Partnership and Intervention in Dealing with Child Abuse Prevention

Fact Sheet 4 in a series of 5
August 2002

Focus on Parent Strengths

"In working in partnership, you need patience and perseverance and mutual respect for different ways of doing things. What we need to have in common are the visions and goals. Trust is key." - A Think Tank participant

Fundamental Ingredients

Successful intervention in situations where child abuse is a possibility or a reality includes:

Relationship building

"We emphasize equalizing relationships. On our Boards we put parents and Child Welfare agents at the same table."- A Think Tank participant

Strength-based focus to accomplish change in social paradigm

"We can engage in a different way so [parents are] more a part of the process — focus on their strengths — and don't just use threats to motivate them." - A Think Tank participant

Training and peer mentorship

"It's not so much the programs or services that are most important — it's the relationship developed with people that promotes change." - A Think Tank participant

Where Do We Start?

Build Relationships

Work on relationship building with: parents and families; collaborative partnerships with social agencies; government officials and funding sources; and people and groups with power in the community. Successful programs:

• Identify power sources in the community and actively go after a positive relationship. For example, the public support of local business people can be a valuable asset to building legitimacy and promoting the value of the program. It is also important to network with the formal system, that is, treat the government as a community partner in the work.
• Take into account the cultural realities and organizational dynamics of each agency/community.
• Understand that parents are more than clients. They are participants in the partnership.
• Support open, regular communication and feedback with partners.

Create Open and Inclusive Programs

It is key to remember that the abuser may have been abused. Services must recognize that the entire family is in a healing process. Being family-focussed is protective and preventative, not reactive. Projects have to be ready and willing to challenge practices, rules and attitudes if assumptions are wrong. An option is to recruit foster homes for entire families, not just the children.

Supportive intervention focuses on strengths. Parents should sit on boards/coalitions, be a part of the decision-making process, and be treated as valued people. They should get the message that they have it in themselves to change. Programs should:

• involve children and their parents so that parents can learn to do child-focussed activities.
• be set in a non-threatening environment so all feel welcome to attend.
• be culturally and linguistically appropriate.
• promote tolerance, honesty, respect and openness.

Educate Staff and Participants

Staff have to be educated about child abuse prevention issues and helped to identify their own biases and behaviours that can have a negative impact on their ability to intervene effectively. Examples of effective training include:

• abuse prevention programs introduced with an awareness and appreciation of parental fears.
• participants, such as people who are FAS affected, in staff training process.
• peer mentoring programs.

Challenges

Specific challenges to building partnerships in the effort to prevent child abuse involve:

• underlying assumptions, values, beliefs, and perceptions.
• power - inequalities in partnerships.
• legislative, jurisdictional, process and inter-agency ‘turf' struggles.
• short-term, politically-expedient thinking, rather than long-term planning and commitment.
• language and cultural sensitivities.
• inexperienced staff.

Keeping on Track

• Agencies and parents have to work together to meet the needs and goals of the family. There is no respect or dignity if the partnership does not exist at all levels.
• Recreational activities, movies, suppers, and other incentive and reward programs that are based on having fun and do not focus on the negative can work well in building supportive intervention relationships.
• Language should emphasize strengths, not problems.
• Peer mentoring programs allow for a high degree of empathy from the outset.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Results of the Literature Review

Child protection agencies are in a difficult bind. Workers are vulnerable to being criticized for either intervening too soon or, in the event of a child being hurt, not intervening soon enough. The challenge is building community capacity to prevent child abuse and to work collaboratively with child welfare organizations. Understanding the context in which families live provides the knowledge and research to support services and programs. Important themes emerge from this context, including:

• the tendency to skirt issues related to poverty, violence, diversity, health, justice, gender and community when dealing with overburdened families.
• child abuse is very much a women's issue as long as a patriarchal society delegates the care of children exclusively to women.
• the growing recognition that parents are not always directly responsible for what becomes of their children.
• the importance of diversity in practice — there must be an historical understanding of child-welfare vis-a-vis Aboriginal Peoples.

Key Messages From the Think Tank

• Tolerance is critical. Staff should deal with what comes in, without implying judgment.
• Non-threatening, non-judgmental language and careful definitions go a long way in taking the threat out of legal obligations.
• Workers can build levels of trust through entry-level tactics such as a toy lending bus or getting involved in family celebrations.
• In-home support, when needed, is more beneficial than support after the crisis has happened.
• Fundamental to community building is the recognition that past practices in child protection need to be challenged.

"The real task, then, is coming up with a conceptual framework that facilitates the paradigm- shift." - A Think Tank participant

The Community Action Program for Children (CAPC) and the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP) support a range of community action programs and services for pregnant women, parents and children living in conditions of risk across Canada. CAPC and CPNP sponsored their first "Think Tank" in Ottawa. To ensure that the outcomes were meaningful to CAPC/CPNP projects, an Advisory committee with representation from projects, as well as regional and national Health Canada staff, designed and shaped the event.

At the Think Tank, representatives from 38 CAPC and CPNP projects came together with community- based participatory researchers to integrate their experience and expertise into four issue papers:

• Maximizing Parental Involvement
• Reaching and Maintaining the Focus Population
• Factors that Contribute to Increased Breastfeeding in the CAPC/CPNP Population.
• Partnership and Intervention in Dealing With Child Abuse Prevention

A fifth paper entitled, Colouring Outside the Lines: An Overview of the CAPC/CPNP Think Tank Process, provides an overview of the experimental model used during the Think Tank.

The key highlights of these five issue papers have also been captured in five fact sheets with the same titles. This fact sheet is the fourth in the series.

Production of this document by the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, has been made possible by a financial contribution from the CAPC/CPNP National Projects Fund, Health Canada.

Permission is granted to photocopy this material provided that the source is acknowledged. Full versions of the issue papers and the fact sheets are available on the Division of Childhood and Adolescence website. Hard copies of the documents can also be obtained by contacting the Division of Childhood and Adolescence at (613) 957-3956.