Care and protection

Child Youth and Family Services

Introduction

This article is based on a family whom I worked with during my fieldwork placement with Child Youth and Family Services (CYFS) Grey Lynn site. For the purposes of this assignment I shall refer to the clients and all other people involved with pseudonyms, so as to maintain their confidentiality and abide by the Privacy Act as well as the Policy and Procedure Manual of the organisation.

Significant moves have been initiated since 1980’s in New Zealand to create greater participation between the government and the community in a bid to reduce family violence and child abuse. Cooperation among the different sectors such as the police, Child Youth and Family Services, The Preventing Violence in Homes (PVH) and other community agencies boosted the initiatives such as “breaking the cycle” funded by CYFS. This initiative provides alternatives to physical abuse towards children as well as changes in legislation such as “the Domestic Violence Act (1995), which according to Connolly (2001) has made it easier to obtain protection orders and especially recognises the impact on children who witness violence between their caregivers, making it easier for caregivers to gain protection orders on those grounds.

Child Youth and Family Service (CYFS)

CYFS is a statutory organization with its main function being driven from Section 14 of the children, Young persons and their Families Act 1989. According to Connolly (2001), the Department of Child Youth and Family Services identifies its clients as children and young persons at risk from abuse and neglect. The children, Young persons and their Families Act 1989 defines children and young persons in need of care and protection as those who are experiencing or likely to experience harm and includes such things as:

Physical or sexual abuse
Violence or conflict between their caregivers (usually parents)
Emotional or physical neglect
Behaviour which is beyond their, or their caregivers control
Lack of stable or adequate care

CYFS has obligations as a statutory organisation to protect children from any abuse and the Care and protection unit responds to vulnerable children by removing such children from unsafe environments be it from parents or caregivers depending on the nature of the notification and concerns raised. However in other circumstances the parents or caregivers of the CYFS’ client (child) are encouraged to identify the way forward in order to solve their current problems and maintain a problem free future for the interest of their child.

Notification and case Intake

This case involves a family of five with Tom and Jane being the parents of James aged 4, John 8 and Joe 10 years old from Avondale suburb. CYFS history record shows that three notifications have been made to CYFS over a span of two years with children care and protection concerns related to domestic violence. This couple has been married for about 11 years and has always had problems. They have separated and reunited several times. Throughout their relationship Tom has been verbally abusive, calling Jane names, criticising her and putting her down. It is alleged that Tom has always monitored Jane’s movements, in terms of what she did with her time and tried to isolate her from family and friends. Tom has in the past made some threats to kill Jane and take the children away. Verbal arguments would escalate with Tom pushing, shoving, kicking and punching Jane. These physical assaults started when Tom stopped working in 2004, he is currently unemployed and does not assist Jane financially with the upbringing of his children. Jane has therefore always worked to pay the bills. Jane stated that Tom has never hurt or threatened to hurt the children, although they have always witnessed many violence incidents.

Significant issues of concerns

This is a preview of the whole essay

Significant issues of concerns

It must be noted that children are affected by domestic violence within their household or around them even if they are not physically hurt themselves. In this case these children were at risk of witnessing continued domestic violence whenever their father assaulted their mother. James aged 4 years old was too young to know how to look after himself by moving away from an incident while the other children aged 8 and 10 had some ability to protect themselves. Clark (2000) argues that the most prominent area of family life is childcare and protection, therefore legal processes and implementation of social policy cannot proceed without the specialist opinion and intervention by social workers. CYFS responded to the notification for the protection of the children while the police were involved to mitigate the continued violence and for the safety of Jane.

Information gathering

The Matamu case was activated and allocated to my supervisor and I was tasked to check CYRAS case management records for related history. I phoned the Plunket Society for the children’s medical history, their schools for information on their behaviour and care concerns and I did a background check on the family with The Preventing Violence in Homes (PVH).

PVH indicated 6 callouts of family violence with Tom being arrested and charged with “male assaults female” and was bailed with conditions not to go to the maternal grandparents’ house or communicate with his victim (Jane). Further to this PVH was following up with Jane to discuss her protection order, the court procedures and further safety plans.

There were no records found with Plunket because the children were registered with the Samoan clinic. The deputy School principal stated that there were no significant concerns on the children’s behaviour and their well being and was happy with Jane’s engagement with the school being supportive and interactive with children’s activities. On the following day I visited Jane and the children at their maternal grandparents’ house to sight their safety, home environment, interview Jane and the maternal grandparents.

Ethical considerations

Jane was facing the possibility of divorce and shared with us that she was scared of the unknown which included change of marital status, raising children on her own, starting a new relationship and the likely effects upon the children of continued conflict between parents and custody arrangements. McKie (2005) argues that the decision for a partner to leave a home, especially when children are involved, is major and life changing. The family violence, emotional abuse, and physical abuse has clearly forced changes and alterations to Jane’s ideal family structure and function. According to Allan and Crow (2001) a large percentage of today’s single parent families are materially disadvantaged, usually having to depend on state benefits to augment their earnings. However if Jane decided to stay and violence continues, CYFS will be expected to protect and provide care for the children through an alternative source of nurturing to bring them safely through the formative years of childhood and adolescence.

Assessment outcome

In recognition of bicultural principles we invited a Samoan social worker to attend and advice us on how to involve Jane’s parents in our assessment. The family appeared receptive to the outside ideas and interventions while still valuing their traditional supports.

From the information gathered the children were deemed safe since they were with their mother at their maternal grandparents’ house in Henderson and Tom the offender was not allowed to communicate with Jane or visit the maternal grandparents’ residence. We acknowledged that the number of callouts made, clearly demonstrated that the children were living in a violent home environment and they were extremely abused as they witnessed their parents fighting or their father hitting their mum most of the time. At this stage Jane did not intend to reconcile with Tom and she felt safe with her parents. Jane’s parents were going to meet with Tom’s family and discuss the interests of their children and mokopuna.

Intervention Plan

The safety of the children and their carer was paramount since children exposed to violence will have either short or long term effects and according to Osofsky (2003) children who are under five years of age are vulnerable to harmful effects of domestic violence because they don’t have a developed capacity to understand or cope with trauma especially on the youngest child James aged 4. Groves (2002) supports this view and also states that the children of abused women are at increased risk of either direct abuse and or witnessing violence therefore we decided to:

To provide Jane and her family with information on restraining orders which are available under the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 to protect children if Tom decided to confront them with regards to accessing the children. O’Hara cited in Saunders (1995) urges that children’s welfare cannot in practice be separated from the question of the safety of their primary carers and this needs to be adequately taken into account when making decisions for child protection and safety.
Arrange a Family Whanau Agreement (FWA) for the extended family participation in the children’s welfare and use law to enforce the agreement. O’Hara sees good practice as very much based upon using the law to empower women and children to protect themselves. For example, the use of laws relating to children access and communication or occupation of the family home to protect children from violence and emotional abuse associated with violence.
Advocate for Jane to have temporary custody of the children and help her to get protection order. This is one of the interventions that focus on removing abusive men from the family in order to protect women and children.
Recommend and support Tom to attend anger management, domestic violence programmes and parenting courses.
To strengthen supports and family networks for Jane and the children, in order to encourage a positive and supportive relationship with grandparents, family friends, older siblings and teachers at school. Jaffe, Baker and Cunningham (2004) refer to this as a resilience factor within the child’s environment to increase their ability to cope.

There are aspects of Task Centred Practice within the FWA, as the model requires a three-month review on goals set within this time frame. In order for the FWA to be effective all parties involved need to acknowledge the problems and the required change.

During the FWA Tom and Jane were given an opportunity to define their problems and this was effective as Tom was able to acknowledge his violent behaviour. Reid and Hanrahan (1981) cited in Trotter (1999) argue that collaborative problem solving involves working with the client’s definition of the problem, developing modest achievable goals which are the client’s rather than the workers and identifying strategies with the client to achieve the goals.

What worked well?

The FWA worked well and the Family Whanau was at the centre of making decisions for their mokopuna. While it was CYFS standpoint to remove the children from the couple if they were to get back together I felt that it was fair for Jane to make the decision in terms of whether she wanted to remain in her current relationship or move out. Trotter (1999) argues that the worker/client relationship includes acceptance of the client as a person (as distinct from their actions), expectation or belief that people can change, empathy or understanding of the client’s feeling and point of view as well as appropriate use of authority and power.

Jane and her three children are currently living with Jane's parents in Henderson with extended family support such as her four brothers, and stepsisters living within the Henderson area. Jane's family is supportive of her and the children and help with the upbringing of the children, providing after school care and offering practical and emotional support.

Supervision reflection

The most challenging time was my induction period when I was under a supervisor who did not encourage participation on my part and left me feeling as if my perspective did not matter at all. I found this period quite stressful given that I was asked visit clients in their homes or conduct supervised access by myself before I had completed my induction. I tried to discuss these issues with her during my supervision sessions, but she wouldn’t acknowledge my concerns since she had the same experience of being thrown into the deep end when she started with CYFS and felt that this was the best way of learning the job.

However in time I was given a new supervisor whom I have been happy with because of his good basic management skills which include helping me on performance issues, decision making, problem solving, planning and giving me regular feedback on my cases. At this ponit I can comfortably say that my CYFS placement has been a major learning experience as regards to working with both clients and staff. I have felt supported by other practitioners and management. It has further emphasised the differences between individual clients and the complexities of working with not only the clients but their families as well. I have learnt to be non judgemental, to understand that an individual’s functioning is based on the circumstances of their lives and that I cannot and should not judge unless I have walked a day in their shoes. Sheafor and Horejsi (2006) suggest that social workers must always remain neutral with regards to client behaviours or decisions that may be socially irresponsible or self-destructive. Any intervention must be done in ways that are non-judgemental and respectful of the client. I agree with this suggestion as I strive to be non-judgemental given my own personal experiences of being judged according to my race for most of my life.

I value my supervision experience with the second supervisor as it has made me a better person both personally and professionally. On a personal level it has made me aware of the impact the environment in which we exist as individuals and as families has on our children. I have had the opportunity to reflect on issues such as parenting, relationships, abuse, substance abuse and many others.

It is evident that as a professional social worker I am required to have and maintain the ability to remain self-aware and client-focussed in whatever the task or setting respecting individuals’ dignity and culture. I also need to acknowledge, understand and respond appropriately to client’s strong feelings including despair, anger, fear or compassion. I have learnt the importance of always working within the prescribed ethical guidelines, utilising the New Zealand Code of ethics (1993).

Having regular supervision sessions has informed my understanding of social work as a profession sanctioned to focus on social functioning and improve the interaction between people and their environment (Sheafor and Horejsi, 2006).

According to the research carried out by Maxwell (1994) of the 528 incidents of family violence reported to the police in the Hamilton area between July 1991 and April 1994 15% of the children were directly involved in some of these incidents by trying to intervene and 6% by seeking help. These statistic helped us to not only focus on the children, but to bring the parents to the negotiating table through the Family Whanau Agreement. Through working with this family I realised that there are many factors associated with violence and the families living in violence have the capacity to change the situation with the help of programmes, counselling and therapy. I also learnt that for effective intervention we needed to ensure that the whole family was completely on board, in terms of understanding the existing problems and realising that their input is required to solve the problems. Using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) we acknowledged that the client was the expert of their own problems and ultimately had the solution to changes in their life with the assistance of the social workers. Ronen in Davies (1998) urges that CBT assists the social worker to focus on the behaviour as opposed to the problem, on the solution as opposed to the difficulties caused by the problem, to think positively, be flexible, to see success as being achieved in small steps that finally lead to significant changes and to look to the future as opposed to trying to ascertain the role played by the past events on the client’s present.

Conclusion

My fieldwork learning experience with CYFS gave me an insight of pragmatic social issues versus social work theories as I worked with child clients using the Child Centred Model. The child centred model focuses on the child safety, security and well being with the intention to eliminate risk factors through involving the child in decision-making or remove that child from the environment if necessary. With the support of my supervisor I developed and managed my professional relationship with the child clients and their parents with high sensitivity to their domestic issues and our interests to their children’s well being. However I also had ethical dilemmas in decision-making as I was always reminded that CYFS’s clients and focus were the children not the parents or caregivers.

References

Connolly, M. (2001) New Zealand Social Work: Contexts and Practice. UK. Oxford University Press

Groves, B.M. (2002). Children who see too much: Lessons from the child witness to violence project. Boston: Beacon Press.

Jaffe, P.G., Baker, L.L., Cunningham, A.J. (2004). Protecting Children from Domestic Violence: Strategies for Community Intervention. New York: The Guildford Press.

Kemshall, H and Pritchard, J (1999) Good Practice in Working with Violence, Jessica Kingley Publishers, London.

McKie, L. (2005) Families, Violence and social change, Two Penn Plaza, New York, USA

New Zealand Association of Social Workers Incorporated. (1993). Code of Ethics. NZ.NZASW

Sheafor B and Horejsi C.R (2006). Techniques and guidelines for social work practice, Pearson Education, USA.

Trotter, C. (1999) Working with Involuntary Clients, Allen and Unwin, Australia

Journals, Publications and articles

Child Youth and Family (2001) An Interagency Guide to Breaking the Cycle: Lets Stop Child Abuse Together. NZ.CYFS

Davies, M. (1998) The Blackwell companion to Social Work, Blackwell, London

Maxwell, G.M. (1994) Children and Family Violence: The Unnoticed Victims, Office of the Commissioner for Children, New Zealand

Osofsky, J.D. (2003). Prevalence of children’s exposure to domestic violence and child maltreatment: implications for prevention and intervention. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 6 (3), 161-170.

Saunders, A. (1995). It hurts me too. Children’s experiences of domestic violence and refuge life. London, UK