This second edition of Helping in Child Protective Services: A Competency-Based Casework Handbook is a comprehensive desk reference that serves as both a daily guide for workers and a training tool for supervisors and administrators. This invaluable resource provides CPS workers with the knowledge and skills necessary to assist vulnerable families, covering such key issues as assessment, decision making, intervention, child development, medical evaluation, accountability, and the legal framework of culturally responsive practice.
This handbook equips CPS professionals and students to follow the casework process from intake through case closure with step-by-step instructions and examples. Chapters cover child development, key developmental milestones, and the importance of intervention; medical evaluation of child abuse and neglect; how to structure interviews and phrase questions to obtain information from families and guide the casework process; and the importance of accountable practice to families, their agencies, and the public.
This latest edition of Helping in Child Protective Services compiles the most up-to-date research and practice information to help professionals provide the highest quality and most innovative services to children and families.
Helping in Child Protective Services is an outstanding tool for new and experienced caseworkers, students, and those who are responsible for the education, supervision, and professional development of front-line child protection staff. Skillfully integrating the most current research in the areas of the law, medical evaluation, and family-based casework practice, this is an essential guide to the state-of-the-art interventions available to today's child protective service workers."- Jan McIntosh, MSW, LCSW, Child Welfare Administrator, Denver Department of Human Services, and Faculty, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Department of Social Work
