Parent Peer Advocacy, Mentoring, and Support in Child Protection: A Scoping Review of Programs and Services.

Objective: Parent peer advocacy, mentoring, and support programs, delivered by parents with lived child protection (CP) experience to parents receiving CP intervention, are increasingly recognized internationally as inclusive practices that promote positive outcomes, but little is known about what shared characteristics exist across these types of programs and what variations may exist in service delivery or impact. This scoping review examines 25 years (1996-2021) of empirical literature on these programs to develop a systematic mapping of existing models and practices as context for program benefits and outcome achievement. Method: Studies were selected using a systematic search process. The final sample comprised 45 publications that addressed research on 24 CP-related parent peer advocacy and support programs. Data analysis explored how programs were studied and conceptualized and examined their impact on parents, professionals, and the CP system. Results: Substantial variation in program settings, target populations, aims, advocate roles, and underlying theoretical frameworks were identified. Across program settings, existing empirical evidence on impact and outcomes also varied, though positive impacts and outcomes were evident across most settings. Conclusions: Findings from this review highlight the need to account better for parent peer advocacy and support program variations in future practice development to ensure alignment with inclusive and participatory principles and goals. Future research is also needed to address current knowledge gaps and shed light on the impact of these differences on individual, case, and system outcomes.

Wanna grab some dinner? Social relations between helping professionals and members of community mental health or other human service organizations.

PURPOSE: Could practitioners and members (consumers) of mental health or other organizations interact socially by regularly going out for drinks or dinner together, for example? The American Psychological Association explicitly states for example, "your psychologist shouldn't also be your friend." However such social interactions have occurred for decades in certain clubhouse-modeled community mental healthcare, and maybe research and a more balanced perspective is warranted. DESIGN/METHOD: We interviewed six clubhouse staff that interact socially with members and held three focus groups with 20 members. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: In relation to what we call a social interaction policy, we herein highlight: (a) four policy dimensions (e.g. activity types; relationship closeness); (b) a spectrum of policy challenges (e.g., dealing with romantic overture; feelings of exclusion or hurt and effects on mental health; symptom flare-up while out socializing; financial constraints of members such as dinner costs on limited incomes); and (c) a wide variety of policy benefits such as: (a) learning opportunities for members who can process with staff the ups and downs of social relationships; (b) social skill and network development; (c) enhanced assessment across different times/settings; (d) addressing stigma among staff who must grapple with internal resistance to spend free time with members; (e) enrichment of staff social life; (f) reducing internalized stigma among members when staff value them more holistically; and (g) empowerment of members when staff freely (and optionally) offer a valuable resource (spare time). We offer suggestions for certain types of agencies that may wish to implement social interaction policies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The longitudinal effects of maltreatment class membership on post-traumatic stress & depression.

BACKGROUND: While the link between maltreatment and mental illness has been largely established, there is a need to better understand how certain types or profiles of maltreatment place youth at heightened risk for depression and traumatic stress, and when the risk of developing symptoms may be greatest. OBJECTIVE: We examined the extent to which youth experiences of maltreatment co-occur and how certain combinations of maltreatment work to influence the subsequent development of depression and post-traumatic stress over time. PARTICIPANTS & SETTING: Data were drawn from NSCAW-II, a nationally representative longitudinal sample of 5872 child welfare involved youth, aged 0-18. METHODS: Latent Class Analysis was used to investigate profiles of child maltreatment. We then used a longitudinal three-wave panel design to examine whether membership in various maltreatment classes predicted development of depression and post-traumatic stress measured at two future time points. RESULTS: Three classes emerged: Class 1 (68 %) the "Neglect and Adverse Parental Behaviors Class", Class 2 (20 %) the "Physical Abuse Class", and Class 3 (12 %) the "Sexual Abuse Class". Membership in Class 2 increased depression and trauma symptoms at Wave 2, compared to Class 1 (b = 1.8 and 1.4, respectively; p < 0.05). Membership in Class 3 increased trauma symptoms at Wave 3, compared to Class 1 and Class 2 (b = 2.3 and 2.7, respectively; p < 0.01). IMPLICATIONS: Child welfare involved youth need to be appropriately screened for psychiatric health annually and provided with services that correspond with their level of need.

Relative importance of caregiver characteristics for future alcohol consumption in youth involved with child welfare system.

BACKGROUND: Adolescents involved with child welfare system are disproportionately at risk for underage drinking. Little empirical evidence has informed interventions targeting child welfare caregivers to prevent alcohol consumption among adolescents involved with the system. METHODS: The present study addressed this gap by examining modifiable caregiver characteristics most predictive of future underage drinking in a cohort of adolescents (N = 1205) in a nationally representative child welfare dataset. We used dominance analyses to examine direct contributions of each caregiver predictor to the overall variance of future alcohol use. This is the first study to apply the reputable Turrisi and Jaccard (2001) framework of familial processes affecting underage drinking to the child welfare population. RESULTS: Findings highlight the role of caregiver-adolescent relational quality and communications for predicting underage alcohol use, and downplay the role of caregiver monitoring. CONCLUSIONS: Child welfare service systems may help prevent underage drinking by systematically training and motivating caregivers to foster trusting, helping relationships and regular communications with the adolescents in their care.

Depression and Service Use Among Caregivers Dually Involved in the Child Welfare and Mental Health Systems.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of depression, use of mental health services, and correlates of service use among caregivers who are dually involved in the child welfare and child mental health systems. METHODS: This study analyzed baseline data from 129 caregivers who reported child welfare system involvement and were participating in a Multiple Family Group service delivery model to reduce childhood disruptive behavior disorders. RESULTS: Seventy-eight (60.5%) of caregivers met or exceed the clinical-cut off for depression; of them 50 (64.1%) reported utilizing mental health services for their emotional health. Race, employment status, and CES-D score were significantly associated with lifetime mental heath services use. DISCUSSION: Depression rates exceeded those found among caregiver involved in either the child welfare or child mental health systems. Rates of service use were higher than found in existing research. As expected, racial differences and depression were associated with service use; contrary to expectations, full time employment was not associated with service use. Discrepancies between this study and existing research are discussed, as are practice, policy, and research implications.

Delinquency, depression, and substance use disorder among child welfare-involved adolescent females.

Although adolescents with delinquency are known to have higher-than-average rates of depression or substance use disorder (SUD), research on the topic is inconsistent. It remains unclear weather depression or SUD leads to delinquency, whether delinquency leads to depression or SUD, or whether there is bi-directionality. Utilizing the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (Wave I: 2008-2009; Wave II: 18 months later: N=5872), we used logistic regression to predict depression from delinquency (and vice versa), and SUD from delinquency (and vice versa). After inclusion of control variables, we found that females with minor theft in Wave I were more than 4 times as likely (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=4.34; 95% CI: 1.10-17.16) as females without minor theft to be depressed in Wave II, and those with public disorder in Wave I were almost 3 times as likely (aOR=2.74; 95% CI: 1.03-7.30) as those without public disorder to have SUD in Wave II. Overall delinquency also predicted depression or SUD, and SUD predicted delinquency. Practitioners could address risk for depression or SUD among child welfare-involved adolescent females by focusing on overall delinquency or on specific types of delinquency (minor theft for depression and public disorder for SUD) and by offering interventions (e.g., cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy) that have been shown to be effective in preventing depression or SUD. In addition, with respect to our finding that SUD predicts delinquency among adolescent females, practitioners can help prevent delinquency by offering interventions (e.g., intensive outpatient treatments) that have well documented effectiveness in addressing SUD.

Parent representation model in child safety conferences.

Child welfare-involved parents are often isolated and lack support and skills to navigate complex systems. Programs using a parent representation service model in child protection can offer an exceptional and critical form of support and empowerment to birthparents, promote parental engagement and cooperation, and teach system navigation skills. While there is a notable emphasis on an overall family-centered and strength-based approach in child welfare, much progress is still needed in giving voice to parents, empowering them, including them in decisionmaking about the case, and seeking their cooperation. Funding should be directed to recruiting more parent representatives to assist birthparents in their communities as well to educating and training child protective services workers by transferring values and strategies implemented by parent representatives. Although additional research is certainly necessary, it appears that programs such as the Child Welfare Organizing Project in New York City may be an important step toward building partnerships with families impacted by the child welfare system in promoting child safety, well-being, and permanency.

Differential program evaluation model in child protection.

Increasingly attention has been focused to the degree to which social programs have effectively and efficiently delivered services. Using the differential program evaluation model by Tripodi, Fellin, and Epstein (1978) and by Bielawski and Epstein (1984), this paper described the application of this model to evaluating a multidisciplinary clinical consultation practice in child protection. This paper discussed the uses of the model by demonstrating them through the four stages of program initiation, contact, implementation, and stabilization. This organizational case study made a contribution to the model by introducing essential and interrelated elements of a "practical evaluation" methodology in evaluating social programs, such as a participatory evaluation approach; learning, empowerment and sustainability; and a flexible individualized approach to evaluation. The study results demonstrated that by applying the program development model, child-protective administrators and practitioners were able to evaluate the existing practices and recognize areas for program improvement.

Parent engagement in child safety conferences: the role of parent representatives.

Parent engagement is a critical and challenging task of child welfare, and meaningful parent engagement in a dialogue, service planning, and acceptance of services is even more challenging in the context of non-voluntary child protection. This study described and examined the parent representation model that made use of parent representatives in engaging birthparents during child safety conferences in child protection. The findings identified the barriers to parental engagement and determined factors promoting engagement. Implications of this model are discussed.

Evaluating multidisciplinary child abuse and neglect teams: a research agenda.

A review of child welfare research literature reveals used to investigate and intervene in child abuse and neglect cases, the field does not know enough about their structural variations, implementation processes, or effectiveness. Moreover, although articles advocating multidisciplinary teams enumerate their apparent strengths, they lack attention to the teams' possible weaknesses. The article discusses implications for future evaluation studies.