Alibhai-Brown (2005) study that social workers need not be subconsciously hysteria to follow inaccurate and captivating media coverage of alleged child abuse within African communities. Under the Government’s ‘Every Child Matters’ policy, social workers first priority is to ensure children live with their families if it is best to do so, but what is the usual trend, children are usually removed from their poor parents and given to rich families because they cannot afford to effectively cater for the child needs. However, parents have the ultimate right to bring up their own children unless they fail in their parenting duties to provide adequate care for their children and as a result causing significant harm to them.

Most African parents do not deliberately harm their children but poverty creates all sorts of problems for these families such as parents suffering from depression, stress, and trying to cope with public pressure makes families fall short of what is expected of them as parents. Despite the above assertion, it is the responsibility of the social services or local authorities to create the enabling environment for the provision of welfare needs to families so that these families can provide appropriate care for children.

Following Baby P report children’s services watchdog, Ofsted, reported that a review of 173 serious cases in April 2009, found that social workers and other agencies, failed to act swiftly to put children suffering from physical and neglect abuse onto the child protection register. Ofsted also identified certain poor social work practices such as the failure of social services workers to identify and report signs of abuse, poor recording and communication, and limited knowledge and application of basic policies and procedures. However, recent publication in the The Times (2009) sees Local Government Association criticising ofsted for ‘feeding peoples fears’ and too concerned with protecting its reputation and focusing on procedures and processes rather than the welfare of children’ (p.15).

According to the Department for Education and Skills (2006b) statistical data a significant proportion of black African children are on the child protection register. A number of studies tend to support the view that families of these children lives in poverty and struggle to raise their children to the standard set up by government legislation. However, this available information creates a confusing picture about the representation of black African families in relation to the reasons of poverty-related parental behaviours which in ways tend to suggest a similar pattern of black African over-representation on the child protection register.

Therefore it is difficult to say whether social services are meeting the agenda set up by the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (Department of Health, 2000) which places on social workers the responsibility to consider families’ backgrounds and cultural perspectives when dealing with cases of child abuse. All these researchers possibly link this over-representation of black African children on the child protection register to little or poor understanding of socio-economic backgrounds of these families living in the UK.

Thoburn et al.’s (2005) review of the nature and outcomes of child welfare services for black children concluded that African children are almost twice as likely to be looked after than the white majority children in the population as a whole, which then suggest, that some of these children will be accommodated under section 20 of the 1989 Children Act, by virtue of being raised by families living in poverty. Arguably, there are a number of contributory factors which could be perceived as important in understanding the involvement of black African families with social work agencies and the resultant over-representation of their children in the child protection system. Broadly speaking poverty and poor parental practices are linked to child abuse and neglect by families who are responsible for looking after these children. Therefore the poverty experienced by many African families and children may be resolved through a more preventative welfare services rather than child protection services.

The government legislations and policies

The most relevant legislation in the UK that aims to protect children from abuse and harm is the Children Act (1989), of which Section 47 expects local authorities to make enquiries into cases where they have reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and Section 17 makes provision for a child to be assessed with a view to the provision of services to children in need. Therefore there are two definitive objectives of the Children Act (1989), the child protection focus and the child welfare focus. This legislation is subject to how local authorities interpret child abuse, so that in the course of their duties decisions taken are open and consistent without any failures. However, many black African children referred to social services under the child protection system may not necessarily be suffering from any harm or neglect in view of their poverty circumstances (Chand, 2000). According to Platt (2005), the Audit Commission proposal to shift from the popular investigational work use by social workers to a family support services, was due to numerous failings identified by many other government bodies. This wind of change for social work practice was accepted by the Department of Health, after examining a research finding which was summarised in the publication, Child Protection: Messages from Research (Department of Health, 1995). On the contrary view, Parton (1996) criticized the recommendations of Messages from Research because they ignored the basic socio-economic reality for many families.

From Platt (2005) view point it is arguable that the child protection system was drawing too many cases inappropriately on the child protection register. It is obvious from available data, the child protection system seemed to achieve as much as could be expected in terms of preventing continuous abuse of vulnerable children. However, the objectives set out by Section 47 of Children Act 1989, have rather a devastating and disunion effect on families and in many instances create uncertainty for black African children and families. It’s therefore expected of social work professionals to develop the respective skills and knowledge to differentiate between proper child-rearing practices and improper behaviours that flaunt acceptable norms and values in the black African community.

The Department of Health (1995) emphasises that social work professionals need to rely on various measures since child abuse is not an absolute concept and most family behaviours have to be seen in context before decisions of abuse are made (Chand 2000, p. 70). Although child protection social workers in the UK are trained to follow the official guidance as set out in the DOH (1988) Protecting Children: A guide for Social Workers undertaking a Comprehensive Assessment, this guide has some limitations when used on black African families. Against this background, the quality of social work assessment and, hence intervention process used by social workers seem to stereotype black African families as the indicators of child abuse. The fundamental dilemma facing social work today is the manner and extent to which they should engage in social welfare policy rather than in intervention procedures and processes, and more so to redirect its efforts primarily to the poor and needy in society (Karger and Hernandez, 2004).

From the 1990s there have been proactive and sustained effort on behalf of the UK government to develop and promote legislation and policies, which challenge the influence of a child protection culture on management and social work practice, which notably are perceived as distorting the balance of service provision to children and families (Spratt & Callan, ). On the contrary, Pringle (1998) commented that family support strategies may focus on the generalization of responses compared with child protection procedures that target actual nature of the alleged abuse. Cleaver and Walker (2004) realised in their research, that the implementation of this switch from child protection to child welfare services by social work agencies can have negative and difficult impact on the government Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families. In recent past the government has seen a remarkable reduction in the number of children drawn into the child protection system which commends local authorities’ effort to achieve performance targets.

Spratt and Callan (2004) criticized the reductions in number of children on the child protection register, as been achieved largely due to modern governance and measures to promote compliance with performance targets. Although these achievements are laudable, it only serves to obscure underlying tensions in the relationship between the state and the family (Platt, 2005).

According to Spratt & Callan (2004), the UK government in recent times have re-emphasised the primary duties of local authorities within the terms of the 1989 Children Act to focus more on safeguarding children by provision of children needs. The Department of Health estimates four million children living in England are vulnerable to harm or neglect, due to their families living far below the poverty line, yet only 300-400,000 of these children are known to social services at any given time (DoH 2001, p. 23-24). In their study of families whose children were at risk of suffering emotional abuse and neglect, Thoburn et al. (2000) found that in 98 per cent of such cases the families were characterized by living in situations of extreme poverty. Given the strong correlation between poverty and the need for provision of public services (Department of Health, 2000) it is obvious that social services in the UK only help a small proportion of vulnerable children who become members of that subsection, children in need as a consequence of their contact with social workers. This would suggest that a more effective way of helping vulnerable children, particularly black African children would be through the government increasing resources to local authorities, increasing the number of social workers and reshaping the social security system rather than highly selective and meagre provision of services through local authority social work departments (Parton 1997, P.).

Social workers can be been seen as a force for conformity and are frequently criticized for acting more in the interests of the Government so as to meet targets than in the interests of clients who need help from them. Therefore the model or approach social workers may adopt in view of all the government legislations and policies, when working with black African children and families living in extreme poverty will determine whether a family receives a child protection service or child welfare service.

Child abuse and neglect are common social issues in differing degrees are prevalent in all countries of the world. This paper will discuss the case of Child L who is in an abused relationship with her mother. The paper will also focus on the issues faced by her mother as a single black parent with unstable financial and emotional history. It deals with the assessment of the situation with reference to the facts as presented in this case study and talks about intervention strategies to develop a care plan for Child L. Attention has been paid to interact with Child L and engage her in direct communication keeping in mind anti-discriminatory practices. Justification for interventions suggested has been included wherever necessary.

Introduction:

Until as late as a few decades ago, women’s and children’s issues were not given due consideration. Women were usually blamed for their powerlessness to look after their children and guard them from domestic violence. This was mainly because they were unable to walk out of their abusive relationships with their husbands due to societal pressures and not having independent means of income (Humphreys & Stanley 2006). Things have changed but slightly and single parenting has become more common. However, there is need to support single parents and provide them training in good parenting skills for them to be able to raise their children in a healthy environment.

Socialization of children begins in the family, particularly, with the parents. Children learn to form attitudes that determine how well they will be adjusted as adults in society. They learn life skills, relationships, conflict resolution skills, and communication by emulating their parents or other socializing agents. Hence, it is not enough to blame abusive parents for their bad parenting but support by way of training, counselling, advice needs to be provided to them so that they can learn to be good parents. When all efforts in supporting abusive parents fail to bring about any appreciable change in the parents attitude or behaviour other intervention strategies like placements in foster homes need to be considered. The child’s protection and well-being is in the balance here.

Facts of the case:

Subject, Child L is a 2 year old black girl

Subject does not go to any nursery or play school

Mother does not take her to the hospital or to see any doctors

Subject does not have a father

Subject has an abusive mother

Mother suffers from personality disorder

Subject under child protection plan

Mother does not adhere to the child protection plan

Mother has history of violence and convictions

Mother was also a ‘looked after’ child

Mother is a school drop-out at 14

Mother does not have a permanent job

Comprehensive assessments of risks that Child L is exposed to:

Child L is isolated from the community as she does not go to play school and does not have any social interactions with people other than her abusive mother. The child needs to interact with others because social interactions create awareness and helps to build confidence; self -esteem and a positive attitude towards societal values, cultural standards and the willingness to accept authority of others and share responsibilities.

The child is an infant and is probably not able to communicate effectively with others or express her anxieties and stress. Parents need to spend quality time with their children to understand their needs and desires. Talking to children and listening to them is a good way of spending quality time and having a good parent-child relationship. This helps children to have positive self esteem and develop a healthy respect for others as well.

Mother is unable to provide a stable home for the child and the seventh floor “bedsit” accommodation is not conducive to proper child development. Living conditions have an important impact on health and development of children. The risk to proper child development is higher in low income homes (Ross and Roberts 1999). However, family income is not the only determinant of a child’s proper growth and development.

Mother is not mentally or emotionally stable and has convictions for aggression and violence. Research shows that mothers who are verbally aggressive with their children were found to be controlling and gave directions even for their play activities (Wiley-Blackwell 2008). They demonstrated a tendency to restrain their children by grabbing their wrists or shoulders. It was also found that children with verbally aggressive mothers refused to accept their manipulations and orders, though their resistance was often weak, short lived and indirect. It is important to remember that a parent’s verbally aggressive behaviour might damage the self confidence and self esteem of the child causing the child to have behaviour disorder in later life (Dwivedi & Harper 2004).

Child L does not have any one to intervene on her behalf in the event of her mother abusing her physically. The scene described in the case study when the mother asks her daughter to “piss off” is unfortunate. This scene took place in a public place, namely the GP’s chamber. This is an example of the verbal aggression that Child L is exposed to with no one to intervene on her behalf. Physical and emotional abuses of this nature happen with many children in our society. Children are subjected to threats, commands, loud angry words, accusations and words full of mistrust directed towards them all the time.

Mother’s behaviour has been termed as “unpredictable” not suitable for healthy parent-child interactions. Parent behaviour has a deep impact on children’s emotional growth. The unpredictable nature of Child L’s mother can cause her anxiety and apprehension. The child will grow up feeling confused by her mother’s outbursts and alternate mellow behaviour. This will impact her self confidence and her trust in other adults and she will not know how to emotionally deal with different situations.

Mother does not have a support system and has very few friends or family members. As such she does not get much help in raising her daughter alone and she is impatient with her because she is over-worked and tired. In such cases the children are left pretty much by themselves and do not have much supervision or monitoring. The impact of being left unsupervised and unmonitored can have negative implications on young children, especially from poor families.

Mother does not have a steady means of earning with practically no education and does not have a steady paid job. Studies have showed that children of employed mothers tend to be better adjusted socially and do better in academics. Daughters of employed mothers are more positive and less shy. Children with employed mothers also fit into leadership roles quite comfortably. For poor or working class people a mother’s employment status is important as that has a direct connection with the mother’s sense of well being (Hoffman 1998).

Mother has a history of violent behaviour and the child is at risk of abuse. Instance of her verbal aggression towards the child has been noted. When a child is witness to violent behaviour at such a young age as Child L, the impression tends to be very deep and she may carry the scars of this fear throughout her life. Her faith in her mother will be shaken as she knows her mother to be her only care giver. In such cases children find it hard to have healthy attachments with parents, siblings or friends. Such children may develop depression and anxiety disorders in adulthood.

The child does not have proper medical attention as the mother does not allow her to interact with social workers or doctors. This may be a dangerous trend as all children must have medical check-ups to determine healthy growth. In case of abused children, like Child L in this case, it is important for a medical practitioner to examine her for physical injury that may have been inflicted on her by her unstable mother. The advice of the doctor or health practitioner is also valuable in determining whether the child needs psychological help as well.

Child L is lonely and this manifests itself in her reluctance to go away with her mother from the surgery where she is inclined to stay and play with the health practitioner. Isolation and loneliness only add to the burden of being abused by one’s intemperate parents. Child L is isolated and does not have many relatives or friends to communicate with and form healthy attachments. This will increase her trauma and result in poor people skills in adult life.

The child belongs to an ethnic minority group and is at risk of facing discriminatory behaviour from others in the community. Black African women face racial discrimination, oppression and demoralization even today. However, anti-discriminatory practices need to be implemented and the social care worker needs to be well trained in understanding diversity and in getting appropriate and timely health care for Child L (Malek & Joughin 2004).

Under the circumstances it is very difficult to monitor the child’s condition. It is difficult to reach the child as the mother is not inclined to allow her daughter to socialize and be friendly. The social care worker assigned to care for Child L needs to be able to mitigate the mother’s hostility (Falkov, Diggins & Mayes 1998) and have access to the child at all times to be able to prevent her being abused. Monitoring Child L’s physical and emotional condition is also important as that will allow the social care practitioner to assess the child’s current needs and provide intervention when necessary.

Since the mother was also raised in a foster home she may not know how to cope with her child’s emotional needs. Research shows that quite often parents who had been abused as children grow up to be abusive parents as they emulate the behaviour they had been exposed at a sub conscious level. As they were never given the opportunity to have responsible and caring parents they themselves do not develop good parenting skills (Saisan, Smith & Segal 2010).

Though the risk factors present in Child L’s case are many, it may be helpful to mention here that not all children respond to the same risks and their causal factors in the same ways. There is no specific risk aspect that can be associated specifically with mental, emotional or physical hazard for a child (Nemours 2006). Different risk factors can affect different children differently and children may exhibit different symptoms after being exposed to the same risk. The symptoms Child L demonstrates should be noted and then plan for appropriate interventions should be developed.

Child L’s Needs, Safeguarding and Interventions:

The Child Protection Plan is a means to help families and professional social care workers to interact and be able to establish the guidelines for parents to better safeguard their child’s interests. The keys points of a child protection plan (Haringey’s LSCB) entails that the child is to be kept in a safe and secure environment, the child’s welfare has to be of foremost importance and the family should receive the support they need to raise their children in safety.

Protection against witnessing violence- Witnessing violence can be a terrifying experience for young children and can cause emotional trauma. The mother needs to protect her child and not be the cause of her distress. Child L needs to be kept under child protection plan to safeguard her from being physically abused. The mother needs to be counselled about her creating an extremely damaging environment for her child by her aggression.

Mother’s untreated mental and behaviour disorder- Parents who suffer from depression, anxiety disorder, mental instability have trouble taking care of themselves, much less their children. As is demonstrated in the case study Child L’s mother is mentally and emotionally not very balanced hence she is quick to anger and is aggressive with her daughter. Parents who are themselves traumatized and struggling to behave normally may appear be distant and withdrawn from their children. Treatment for the mother is important as it will mean better care for Child L.

Lack of proper parenting skills. Child L’s mother was a “looked after” child herself and probably did not have the opportunity to learn good parenting skills. She probably has unrealistic assessment of her daughter’s needs and the amount of care she deserves. The mother needs to be given parenting classes, support from community support groups and/or counselling therapy sessions to get over her own problems and learn good parenting skills. The plan should keep in mind the Children Act 1989 s 17(1) which says that it is the duty of every local authority to safeguard children and take care of their welfare within their area and provide a range of services appropriate for children’s needs (DH).

Isolation and lack of support. As we all know that parenting is not an easy task and people need to spend a lot of time and effort to raise a child, especially, when the parent is a single mother. In this case study not only is the mother a single parent, but she has added problems of not having financial stability or a support system by way of friends or family. Child L needs to be protected from being isolated and in order to do that effectively, her mother needs to be supported to be emotionally and financially stable. Care must be taken to socialize the child and her mother.

Safeguarding against abuse and neglect. Since Child L is under child protection plan, she should be closely monitored and any signs of abuse or neglect must be reported and taken very seriously. Repeated abuse can have lifelong repercussions for the child and can impact her relationships in future and damage her sense of self-esteem. Monitoring closely will also help monitor her mother’s behaviour which can be remedied by putting her mother through anger management programmes or good parenting lessons.

Scientific evidence proves that the family, school and community have a large role to play in the physical and mental health of individuals. Interactions with parents, peers and others in the community impact their behaviour beyond their normal genetic propensities. Child L, therefore, needs to be allowed to spend time with others in the community to be able to understand a wider range of behaviour patterns and be able to learn from them. This will help her to make correct choices as an adult.

Socializing plays an important part in the general growth and well being of a child. Socializing teaches a child life skills and peer interactions help establish self-esteem and self confidence. The risk of Child L being isolated and not allowed to socialize can render her incapable to handling conflicts in adult life. There are several positive outcomes of socialization and these prepare the child for an independent and responsible adult life. Interactions with peers and others in the school, neighbourhood and community helps the child to learn how to regulate emotions, think independently and adapt behaviour to suit the type of interaction (Berns 2010).

Research done by the National Institute of Child Health and Development shows that the quality of mother-child interaction, especially the mother’s sensitivity to her child’s physical and emotional needs was more important than whether or not the mother was employed as it determined the sense of security a child experienced, of attachment and love from the mother. The mother’s employment status has little bearing on the child’s behaviour but may be impacted if the mother is negative or insensitive to the child’s needs.

Safety of the child comes first and the case should be handled by professionals. Instead of focussing on individual case by case basis legislation is passed as a broad spectrum measure to curb the increase in incidents of child abuse. However, since the dynamics of child abuse can be varied people need to report child abuse and get help from professionals (Gil 1971). The child should be protected against repetitions of abuse and alternative solutions must be considered, for example, putting child under protection plan where the child is monitored by professionals regularly or be put in foster homes where proper care will be given to the child.

Professional intervention in the form of direct communication with the child should be done by social care givers. While interacting with the child, the social work practitioner must ensure that the child feels reassured and relaxed. Since Child L is almost an infant the social worker needs to be very calm and friendly. S/he needs to reassure the child that the mother’s aggressive and dismissive behaviour towards the child is not the child’s fault. There is nothing wrong with her and she is just as lovable as any other 2 year old. Gaining the confidence of the child should be the primary objective so that the child feels free to come to the social worker if she needs help. Social worker must keep in mind that the child has limited language and cannot quite explain what she experiences. Observation is more important than interrogation (Saisan, Smith & Segal 2010).

Child Protection Plan

Data has to be collected at different levels with sampling from all strata of society, while focussing more on lower income families. Social care professionals need to be trained to identify (Beckett 2007) and classify children who are victims or at risk of child abuse. Monitoring and reporting at all community levels must be ensured. Parents need to be monitored to check if they are receiving their basic rights and support from the government. A round the clock response system has to be put in place to receive and deal appropriately with complaints from abused children or anyone reporting abuse. A prevention plan needs to be implemented to prevent children from being abused further.

Every Child Matters is a programme that helps to advance positive outcomes for children, young adults and families. It is an instrument of change and a tool to implement the Government’s policy of elementary reforms for children and guidelines for safeguarding their well being. In this case study, as Child L is but an infant, the social care practitioner must involve the mother in this programme to be effective in this individual case. Every Child Matters draws its inspiration from the framework provided by the Children’s Act 2004. The four key aspects of the legal framework are given below (Fraser 2007):

Children must be engaged in positive activities to bring about an attitudinal change. This can be streamlined by engaging experts in communication who will be able to provide the right motivation and remove barriers to learning.

Young people must be encouraged and motivated to join and volunteer for community service.

Creating awareness for young people to make the right choices about their own lives.

Support should be based on individual basis depending on the needs of the child.

Community groups need to be organized at different levels to work on child and family issues. Volunteers and social workers need to be able to provide guidance and counselling for abused children and their family members. A body should be set up to coordinate the work. Social programs should be introduced to raise public awareness on this issue and advise people on human and child rights to prevent children from being exploited and abused.

Social workers team must be multi-disciplinary and be trained to identify victims that need immediate safety and protection and be able to organize for their safekeeping. Social workers should carry out home visits and on the spot inspection and coordinate with child protection agencies. Government and community social work agencies are doing a fair amount of work in this field. We need to integrate the effort made by these agencies by organizing life skills training (Maennantharat 2010), self protection training, and raise awareness about domestic violence, especially amongst minority sections of the community.

A core group of professionals from multidisciplinary fields, including members of the community mental health team, will have to be involved in developing the plan further. The plan needs to include a continual assessment of the situation and check for adherence with the child protection plan and also include areas of concern as listed below (Haringey’s LSCB):

Indentifying and addressing the root causes that may harm the child.

Being able to create a schedule that will have time bound activities for the social care givers and family members to stop the sufferings of the child.

Specific tasks that target short term and long term child focused outcomes with deadlines and consequences for not being able to meet the target.

A daily monitoring task for social workers for individual children to check the safety of the children on a day-to-day basis.

A contingency plan has to be set up if the child protection plan fails in delivering the required outcomes.

A regular reviewing system for the child protection plan has to be set up to check for efficacy.

If the parent fails to adhere to the child protection plan as in the case study and the child is exposed to significant harm, care proceedings have to be started in a family court (Family Justice Council 2010). The local authorities in collaboration with social care workers will try to work out the necessary changes required of the family before involving court proceedings. A full assessment is required with provision of services mentioned in the child protection plan. The parents, in this case the mother of Child L, should contact a specialist child care law solicitor in case the case needs to be presented before a court. Legal aid scheme is available to parents free of cost for their legal representation. Family group conferences should be organized that will include the wider family and community support groups to encourage the mother to arrive at a solution. A guardian has to be appointed till a decision is taken to allow the parent or relatives custody of the child or the child to be put in foster care.

Conclusion

It is important to be conversant with knowledge and awareness of normal family interactions and child development process to be able to identify children who receive inappropriate and less care. It will also help the social worker to assess a child’s situation and understand whether the child is at risk of neglect or abuse. A thorough and logical assessment of the case will help to implement programs that prevent child abuse and neglect. It will be useful in assessing a child’s current needs and whether these needs are being met. In the event of the child having to be placed in a foster home it will help to customize placements based on a child’s individual needs (AAP Policy 2000).

Child Abuse: Real-life vs. A Child Called “It”

According to the US Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, about 4,000,000 children die each year as a result of child abuse and neglect (Bob 12). “Child abuse refers to nonaccidental harm that is inflicted on children by their parents or other adults” (Magill 218). Many people do not take child abuse seriously because they either believe that harsh discipline is necessary, or they do not realize how bad it really is. Both child abuse and neglect are serious social problems that often have a lasting negative impact on the development of minors” (Magill 218). Due to the incredibly violent and graphic nature of A Child Called “It”, readers may not believe the encounters are factual. However, they most regrettably are true. The abusive actions in A Child Called “It” parallel those of real-life child abuse cases.

Abuse mostly occurs “in families who are young, poor, and single” (Palmisano 228). When families are going through hard times, there is a lot of stress that comes along with it. With all of this stress, the parents take it out on their children. Having “a crisis in the home heightens the chances that a child will be abused” (Bob 15). A family’s relationship is a very important part of the system in the household. Domestic violence and parental issues are also contributing problems in reoccurring child abuse cases. Parents who abuse each other are more likely to abuse their child as well, because “violence in one aspect of family life often flows into other aspects” (Rein 54). “Families in which the wife hits the husband, the child abuse rate was considerably higher,” resulting in 22.9 children per one hundred children (Rein 54).

There has also been found “a correlation between family income and child abuse and neglect,” (Rein 52). Child abuse cases are “more likely to occur in households where money is in short supply, especially if the caregivers are unemployed” (Bob 15). Difficulty in the family structure can also trigger child abuse. “Children in single-family households were at higher risk of physical abuse and all types of neglect than were children in other family structures” (Rein 51).

In A Child Called “It” Dave Pelzer suffers child abuse at the hands of his alcoholic mother. It was not like this all the time. At first she was a loving and caring mother, and then she changed dramatically. Together they used to have good times. They would always spend all their time together, going to the zoo and the park, until the family slowly started to split apart. Pelzer’s father was a firefighter, so he worked many twenty-four hour shifts, which caused problems between him and his wife. If parents are having problems in their relationship, then they take out their anger on others. In Pelzer’s situation, his mother took care of all her feelings by drinking and abusing her son.

Most people believe that the fathers are abusers because they are bigger and stronger, but it is mostly the women. In fact, there are many households where the woman of the family beats the man: “80% of fatal maltreatment cases were attributed to women,” that is for both child abuse, and spouse abuse (Carey 23). Many people believe that women are not capable of child abuse because of their maternal instinct, but woman are the abusive ones. According to Carey, “58% of child abuse is by the mother”. Many abusers inflict abuse onto their kids because that is how they grew up. “The severity of child abuse, and the manner in which children are abused, bears a strong resemblance to the type of maltreatment experienced by their mothers” (Kim 54).

Another big contributing factor to child abuse is substance abuse. There are some cases where there is drug abuse, but the most common substance is alcohol. “According to the Children of Alcoholics Foundation, 40 percent of confirmed child abuse cases involve the use of alcohol or other drugs” (Kim 54). In most cases, “with or without depression as a factor, studies indicate that a major contributing factor to child abuse is alcohol or drug addiction” (Kim 54).

In A Child Called “It”, the abuse is done by Pelzer’s alcoholic mother. With the father gone, the mother made herself useless and drunk. “At times while Father was away at work, she would spend the entire day lying on the couch, dressed only in her bathrobe, watching television. Mom got up only to go to the bathroom, get another drink or heat leftover food” (Pelzer 30). Shortly after this phase of being lazy, she started to abuse her son, with alcohol at her side.

Whenever child abuse is suspected, the most important thing to do is to report it. Many people do not report child abuse, which may result in the child dying. There are so many reasons that people do not report child abuse, and it becomes a big mistake: “60% failed to report child maltreatment because they did not have enough evidence that the child had been maltreated” (Rein 23). Whether there is a lot of evidence or not, all child abuse suspicions should be reported because it could save a child’s life. Also, around “16% failed to report because they did not think CPS would do a good job” (Rein 23). Whether it is believed that they would do a good job or not, letting someone know what is going on can make the smallest difference in a child’s life. “One-third of the mandated reporters thought the abuse was not serious enough to warrant reporting” (Rein 23). There are many organizations today that will help if there is suspected child abuse, without putting the victim in any further danger. For example, there are the Societies for the Cruelty to Children, American Human Association, Child Welfare League, National Council on Child Abuse and Family Violence, and much more (Dolan 60-68).

In A Child Called “It” all of the teachers knew about Pelzer’s abuse but did not say anything. According to Pelzer, every day when he walked into school he went to the nurse for their daily routine. She would ask him to remove his clothes and check all over his body for new marks. All of the teachers knew but were afraid to say something. Mr. Hansen, one of the teachers that knew about this, even called home one night to talk to his mother. When Pelzer got home that night he got a beating because of it.

Child abuse is a serious crime. Many people are afraid to intervene, but they should. Many people do not really believe that child abuse is as bad as they hear from different stories, but it really is. In A Child Called “It”, most things that happen in real life child abuse cases, was present in the book. In both real life and in Pelzer’s story, the family was experiencing trouble in the structure and relationships. Also, the abuser was the mother figure. And the worse thing of all is the community negligence. Many people do not say anything, whether what they suspect is really happening or not. Child abuse is real and Dave Pelzer experienced it first hand.

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, child abuse among black African families has attracted a lot of attention, academically and politically in British social work practice following the tragic death of Victoria Climbie (Laming, 2003) and Adam (Sale, 2005). Many of the research and literature on child abuse since the 1989 Children Act have not extensively discussed the aspect of poverty and child abuse. For many years social work interventions with black African families and children alleged of cases of child abuse have been a controversial topic. The difficulties black African families experience are not limited only to the foreign culture they find themselves in, but other issues may be significant, such as cultural differences in child-rearing, poverty, government policy and the intervention tools and processes.

Research evidence suggests that black African children in the UK are over-represented in the child protection system for a variety of reasons such as physical and sexual abuse or neglect. Chand (1999) research on black African families and the child protection system highlights the over-representation of black families (58%) compared to white families (42%) on referrals involving physical injury. Another research shows that referrals involving inadequate supervision of children are disproportionately higher among black African families than white families. Some black African children are involved in the child protection system because their families are unable to provide adequate care for them. Bernard & Gupta (2008) study also found that black African children and families are more likely than white families to be drawn into the child protection system on the basis of inherent differences in beliefs and child-rearing practices.

The aim of this work is to suggest that black African children and families, due to a number of reasons, are more or less likely to be investigated of child abuse by social workers and other professions. The possible implications for black families being more or less likely to be investigated are either black African children will become over-represented in local authority care under the child protection system or they will not receive the appropriate intervention by social workers under the child welfare system and make children to be subjected to further abuse or neglect by their parents (Chand, 1999). According to Chand (1999) even when abuse among black families is identified, the service provision for the abused children are hampered by lack of resources and this cause delays in assessment and the provision of treatment where specialized services are required. The 1989 Children Act may classify many African children on the child protection register in the UK as children in need as their parents are more likely to live below the poverty line (DoH, 1989). Poverty is linked with reports of abuse and neglect and African families are proportionately more likely to live in poverty than many of the other communities in the UK (Bernard & Gupta, 2008). According to Fontes (2006) people who are affected by child abuse are nestled by a variety of social and material domains that are highly interconnected and interactive. Therefore the poverty status of African families living in the UK is an important factor to be considered by social workers working with African families alleged of child abuse.

Many African families have negative perception about social workers who work on cases of alleged child abuse, as they employ an assessment and intervention process that is based on euro-centric child protection procedures and as such view black families, their culture and lifestyle as inherently problematic and need correcting (Chand, 1999). This negative perception of social work practice by African families and children living in the UK breed grounds for mistrust and apprehension and make working with such families a major challenge for social workers.

Bernard & Gupta (2008) argued that black African children and their families are more likely than white families to be investigated of child abuse and therefore are over-represented on the child protection register under the category of poor parenting behaviours. However, black African families are also under-represented in receiving preventative supports such as housing needs, financial benefits that is required to address any family needs and to improve children welfare. Singh (2006) findings show that African families and their entrenched cultural and social perceptions of parenting behaviours are difficult to understand in the context of contemporary social work practice and therefore social workers may be quick to intervene in such families.

Bernard & Gupta (2008) also found in their research work that the majority of black African families who have migrated to the UK because of war, poverty, and tribal anarchies in their home countries, also have difficulty not only how to adapt to the western culture in which they find themselves but how they may be viewed by social workers involved in child care. Most social work professionals working with black African families do not appreciate the poverty background of such families and would feel justified to make judgements resulting into mistrust and disengagement from both parties. However, according to Bernard & Gupta (2008) the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families places a requirement on social workers to consider families’ backgrounds and cultural perspectives when dealing with cases of child abuse. Korbin (2004) argues that social workers face difficulties in employing appropriate intervention in child abuse cases as the processes involved in child abuse assessment may be complex and parental behaviours may not be the same in different cultures and socio-economic settings. In view of this perception, Bernard & Gupta (2008) states ‘that a focus on maltreatment or dysfunction within African families can risk stereotyping this ethnic minority as deficient, thus fostering pathological viewpoint of African family relationships'(p 478 ).

This raises the question of what type of social work intervention is needed to be used by social workers working with black African families living in economic poverty so that vulnerable children are fully supported and protected, and not just drawing these children into the child protection system. This professional dilemma in social work practice presents a major challenge and therefore, calls for a new perspective in work ideologies and practices, the way information is disseminated on how the child protection system works, training on child-rearing differences in black African culture, social work values and enhancing collaboration with other professions. With a change in social work practice, social workers will develop the skills to distinguish between the styles of parenting inherent in African families which is not necessarily harmful to children and those parenting behaviours that are harmful. This point will be further discussed in chapter two.

The dissertation will draw on social work theories, policies and practice, key models and literature search from electronic journals to web search on child abuse, social work intervention and child protection system. The main emphasis of this dissertation looks at the available literature on black African families involved in the child protection system, focusing on specific poverty-related parenting practices that give rise to issues of child abuse. The methodology for this work is mainly qualitative and the literature obtained from both primary and secondary sources. The dissertation examines various issues such as how social work professionals should perceive and manage child abuse among black African families living below the poverty-line, what interventions social workers need to employ that would support these families to provide adequate child-care for their children and the possible reasons why black African children and their families may be over-represented in the child protection systems.

The first chapter examines the literature on black African children and the child protection system. Chapter two provides a discussion on the increased complexity of social work intervention in child abuse cases involving black African families living in poverty. It also analyse how poverty could complicate parenting behaviours that impact on child-rearing which, tends to draw black African children living in the UK into the child protection arena. Then chapter three draws on legislations and policies regulating social work practices in the UK. It also examines contemporary social work practice in child abuse cases among African families. Chapter four critically analyses the various methods of interventions available to social workers when working with black African families. Finally chapter five discusses the implications of social work intervention among African families living in poverty.

CHAPTER ONE
BLACK AFRICAN CHILDREN AND CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEMS
The prevalence of Black children in the child protection system

Many children are drawn into the child protection system for many different reasons. The majority of these children go through distressing and damaging experiences, which may include physical, emotional, sexual abuse and neglect. Some children living with poor families come under the child protection system as result of families’ parenting behaviours and practices, oppression, discriminations and cultural values. Considering the child protection system and black African families, Bernard & Gupta (2006) have critically analysed the evidence on the disproportionate representation of black African families on the child protection register. Brophy et al (2003) study highlights the proportion of minority ethnic families and their children represented on the child protection register involve several allegations about parental behaviours and practices. Chand (1999) states that ‘different child-rearing methods used in different cultures mean that as an outsider, understanding what is the norm and what is deviant is problematic…and trying to distinguish the risks in one family from the another, social workers may fall back on moral judgements'(p.72).

In contemporary social work practice many social workers are faced with difficulty situations when assessing and making decisions on child care issues among African children and their families who are living in poverty. It is paramount in view of available literature to say that when social workers acknowledge and understands these families’ financial backgrounds and their cultural identity through effective communications, it is possible they will come to terms with some of their parenting behaviours and practices. However, where families go over the boundaries of child-rearing to inflict physical and emotional harm on their children, which is evident in Victoria Climbie inquiry, it should be understood that such families have gone beyond what is acceptable not only within the western culture but in their own culture (Chand, 1999). Therefore, if social workers understand the causes of parental behavioural patterns of African families, they will be well-informed to determine whether a particular parenting behaviours should be considered within the protection process or to provide advice and support for such families under children in need (Chand, 1999).

The challenges social work practitioners experience when using the assessment processes as detailed in the Climbie Inquiry (Laming, 2003) is crucial to the safety and protection of black children whose families have immigrated into the UK. Sometimes social workers may be stereotyped as racist and ethnocentric, as they do not acknowledge and address issues of poverty-related parental behaviours of African families in the assessment process of a child abuse case (Chand, 1999). Under the Government’s Every Child Matters policy, social workers first priority is to ensure children live with their families if it is best to do so. In addition to this policy, it is the responsibility of the social services or local authorities to create the enabling environment for the provision of preventative services to families so that these families can provide appropriate care for their children. According to the Department for Education and Skills (2006b) statistical data a significant proportion of black African children are on the child protection register. A number of studies tend to support the view that families of these children lives in poverty and struggle to raise their children to the standard set up by government legislation. Therefore it is difficult to say whether social services are meeting the agenda detailed in the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (Department of Health, 2000) which places on social workers the responsibility to consider families’ backgrounds and cultural values when dealing with child care issues.

Thoburn et al.’s (2005) review of the nature and outcomes of child welfare services for black children concluded that African children are almost twice as likely to be looked after than the white majority children in the population as a whole, which then suggest, that some of these children will be accommodated under section 20 of the 1989 Children Act, by virtue of being raised by families living in poverty. However, there are a number of contributory factors which could be perceived as important in understanding the involvement of black African families with social work agencies and the resultant over-representation of their children in the child protection system. Child abuse and neglects may be linked to poor parental practices and poverty by families who are supposed to be responsible for looking after these children. Therefore the poverty experienced by many African families and children may be resolved through a more preventative welfare services rather than child protection services. Platt (2006) study on the refocusing initiative on social work practices from the child protection orientation to a child welfare orientation underpins government legislation, policies and procedures and management efforts to redirect social work interventions more towards welfare services. Also through child welfare practices social workers may appreciate the difficulties that families experience and may endeavour to meet children and their family financial and social needs through a range of social and preventative services.

The government legislations and policies

The most relevant legislation in the UK that aims to protect children from abuse and harm is the Children Act (1989), of which Section 47 expects local authorities to make enquiries into cases where they have reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and Section 17 makes provision for a child to be assessed with a view to the provision of services to children in need (Platt, 2006). Therefore there are two definitive objectives of the Children Act (1989), the child protection focus and the child welfare focus. Many black African children referred to social services under the child protection system may not necessarily be suffering from any harm or neglect if the situation is considered in the context of parenting behaviours and practices (Chand, 1999). According to Platt (2006), the Audit Commission recommendation to shift from the popular investigational work use by social workers to a family support services, was a result of many failings identified by many other government bodies. This wind of change for social work practice was accepted by the Department of Health, after examining the publication, Child Protection: Messages from Research (Department of Health, 1995). Chand (1999) argues that the child protection system tends to draw too many cases inappropriately onto the child protection register, of which many may be classified as border-line cases, that could have being managed under the children welfare services.

Whilst other research findings support the view that the child protection system seems to have achieved as much as could be expected in terms of preventing further abuse of vulnerable children. Hayes and Spratt (2008) argue that such achievement is not in ways most readily understood by those who legislate, set policy and measure performance. Bernard & Gupta (2008) highlights in their study that, ‘in situations in which there is a risk of abuse or neglect of African children, as with other minority ethnic children, the literature suggests that fear of difference, combined with racist stereotypes, may both exacerbate defensive practice, leading to avoidance that can leave children unprotected’ (p486). The Department of Health (1995) emphasises that social work professionals need to rely on various policies and measures since child abuse is not an absolute concept and most family behaviours have to be seen in context before decisions of abuse are made (Chand 1999, p. 70).

Although child protection social workers in the UK are trained to follow the official guidance as set out in the Department of Health (1988) Protecting Children: A guide for Social Workers undertaking a Comprehensive Assessment, this guidance in the context of black African children and their families, fall short in addressing their basic needs (Chand, 1999). Against this background, the quality of social work assessment and, hence intervention process used by social workers may stereotype black African families, their parenting behaviours and practice and culture as inherent indicators of child abuse and need correcting (Chand, 1999). The fundamental dilemma facing contemporary social work practice is the manner and extent social workers should engage in social welfare services rather than in investigational procedures and processes, so as to redirect its efforts primarily to the poor and needy in society (Karger & Hernandez, 2004). From the 1990s there have been proactive and sustained efforts on behalf of the UK government to develop and promote legislation and policies, which challenge the influence of a child protection culture on management and social work practice, which notably are perceived as distorting the balance of service provision to children and families (Spratt & Callan, 2004).

Pringle (1998) argued that the family support strategies may focus on the generalization of responses compared with child protection procedures that target actual nature of the alleged abuse. Cleaver & Walker (2004) argued in their research, that the implementation of this switch from child protection to child welfare services by social work agencies can have negative and difficult impact on the government Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families. According to Hayes & Spratt (2008) the government has seen a remarkable reduction in the number of children drawn into the child protection system, which commends local authorities’ effort to help achieve performance targets. Spratt & Callan (2004) criticized the reductions in number of children on the child protection register, as being achieved largely due to modern governance and measures to promote compliance with performance targets. However, following Baby ‘P’ report children’s services watchdog, Ofsted, reported that a review of 173 serious cases in April 2009, found that social workers and other agencies, failed to act swiftly to put children suffering from physical and neglect abuse onto the child protection register (www.ofstednews.ofsted.gov.uk/article). Ofsted also identified certain poor social work practices such as the failure of social services workers to identify and report signs of abuse, poor recording and communication, and limited knowledge and application of basic policies and procedures (www.ofstednews.ofsted.gov.uk/article).This report has since seen an increase in the number of children drawn into the child protection system.

According to Chand (1999), the UK government reiterated that the primary and official duties of local authorities within the context of the 1989 Children Act is to focus more on safeguarding children through the provision of advice and support services under ‘children in need’. In Spratt & Callan (2004) study the Department of Health estimates four million children living in England are vulnerable to harm or neglect, due to their families living far below the poverty line, yet only 300-400,000 of these children are known to social services at any given time. Thoburn et al (2000) study on families, whose children were at risk of suffering emotional abuse and neglect, shows that 98% of the children brought to the attention of child protection system, their families live in poverty. Parton (1997) argued that due to the correlation between poverty and the need for provision of public services, only the very small number of vulnerable children who are designated as children in need receive services under the welfare service. Spratt & Callan (2004) suggest that a more effective way social work can help such vulnerable children, particularly black African children, who may be over-represented on the child protection register, is the government increasing resources to local authorities, increasing the number of social workers and reshaping the social services system.

Therefore, with regard to the governments provision of resources, legislation and policies, the model or intervention approach social workers may employ when working with black African families living in extreme poverty, will determine whether a family receives a child protection service or a child welfare service.

CHAPTER TWO
POVERTY AND BLACK AFRICAN FAMILIES
Poverty and Child Protection

The area of poverty and child protection with black African families has been the source of controversy in British social work research for many decades. Many researchers find a correlation between economic deprivation such as poverty and social exclusion and parenting behaviour and practice, child-rearing capabilities and skills which are a prerequisite for proper child development anywhere in the world. Moreover, according to Jordan (2001) poverty is correlated with reports of abuse and neglect. For instance, the National Centre for Children in Poverty found in 1990 that ‘the incidence of child abuse and neglect, as well as the severity of the maltreatment reported, is much greater for children from low-income families than for others’ (Jordan, 2001 p.1). As a large number of Africans in the UK live below the poverty line, it may be reckoned that most black African children on the child protection register live below the poverty line.

Brophy et al (2003) argue that many families brought to the attention of the child protection system lives in extreme poverty and may experience social exclusion. Black African children living in the UK may be over-represented in the child protection system for reasons such as physical abuse or neglect; therefore it is understandable to say that there is a correlation between abuse and parenting behaviours and practices. The question is why African families and their children living in poverty, who are alleged of child abuse, are over-represented in the child protection system? Sossou &Yogtiba (2008) noted in their study that a child is the most valuable asset of any traditional African family, as children symbolise status, respect and completeness of the nuclear family, if that is the case, then it is ironical to see African families and their children to be over-represented in the child protection system.

Many black African families in the UK still lives below the poverty-line though they undertake different types of unskilled or skilled jobs, as they support large families in their countries of origin (Anane-Agyei, 2002). It may be reckon that poverty is linked with other social disadvantages such as poor education, limited employment opportunities, and poor health and may have devastating consequences for children’s development and life chances. Research shows that many African families and their children may have insecure immigration status and their existing financial predicaments only help to complicate their parenting behaviours and practices. Penrose (2002) study shows that African families seeking asylum are often forced to live at level of poverty that is just unacceptable, and this puts financial constraint on them to provide adequate childcare for their children. Unemployment levels are known to be very high among African families, and they are also subject of stigmatization and prejudice by the larger community that are suppose to accept them.

According to Bernard & Gupta (2008) immigration and asylum status determines income, employment opportunities and access to support services for many African people in the UK and these issues of entitlement to services only complicate their cases. Some African families living in the UK may be without jobs and may not also be entitled to social and economic benefit and therefore may find it difficult to care for their children. Children growing up with parents living in poverty may be deprived of proper childhood development ( Montith & Eithne, 2005). African families living in poverty and failing to provide good care for their children may be perceived by social work professionals as failing in their parental responsibilities (Chand, 1999). For this reason, social workers may intervene in such families and often than not they are drawn into the child protection system.

Amin & Oppenheim (2002) argue that the unfamiliar cultural expectation of black African families living in the UK somehow contribute to the high level of poverty they experience. Research shows that many African families suffer from institutional oppression including housing, employment, education and health which not only means that they are more likely to experience poverty and deprivation, but also more susceptible to social work interventions in child abuse or maltreatment allegations. Corby (1993) noted that it may be expected that black African children are over-represented in child abuse cases because their families are more open to surveillance as they show high levels of poverty that complicate their parenting behaviours (Chand, 1999 p73). In a broader perspective, Pearce & Bozalek (2004) emphasise that ‘the child protection system that exist in Britain will be unfamiliar to many African families, especially those more recently arrived, as similar state systems do not exist in most African countries, particularly where socio-economic factors, political instability and violence overshadow intra-familial child maltreatment and effective intervention into child abuse and neglect’ (Bernard & Gupta, 2006 p481).

Brophy et al (2003) study supports the above assertion that African families experience discrimination and insecurity in child abuse cases, as the tools for assessing abuse are often euro-centric bias and prejudice the families. Chand (1999) study expresses the awareness that black African families are disadvantaged through oppression in all areas of society and this should not reflect in social work practice.

Gibbon et al (2003) findings show that the child protection system was picking up more alleged child abuse cases inappropriately and putting more families and children on the child protection register than children who are subject to social welfare procedures. Therefore the over-representation of African families on the child protection register somehow, undermines the government aim of keeping children with families and reducing the number of children that are drawn onto the child protection register. The Department of Health (1995) document on child protection identified some pertinent shortcomings with the child protection system, as it seems to encourage unnecessary child protection interventions in border-line child abuse cases. Bernard & Gupta (2008) in their study of black African children and the child protection system suggest that there are a series of interactions between environmental factors such as poverty, immigration status and social exclusion that affect the life chances of many African children and the capacity of their parents to provide adequate care. Dowling (1999) realise that social work practice in the UK focus less on poverty-alleviating strategies but throw more resources behind safeguarding and protecting vulnerable children from abuse or maltreatment. Social workers need to understand the context in which abuse occurs, irrespective of race and culture, to develop an assessment and intervention process that is fairer for black families as they are more likely to suffer racism and oppression. In view of the above argument, it is pertinent that social workers know when to employ preventative measures to support black African families who have financial needs and when to take such families through the child protection system in the quest for safeguarding children.

All these factors together create complex needs for many African children living in the UK, and, in many circumstances increase their vulnerabilities which draw them into the child protection arena. Bernard & Gupta (2008) argued that only by developing effective relationships with African families can social work professionals can begin to understand their parenting behaviours and practices.

Poverty and Child Welfare Services

Current literature shows that poverty experience by most black African families living in the UK could be alleviated by social work services that offer a pragmatic welfare services rather than drawing these families and children into the child protection system. Brophy et al (2003) study suggests that immigration and asylum issues, combined with poverty, are likely to be some of the reasons for the increased complexity for social work professionals assessing and intervening child abuse cases involving black African children. The Department of Health challenges social workers with the responsibility to work with Section 17 of the Children Act 1995, so as to provide adequate social support for children in need via the child welfare services (Platt, 2006). However, social work agencies have not fully achieved the government agenda of alleviating poverty experience by many families and children due to inadequate resources at all levels of social work practice.

The Department of Health have indicated that most families, struggle to bring up their children in conditions of material and emotional adversity (DoH, 2001). For instance black African families experiencing poverty may fail in their responsibility to provide proper care for their children as they spent almost all their time working to make ends meet. Such children hardly experience family treats such as going on a family holiday trip, having birthday parties and they are deprived of having basic playing toys and games that help children to learn and grow into adulthood. The lack of affordable basic needs for children of poor families complicated with other social adversities may contribute to poor children developing aggressive behaviours, low self-esteem, picking up awkward attitudes, and may to suffer from social deprivation. Fontes (2005) realises that many traditional immigrant families, where black Africans are part of, may use an authoritative style of parenting, demanding total obedience and respect from their children.

Although these parental practices may not necessarily constitute child abuse, it may clash with the child-rearing norms, and thus seems to bring African children and families to the attention of the child protection system (Fontes, 2005). When social workers start acknowledging borderline child abuse cases and understand the difficulties families living in poverty experience in raising their children, they would be able to strike a good balance between when to employ a child protection intervention and a child welfare intervention (Spratt & Callan, 2004). It is evident that children living in poverty may benefit from the child welfare services as stipulated in section 17 of the 1989 Children Act, as it aims at alleviating poverty in families

Introduction

Human beings have been engaged with a series of occupations from hunting to what we are today. As societies and communities began to exist, several actions were done simply to tackle a common problem or to spread awareness resulting to what we call today as ‘voluntary’ work. Voluntary work when it relates to the needs of a community, it is referred to as ‘voluntary community work’. The professional and voluntary community workers are both motivated by the incessant need to contribute positively to the community.

Both types of community work include doing some sort of work that benefits the community. This could be anything from taking care of people in old people’s homes, to working for the children and their families.

Community service comes in many different forms, such as belonging to a service organization, making donations to the needy, spending your time contributing towards the betterment of the society. Some community workers may be called upon to perform admirable actions like saving people’s lives, however there are smaller ways that an individual can help his community. (Standard Journal)

Professional community service relates to everything that is done for the community for money and for acquiring skills and experience. Professional and voluntary work, are different ways of doing community service. The voluntary service is based on self motivation and the urge to improve the community without any selfish reasons while the major motivator of a professional community worker is his salary. Today the two ways are being combined. Most individuals and companies nowadays actively tackle social issues while taking advantage of personal profit and recognition within the industry.

Community Service

Community service is about helping others either directly or indirectly in order to improve the condition of the community in which we are living. Community service is different from other institutions as it deals with local problems rather than global problems at large. Community service is based on the idea that it is a good thing someone is doing without expecting anything in return. The real beauty of serving your community is that you get to help others, and in the end, it helps you too to have a better community with happy people and a safer environment. There are many reasons people do community service and there are many different ways in which to contribute, but the main idea is to make the world a better place to live. (communityserviceopportunities.php)

There are various reasons why people engage in community service, some are voluntary and some are non voluntary. Some people like to do community service because they feel that it is the best way to improve their community. There is always somebody for whom your help and time can be necessary; this is good reason to work at giving back to the community. Many persons view community service as an important aspect of citizenship or values, while others do it because of their religion. Yet there are people who engage in community service in order to fulfill requirements for certain company, as a need to graduate from an institutions, or even as a mandatory legal punishment given by judges instead of or in addition to jail time or fines. The concept behind this is that the law can find a way to punish criminals or offenders at the advantage of the community and giving law breakers a reminder about what it means to be a good citizen. (communityserviceopportunities.php)

Irrespective of the reasons to be a community worker, it is essential to remember that community service itself takes on many forms from cleaning the road monthly to helping children in poverty. There are many ways to make the community a nice place to live. Prevalent forms of community service are beautification efforts such as picking up garbage or ameliorating landscaping work, while many others are focused on education or welfare of children where community workers can improve writing skills of children of making a safe place for them when their parents are away from home.

Characteristics of a community worker

The community worker must be trained and knowledgeable but this is not all. The persons who need to investigate and assist communities must know and understand themselves. Before one can evaluate what is happening with others, community workers must be “centered” and “above reproach” in their own life. The worker must be aware of the code of ethics associated with the job he is doing. Their ability and commitment to act ethically is an essential aspect of the quality of the service offered to those who use community services. (National Code of Ethics, 2012)

A community worker needs to be able to put aside his biases and deal with others in a logical and professional. If someone is honest with himself, if he knows his lacking, see his capacities, and is aware or his personal beliefs, he will be more likely capable of putting them on one side to tackle others justly and no prejudices. It is difficult to discuss with a family member who raped his biological daughter of 13 years old like in Mauritius in 2011. (Le Defi, 2011) But, if you are a community worker, you need to have good relationships with that abuser in order to develop trust and ease healing. A community worker must remain neutral and collect facts.

A community worker needs to have active listening skills, not to formulate an answer, but hear what is being said. From this data, the worker needs to make quick decisions in difficult situations. Not listening actively may cause unnecessary pain to people who are involved. Each family feels that they are the only one to have come across a tragic experience; however there are many things in common that exist in most of the cases. (Fairbairn, G.J. 2002)

The community worker needs to learn how to remove stress. Stress is one of the main causes of heart attacks. The worker needs to know how to remove stress from his life for instance by doing meditation or physical exercises. Dealing with other people’s issues is difficult if you have feelings. The quote is, “God does not give anyone more than they can handle”, but community workers handle problems that cannot be discussed with other people apart if the case is really complicated like the person wants to harm himself or someone else.

To become a successful community worker, one needs to developl maturity as well as experience. One of the most important skills for a community worker is to be able to empathize. Community workers must go beyond sympathy. To succeed as a community worker, one must feel true empathy for people and be able to place yourself in another person’s position. (Fairbairn, G.J. 2002)

Voluntary community workers

Voluntary community workers work on a salary free basis. They perform actions that benefit the community. They don’t get money for the work they do. Furthermore, they are not required to be qualified to perform voluntary community work; they just need to be motivated to do good for the community. Voluntary community work is a group of people or a person who is wants to work for the welfare of the community without being paid. They are helping out other needy neighbors without taking any money for it. These workers should not ask money for their contribution. They should work sincerely with dedication. Being voluntary workers, they should not think that they do not need to put all their effort in what they are doing as they will not get any revenue.

Professional community worker

Professional community workers are required to be trained and qualified for the work they do, such as a doctor or a manager. Professional community workers get a salary like any other employees. Professional community work is most often done by organizations for money. They get money for whatever they are doing. These workers should perform their work loyally but also expect to get paid for it. They work for the community while being paid and have all the requirements necessary to be able to work towards the betterment of the (community. (Community Dev J.1980)

Service delivery

Service delivery can be defined as the relationship between the community worker and the inhabitants of the community, and those who benefit from the services, it comprises of both the services and the support provided.

Community based approaches

Community based approaches is defined as a group of approaches, put into practice in community-level programs or as part of local programs. Amount of involvement differ along set of factors from consultation with inhabitants to use of resources, decision making and implementation of the program in the community. Participatory approaches have existed since many years but the amplitude of beneficiary control in development projects differs considerably. (Cliffe et al., 2003)

Community-based approaches are becoming very common and are used in many situations in the presence or absence of a capable government. Community-based approaches can be adopted in places where regular help is not available. Advocates of community-based approaches state that their built in adjustability makes it easy to interfere in places where the government is fragile, however those against say that in practice they often miss to be established, or attenuate. (Cliffe et al., 2003)

Objectives of community-based approaches

Just like service delivery, a set of objectives are associated with community based approaches.

Four types of objectives will be discusses further: empowerment, building organizational capacity, improving efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability and strengthening local government.

Empowerment of people and communities

Community-based projects have the capacity to be more encompassing, to empower communities, and enhance relationships between civil society and the state (Narayan, 1998; Alkire et al, 2004). Some have doubts on whether complicated things such as empowerment can be tackled through participation in community development projects (Mosse, 2001). Sometimes it is viewed as a way to ameliorate problems while in other situations it is seen as a factor having a built in value and is a limitation in itself.

Improve efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of interventions

There is large consensus that community-based interventions have the capacity to be more acknowledging to the necessities and aims of inhabitants. Furthermore, there are proof that community-based projects are more productive due to lower degree of bureaucracy and excelling information of local costs (McLeod, 2003) .The projects that include mostly resources available locally tend to be more sustainable. (Ribot, 1995).

Build organizational capacity at local level

Mobilization of communities determines difficulties, plan and manage projects help to empower community ability for group process. Significant questions encompass the term ‘community’ and the ways in which the necessities of sub-groups and people are depicted, for instance black or poor people. Community-based approaches try to establish ‘social capital’ but while this is a beneficial idea it is most of the time put into practice uncritically with improper understanding of cultural and political condition and vested concern in the status quo (Harris, 2001).

Strengthen local governance

Community-driven progress is more and more being advanced as a way of strengthening state-community synergies (Das Gupta et al., 2004). These approaches capacitate communities to order services and provide a means for rebuilding trust and accountability and re-building the social contract between communities and the state. The aims of making more powerful local government and distributing improved services are often confused. Strength to meet short term goods targets often divert the mind from organizational changes required to make service delivery systems sustainable in the long run.

Service delivery of a voluntary community worker

People have sometimes worked with the idea of wanting to find some way to give back to their community, and help those who cannot help themselves. Some can volunteer and simply talk to people so that they have a good day and making them happy. Others may to hospitals and help the old people, having conversations and listening to them, thus acquiring maturity. These individuals are most of the time more than grateful to have a talk with someone and being listened to. Similarly, volunteers are also able to help children by doing activities like drawing with them. Volunteers are satisfied with the happiness of the people whom the help. (Helping others is good for you, 1998)

By volunteering and doing community service, many people get a maturity that they cannot get anywhere else. Volunteers are given the chance to see life from different perspectives, and gain a lot of humility at the end. . (Helping others is good for you, 1998)

When volunteering, these people are able to give as much of their time as they want, the commitment becomes theirs. They have no problem in getting involved with the work as it is being done out of their freewill. By doing community work voluntarily, an individual not only makes a difference in his life but also in all the lives of people who will benefit from his service. (Billig S.H. 2002)

Those who engage in voluntary community service are motivated by a personal force, they are happy if they are able to make a difference in somebody’s life and do not expect anything in return. Volunteers are altruist by nature that is they like to help people without any interest; they have compassion for those who need help.

When doing community service voluntarily, the volunteer will not care about timing if he really wants to help the other person; he will not have to respect the organization’s working hours to help someone. When working for an organization, the workers will have to abide by the rules and regulations assigned, if they want to help someone they will have to do so only during working hours. (Billig S.H. 2002)

Service delivery of a paid community worker

To be able to work for an organization and being remunerated, the community worker must be trained, that is he will possess the skills, experience and will understand the importance of the codes of ethics. Thus he will be in a better position to take rapid and effective decisions for the welfare or the community. To get the job, the individual have the necessary qualifications and fulfill the organization’s requirements to be considered worthy thus he will b at a good position to take wise and good decisions. (Learning In Deed, 2005)

Being a professional worker, the person will have all the resources necessary to be able to help the needy; he will furthermore be able to use all the resources effectively without giving too much or too little. Also the worker will have a good database, the contact details of all the persons who can be of any help. The company will provide back up to the worker in case of accident, he will be covered by insurance unlike voluntary community workers. (Learning In Deed, 2005)

Working in an organization only as a means to get a salary can also be problematic as the community worker’s main objective will not be to help people in the community but rather to earn money. The worker will not have the same motivation to do something good for others as he will anyway get his salary at the end of the month.

When working with the elderly and children, the community worker might not feel happy and might also not make an effort to put a smile on other people’s face. His prime objective will not be to make others happy, the worker will not be satisfied by seeing the neighborhood happy unlike with voluntary community worker.

The community worker does his work only as a means to get a salary will have no interest to help people or to work for the betterment of the community. If he encounters a case outside his working hours he will not try to help the people needing help as he will not consider it as part of his work. As soon as his working hours are over he will find it of no use to work for this community. (Learning In Deed, 2005)

Critical Analysis

It is true that while engaging in community service out of free will the individual will feel happy to be able to contribute for the welfare of the community, however the voluntary community worker will face time constraints, he may be doing the work voluntarily as he is not able to do it on a full time basis as he has already some other engagements. Furthermore voluntary community workers will not have enough resources to help those who need help, for instance building a place for children to spend their leisure time when parents are absent require a lot of resources which unpaid workers might not possess. They will also lack the skills that are needed in difficult situations like dealing with delinquent children; they may take the wrong decisions unconsciously and are guided by their emotions instead of being logical. On the other hand, paid community workers may possess the required qualifications, skills, experience, resources and database but if their only motivation is their salary, they will not make any effort to solve the problems of the people in the community.

Conclusion

Hence, as we can see both voluntary and paid community works have their advantages and disadvantages. The best thing that can be done is to merge the two so as to be able to really benefit the community. By merging the two types, the worker will have the resources to help improve the locality, he will be able to take the right decisions with all the skills, qualifications and by respecting the codes of ethics, have time to handle the cases, and he will have a sense of worthiness helping the neighborhood moreover in return he will get a salary to be able to cater for his expenses. The community worker should not however work only as a way to get a salary. The government can empower both professional and voluntary social workers in terms of resources, access to information and technology and provide training, so that they can do their work more efficiently. By merging voluntary and professional community work, not only will the community benefit but the worker will also gain maturity.

In the analysis of the star character Rachel in the 1968 movie ‘Rachel Rachel’ by Paul Newman, I have used the Theory of Personality Development by Freud Sigmund (1856-1939). Sigmund developed this theory about psychoanalysis from his works on patients with mental problems several years back. In this theory, Freud Sigmund believed that allthe spheres ofsomeone’spersonality were in one way or another determined by the sex of the person and aggression.Sigmund believed that other factors that shapedsomeone’s character also developed during this period of personality development which in totality determined the adults’ personality and how well they relate with the world. According to Freud Sigmund the three elements that make the personality are the Id, the ego and the superego.

The ID is the part we are born with and is the part of us that wants us to be comfortable. For instance children will cry when they are hungry until they are fed in complete disregard of whether there is food or not or even whether the person attending to them is busy or not. As we have observed around us, a child will always cry until what they want is done for them or given to them.

The Ego is believed to develop in children from three years of age onwards. This part enables one to realize the realities of life. At this stage of development a child can very clearly understand the consequences of their actions. For instance they can understand that some unpleasing actions can make them to be punished or rewarded.

Main Body: Analysis

The Superego is the part that develops by the time a child reaches five years. Once the superego develops the cycle of personal development is completed and one attains a balanced personality. The superego is also known as the conscience because it helps us distinguish between wrong and right actions and it also defines for us the ethics and morals by which we live.

The movie ‘Rachel Rachel’ based on the novel ‘Jest of God’ by Margaret Laurence is about a 35-year-old schoolteacher Rachel Cameron who is unmarried and is portrayed in the movie as feeling terrible that she has wasted her life. The Interprofessional education would also enable me to involve all the necessary stakeholders in cases of emergency so as to limit conflicts and ensure the delivery of quality health and social care. For instance, in case I will be faced with a similar situation as the drunken patient case, I would be able to reassure the patient and ensure that they have plenty of drip water added to their body, while ensuring that before I take any steps, I consult with other adult nurses and doctors.

In addition, I would advocate for joint multi-disciplinary training so as to ensure increased harmony among the IP group members at the work place. Moreover, I would also ensure that there is a clearly distinct role defined for each IP team member so that each member contributes to the situation at hand. The role of effective communication would be key to the success of my career as an adult nurse. This is because; the service user and the nurses as well as the doctors would require knowing the progress of the patient as he is being treated. In the above case, after treating the patient, he will be moved to the recovery ward where he will be attended to by other nurses and health care givers. These health care givers will require knowing the progress report of the patient, which I would ensure that they have in good time. As an adult nurse, the value of communication is immeasurable

The star character Rachel lives with her mother in an apartment that was once owned by her late father in New England. It is time for the summer holidays and Rachel is not excited like the other teachers about the vacation as she figures it will just be another holiday when she will be bored and she will have to put up with her demanding mother in the house.

In the movie, another character Calla Mackie who happens to be Rachel’s best friend,a lesbian and a fellow teacherpersuades and invites Rachel to attend a religious meeting with her. Rachel is convinced into attending the meeting and while there she is touched by the sermon delivered by the guest preacher who is a young man.

This incidence marks the beginning of a series of several other events which will convince Rachel to get out of the cocoon she was hiding in and live in the real world where she can freely express her emotions and desires. Calla also feeling touched by the sermon confesses her feelings for her best friend but she is turned down by Rachel who does not have lesbian tendencies.

After the religious meeting and Rachel feeling that she can express her emotions and love to those she cares about she gets involved in a short lived sexual relationship with their old family friend Nick Kazlik who was back in town to visit his folks. Rachel then has her first sexual relationship with Nick;she falls in lovewith him and starts thinking of a future with Nickmistaking the lust they have for one another for love. Nick on the other hand on noticing that Rachel is treating their relationship more seriously than it ought to be treated ends the fling because to him it was just a casual affair.

Shortly after Rachel suspects that she might have fallen pregnant and this really makes her happy as she imagines having a baby of her own.Rachel therefore plans to relocate elsewhere to a place where she can raise her child now that her relationship with Nick is short-lived. Her best friend Calla helps her get another teaching job in Oregon but Rachel soon finds out that she is not pregnant but has a benign cyst. A surgery is organized and after having the cyst removed Rachel still decides to move away with her mother to Oregon and even though she is feeling alone and empty because of the loss of the man she loved and her supposed baby, she has a strong will to continue with her life.

Rachel’s Experience

‘Rachel Rachel’ is a very moving romance, classic and drama themed movie that shows the loneliness and existence of some ladies in real life where someone does not get what they have always wanted or where life seems so unfair to someone. The problem could be in our personalities where we have internal battles within us over what we want and what society or everyone else will say about us.

There were several ideologies that the students discussed in low tones relating to the behavior of these students. However, this was only qualified by the fact that the medical profession students liked discussing their peers’ conduct and professional ethics. In this book, I learnt that Rachel had issues with other student’s conduct which frequently extended to the rest of the other peers both at school and at home. I concurred with critics that she often exhibited this trend. The rest of the team members agreed that the time limit of working in groups could not be construed to mean that medical students were often too pervasive. The setting of the group work was more controlled, thus limiting the results of the findings. It was agreed within my group that the real picture could be depicted in the work place though with limited variations. This was the case with the attitude of the medical students towards other medical students as well as the other students in general. The multi-disciplinary team meeting gave me insights and adequate experience in relation to the kind of communication among different professional team members. They were constantly evaluating her work which sounded kind of uneasy for Rachel.

Striking a balance

In emotionally sound persons, the ego normally comes out as the strongest element of personality taking care of both the Id and the superego. When these three elements are balanced someone is able to survive and exist well without taking undue advantage of others.

Unfortunately not all of us can have the ego coming out stronger than our Ids and superegos. For some the Id is stronger and such a person will be self-centered and concerned only with their wellbeing and if the superego also happens to be stronger such a person can be too hard on themselves, have judgmental tendencies and relating with others would be extremely difficult for them.

Like mentioned earlier the three elements are driven by sex and aggression. Sex which Freud calls the Eros stands for our desire to reproduce and live. Aggression on the other hand represents our need to acquire more wealth and protect our lives.

According to Freud’stheory, our ego therefore has so many tasks. It is charged with the duty of checking that everything is balanced, it deals with life’s challenges and ensures that our actions do not hurt those we care about and all this is done by employing ego defense mechanisms like:

Denial- where we pretend that a problem does not exist.

Suppression- where we consciously block out some thoughts from our minds especially thoughts that can hurt our feelings.

Regression- where we can go back to decisions we had made earlier on.

Rationalization- where we come up with logical explanations to problems or difficult situations instead of admitting the truth.

Projection- where we put behaviors that are unpleasing on other people.

Consequently, after looking at the storyline of the movie briefly and having explained the theory of Personality Development of the psyche by Freud Sigmund, we can say that Rachel the lead character in the movie had a personality problem. This is evident in several ways:

First at 35 years of age, Rachel was still a single woman never married before and still a virgin. This shows that Rachel’s ego could probably be weaker than the other two elements of her personality because in Freud’s explanation there reaches a point in life when every human being of reproductive age would like to procreate and have offspring of their own. And that is why when Rachel suspects that she is pregnant and her belly starts swelling she is so excited. Even though she could have ended up being a single mother she does not seem bothered at all. All that seemed to pre occupy her mind was the fact that she would have her own baby finally.

This shows that Rachel’s super ego couldbe much stronger than her ego and her Id and that is why she was a virgin till late into her life.

Secondly, Rachel looks like she has a personality development problem because she had not known who she was or what she wanted in her life before she and her friend Calla attended the crusade. It is while at the crusade that Rachel decides to have a free spirit.

Rachel looks like she was hiding in some shell and it was the young preacher who helped her get out of it after which she had a sexual relationship with Nick.

In this case we conclude that it is Rachel’s superego which was dominant once again because her morals were probably too uptight that she could not have sex before marriage. I also learnt that adult nurses should learn to downplay their differences for the common good of their patients. I also learnt that the power and authority held by students in their past affected the IP collaboration. Critics subsequently felt beaten at it. However, this has changed owing to the modern reorganization of the healthcare delivery. I learnt that other team members have now been given a chance to take lead roles in the delivery of quality health and social care. This kind of delegation was necessary due to the busy schedule of the doctors. This had to be communicated effectively within the Interprofessional teams. Nurses have been empowered and can now play a vital role which was traditionally reserved for lead doctors in the health care centers. IP working has therefore made nurses more powerful and authoritative thus providing them with ardent experience to further their careers.

Rachel also does not seem to enjoy her life. Schools have closed and people are happy to be going on vacation but Rachel on the other hand is just there not excited about the holidays like everyone else. Rachel was more of an outgoing kind of person than any other character in the movie. In fact, the movie depicts Rachel as aggressive lass who not only care about her own affairs and her state of being but also the state of others. It is indeed appalling to learn that she attempts to repair the bad relationship that others have been nurturing all this while. It should be remembered that Rachel’s earlier background is one to reckon. I acknowledge the fact that working together as a team is integral to the success of my career. There are many times when I will have to consult various health and social care practitioners to effectively treat or deal with complications that may arise during treatment. Likewise, such professional team members may require my help in dealing with social, physical and mental health problems. I also appreciate the fact that effective communication within the IP teams is key since no professional staff within the health and social care can work in isolation. Professional health and social team members should attend the same training session so as to improve their IP team collaboration. Her character is mostly confused to be that of a person who is very strict and stern with all aspects of her life. This indeed helps to illuminate on the kind of character that we expect her to have.

The issue again could be that her superego dominates over the other elements of her personality so much that Rachel is uptight and her conscience cannot allow her to indulge in activities that are fun even during vacation.

Rachel does not seem to make decisions or to be in total control of her life. When she gets invited by Calla to attend a revival meeting Rachel goes just to please her best friend not that she really cared what was going to happen at the meeting. Fortunately for Rachel, it is a time she gets to discover herself and start doing things that other normal adults do without feeling guilty about anything. She even gets to fall in love for someone something she had never done all her entire life.

The best thing is that the movie ends when Rachel seems like she is beginning to have a grip of her life and that her own life is beginning to bring meaning to her and excite her as well. Hopefully she found the love of her life where they relocated to.

In the movie ‘Rachel Rachel’, several people are struggling with personality issues. The theory by Freud has helped us to study an individual’s character and to be able to draw a conclusion concerning the level of development of the Id,ego and superego.

My Experience

During my internship at the general ward as a practicing nurse to be, I was able to experience teamwork conflicts. This experience played well during the conference, thus enabling me to learn more from a practical approach. I was also able to share my experience with the other IP team members. I also learnt important aspects of IP communication and working that are integral to the success of IP collaboration. These include, not using jargons, listening whenever other team members are talking, questioning assumptions sensibly, promoting the rights and dignity of IP team members. There are certain terms that adult nurses will use which cause confusion and ambiguity, thus making others who assume the meaning of jargons to error.

On the other hand, I would also learn to resolve ethical issues within my IP team. Certain ethical issues are bound to affect the IP collaboration within my working teams. I would therefore respect other IP team member’s ethical standing and approach any indifference with a voice of reason in a bid to drive sense into the team member’s understanding. Indeed, most of the team members agreed to the fact that discrimination was indeed a shared concern.

During my internship, I watched a patient walk in with his girlfriend. It was evident that from the start, the doctor on call could not give effective direction and as if this was not enough, the doctor could not take a leadership role and advice the girlfriend to calm down. I believe as a future adult nurse, I would have tackled this situation with more wit. My first step would have been to take control of the situation and give the patient options with the benefits of each. This would have given more insight to the girlfriend and reduce the conflict.

I would also initiate active communication with the rest of the adult nurses for consultation in privacy. Interprofessional education would have enabled me to effectively initiate communication with my team members, thus taking control of the situation in good time. As an adult nurse, every patient’s condition is important since my core value is to preserve life.

I have also learnt the effectiveness of working in partnership with the patients through listening and responding to their concerns. I have also learnt that it would be important to consult with the patients regarding their treatment and care before commencing such. While reflecting this experience, I shall work closely with my team members as an adult nurse and constantly communicate with the relevant authorities and IP team members for quality health and social care delivery.

I truly acknowledge that I would need a succinct understanding of teamwork and modern approaches towards health and social solutions. As a future adult nurse, I will always ensure that I initiate effective communication with the rest of my IP team members so as to work together for the common good of the patients. The experience that I learnt was indeed useful as it would enable me to effectively become a successful adult nurse who would stand out from the rest. The person-centred approach was particularly imperative in ensuring that I am able to understand the genesis of multi-disciplinary teamwork.

I indeed acknowledge that issues relating to patient care should be approached with interprofessional teamwork so that each medical practitioner offers advice in his or her area of professional knowledge while ensuring that they work as a team.

My experience at the multi-disciplinary conference would enable me to become a successful adult nurse who values teamwork and professional collaboration. This conference has also enabled me to have a clear picture of what medical professionals go through and what can be done to avert such challenges. I now feel adequately capable of tacking these challenges that my career as an adult nurse will provide. I have also learnt to take into account the views of other people when making important decisions. Indeed issues of race, gender, class and sexuality among others should not affect multi-disciplinary teamwork. Cultural and social differences should not be construed as effective barriers to IP teamwork. As a future adult nurse, the conference was a brainstorming session which expanded my experience.

I was also able to learn that certain general terms used by patients to refer to their illness may indeed cause great confusion among professional health and social care practitioners. These are referred to as stereotypes. In such a situation, the health and social professional practitioner should consult the other members of his or her IP group or team so as to come up with the proper interpretation thus limit errors in the treatment of the patient’s condition. Synergy model of nursing supports this argument and calls for more consultation in the treatment of the patient.

The group discussion on IP education enabled me to visualize the reality between theory and practice. The patient-centred perspective was clearly illuminated by the patient’s voice presentation. The exclusion of IP working has been seen in collaborative treatment. Decisions made by individual inexperienced doctors have been tragic. The case of Victoria Climbie and Baby Peter can best illuminate this when Baby Tiffany passed on due to negligence. Findings from this tragic situation enabled doctors and nurses to establish a framework that saw the prevention of such situations. It was agreed that IP teams would not be able to prevent the occurrence of every tragic incidence. Some would indeed be inevitable. Hence, I was able to learn the value of communication and collaboration in the build up to my career as an adult nurse.

Calla also seems to be struggling with her sexuality. She is a lesbian but before the Christian revival she cannot confess her feelings to Rachel because of the society’s views on the subject but after the meeting everyone is feeling like they can open up and that is when she openly tells Rachel of her feelings even though she is turned down.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that the three elements that make up someone’s personality are very crucial in molding the character of someone and greatly influence what someone turns into when they are adults. We should therefore strive to help the Id, ego and superego to grow well and the ego especially should be nurtured to surpass the other two in dominance, because as research has shown for a sound thinking adult, the ego should dominate. As much as this may not be achieved in all people, those who hang around children should motivate them so that they do not have problems in adulthood in identity or of self-esteem like was the case of Rachel and Calla. Rachel’s super-ego is something to reckon with though at times she seems to be not confident enough to tackle the situation at hand. She stands out as a she-wolf, always seizing any opportunity that comes her way.