Tip Sheet for June 2001

Social Workers and Parents Collaborate to Preserve Family

In the June issue of Social Work Research, a publication of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Julia H. Littell, PhD, shows that collaboration and compliance to family preservation services (FPS) result in more stable families with children remaining in the home.

The underlying assumption about family preservation services is that many children could remain at home safely if services were provided earlier and more intensely.

Family preservation services are short-term, intense services to prevent unnecessary out-of-home placements, maintain and strengthen family bonds, increase the family’s coping skills and competencies and to facilitate the family’s use of helping resources.

Out of 2,518 families who entered family preservation services in Illinois, problems were due significantly to parental mental health issues; deficits in child care skills, marital issues, or poverty issues. All of the families had been the subject of one or more substantiated reports of child abuse or neglect. In 18 percent of the cases, at least one child had been removed from the home. Most of the families had young children under two and were single-parent families.

Social workers in family preservation are expected to involve family members in treatment planning and help caregivers provide better care for themselves and their children. In many instances, the social worker and the judge decide case-closings, out-of-home placements etc. In 97 percent of the cases involving permanent removal, the parents were non-compliant. In the court’s eyes, compliance is viewed with the willingness or ability to change, regardless of the outcomes, and noncompliance means lack of improvement.

The results of this study show that greater collaboration between social worker and parent in treatment planning predicts better compliance with the program expectations and greater compliance is associated with a reduction in the likelihood of future child abuse or neglect.

Reference

Julia H. Littell, "Client participation and outcomes of intensive family preservation services," Social Work Research, Vol 25, No. 2.

Dating Violence Prevention Programs Should be Implemented in Middle Schools

Sexual assaults of youth ages 12-17 are more likely to be committed by a peer acquaintance than by family or strangers, according to a US Department of Justice Bulletin on Children as Victims published in May 2000. It’s important then, that dating violence prevention programs are integrated into any violence prevention programs in schools.

In a study published in the June issue of Social Work Research—a journal of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW)—authors Arlene N. Weisz, PhD and Beverly M. Black, PhD of Wayne State University School of Social Work found that a dating violence prevention program influenced the knowledge, attitudes and the use of appropriate behavior to solve conflicts in a dating relationship for the students of an urban middle school.

Weisz says, "Schools focus on peer violence such as bullying or arguing among same sex rather on violence between youth involved in a dating relationship," She adds that violence between youth may not take place on school grounds but that it is influenced by the youth culture at school.

The program was integrated in an after school program and was twelve sessions long with a 6 month follow-up. The program consisted of information about sexual harassment, gender roles and physical violence dynamics. The course also emphasized the consequences of using violence in interpersonal relationships. The interactive curriculum included lectures, modeling, role-plays and discussions that enabled students to see how the knowledge and skills applied to every day life.

Based on the information collected from the study, the authors feel that there is a real need to develop more intensive sexual assault and dating violence prevention programs for adolescents. This program was effective in increasing knowledge and improving attitudes about dating violence. Effects of the training were maintained through the 6-month follow-up.

Black and Weisz say that most important is that parents and teachers have an on-going dialogue with youth about relationship issues.

According to Black, "Youth often turn to their peers for advice about dangerous intimate partner relationship dilemmas, but their peers are poorly qualified to help them."

Weisz adds, "Kids need to feel comfortable to approach their parents for help about these issues. Dialogue is important because parents should find out what youth think and not just lecture. Kids today are struggling with many issues relating to violence in relationships even if they are not talking about them. Parents also need to be aware of the consistency of their children’s views about relationships and their actual behaviors in relating to others."

Reference

Arlene N. Weisz and Beverly Black, "Evaluating a sexual assault and dating violence prevention program for urban youths," Social Work Research, Vol 25, No 2.

HIV/AIDS Prevention Programs Useful for At-Risk Youth

At the 20-year anniversary of HIV/AIDS, drug cocktails are keeping people alive longer and many have become complacent with practicing safe sex. For youth in their early teens, they are too young to know what HIV meant before drugs kept people alive. Many of these teens are sexually active and not necessarily safe. At-risk youth—those experiencing social difficulties, juvenile delinquents, abused and neglected children, runaways and homeless children—are at a high risk for contracting the virus. Intervention and prevention programs implemented specifically for this age-group and highlighting what the HIV virus would mean in relation to life goals proves to be effective in raising knowledge about HIV/AIDS and adjusting their behavior to practice safer sex.

A study published in the June issue of Social Work Research—a publication of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW)—found that intervention had a significant impact on the behavior of these adolescents. Author Vered Slonim-Nevo, DSW says that a long-term model based on cognitive-behavior with a session on life options and future aspirations and their relationship to HIV/AIDS prevention provided the adolescents with more knowledge and better coping skills.

The sessions provided the adolescents with a pre-test which tested their knowledge of the disease. The intervention portion of the sessions consisted of information about the disease, future aspirations, and use of condoms, and safer sexual activity. After two months, the adolescents received a booster session in which the material was reviewed. At a 12-month follow-up session, the adolescents were more likely to practice safer sex, had more knowledge about HIV/AIDS, a positive attitude toward prevention, and were able to apply the learned coping skills.

Reference

Vered Slonim-Nevo, "The effects of HIV/AIDS prevention intervention for Israeli adolescents in residential centers: Results at 12-month follow-up," Social Work Research, Vol 25 No 2.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in Washington, DC, is the largest membership organization of professional social workers with 153,000 members. It promotes, develops and protects the practice of social work and social workers. NASW also seeks to enhance the well being of individuals, families and communities through its work and through its advocacy.

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