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He encourages the parents to become highly dependent on him by
supplyingunderstanding, empathy, assistance,support, and confidentiality
which leads to trust ; and
he establishes a degree of control over a family situation where there
are serious fundamental problems.
These parents need someone to reach out to them. The child abuse is explained by the
social worker as being accepted as non-accidental injury. Parents are confronted and
encouraged to ventilate. These parents often refuse help, use denial and are
aggressive.
Pickett and Maton (1978 : 16) emphasized the importance of reaching out to the
whole family in order to make a reliable diagnosis and to evaluate the therapeutic
potential. The most important point is to determine whether or not home conditions
are safe for the child. Ifthe child is removed he may not be returned to parents who
have not been treated, or if there is any doubt about his safety in the family. Pickett
emphasized in a lecture to the Non-Accidental Injury Committee in December 1980
that if there is any danger to the child and no hope of rehabilitating the parents they
must be told that the removal is permanent (McKay 1983).
According to McKay (1983) the following criteria are important when a social worker
(and hopefully a team) has to decide whether or not to remove a child, either
temporarily or permanently:
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The nature and severity of the injuries. Gross injuries, severe
malnutrition, neglect and rejection indicate that removal is necessary
and perhaps permanent. A history ofrepeated injuries,evenifminor, are
an ominous indication of the severity of abuse and poor prognosis.
The nature and extent ofthe psychopathology present in the family must
be determined. The degree of denial. accompanied by hostility, a