Parenting Support

Families will require support when faced with problems they are unable to overcome on their own. Ideally support should come from existing networks, such as extended family, religious leaders, and neighbours. Where such support is not available or sufficient, additional family and community services are required. Such services are particularly important for kinship, foster and adoptive caretakers, and child headed households in order to prevent separation and address abuse and exploitation of children. It is also vital for children affected by HIV/AIDS and armed conflict, and those children living on the street.

Parenting support services are typically provided by social and community paraprofessionals. They focus on the individual needs of a child or family, in order to address and overcome issues which may lead to family separation or harm to the child. Such services should be provided within the context of case planning, beginning with an assessment of the child and family situation. By assessing the need first, an appropriate set of services can be offered, such as day care provision, parenting support, household economic strengthening, or psychosocial referral.

Day care services are particularly important for caretakers who are overwhelmed as a result of ill health, cannot provide adaquate care because they need to work, or who are isolated within the community. It provides an excellent opportunity for children to socialise with others, and can offer additional protection and education.

Parenting support provides caretakers with an opportunity to talk about their difficulties, and learn additional techniques for meeting their child’s developmental and relationship needs. It can enable caretakers to cope with behavioural problems, and address abusive parenting techniques, thereby reducing the need for family separation and improving the incidence of successful family reunification.

The literature in this section contains information on family support programmes for vulnerable children, including day care and parenting support.

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Opening Doors for Young Parents

Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2018

This report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation reminds policymakers and child advocates in the US of the barriers that young families face. It examines national and state-level trends — highlighting areas of opportunity and concern — and then shares potential solutions that can help these families thrive.

Trauma Responsive Child Welfare Systems

Virginia Strand and Ginny Sprang, 2018

This comprehensive reference offers a robust framework for introducing and sustaining trauma-responsive services and culture in child welfare systems.

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2018 Prevention Resource Guide: Keeping Children Safe and Families Strong in Supportive Communities

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau - Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, Child Welfare Information Gateway, & the FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention, 2018

The 2018 Prevention Resource Guide was designed to support service providers as they work with families to promote child well-being and prevent child maltreatment.

“It's our children!” Exploring intersectorial collaboration in family centres

Ingunn Skjesol Bulling & Berit Berg - Child & Family Social Work, 2018

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study based on in‐depth interviews and participant observation in 3 Norwegian family centres.

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Parent-to-Parent Tips for Visits

Rise Magazine, 2018

This video from Rise Magazine features tips from parents who have had their children placed in foster care in the U.S. to other parents in the same situation on how to handle visits with their children in the care system.

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Doing Child-Protection Social Work with Parents: What Are the Barriers in Practice?

David Wilkins & Charlotte Whittaker - The British Journal of Social Work, 28 Dec 2017

For many social workers, participatory practice may seem an unachievable goal, particularly in the field of child protection. This paper discusses a significant programme of change in one London local authority, as part of which the authors undertook 110 observations of practice and provided more than eighty follow-up coaching sessions for workers.

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Foster parents exposed to political violence: The role of social support in addressing emotional and functional difficulties

Ohad Gilbar, Rami Benbenishty, Miriam Schiff, Rachel Dekel - Children and Youth Services Review, 24 Dec 2017

The first goal of this study was to describe posttraumatic symptoms (PTS) and problems in functioning among foster parents following their exposure to the war.

Peer mentoring services, opportunities, and outcomes for child welfare families with substance use disorders

Ruth A. Huebnera, Martin T. Hallb, Erin Smeadc, Tina Willauerd, Lynn Posze - Children and Youth Services Review, 10 Dec 2017

This is a prospective study of 28 family mentors providing peer recovery support services to 783 families with child maltreatment and parental substance use disorders (SUD) over 8 years in a family-centered integrated program with SUD treatment providers.

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What kind of family support can avert looming care system crisis?

Neil Puffett - Children & Young People Now, 09 Dec 2017

Record rise in number of care applications has prompted England's most senior family court judge to warn of a looming “crisis”.

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“I did not know there was another life”: Meanings of life in the out-of-home Mothers Unit reunification programme

Dafna Tener, Yoa Sorek, Ella Schwartz - Child and Family Social Work, 07 Dec 2017

The current qualitative study examines the lived experiences of the women and children in the Mothers Unit from the subjective perspective of the women currently or previously involved in the programme and of the professionals working with them.

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