English - Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies

“I felt judged by the workers. I knew I
was physically not at my best. I had
lost weight and was shaky due to the
stress and strain. I felt that they were
assuming I was addicted.”
- Focus group participant
identity and may further uphold cultural stereotypes. Parents also described workers
as biased when they were told that staying together would result in losing their
children. Some women wanted to both stay in the relationship and to establish safety.
The challenge for child welfare professionals is to balance the desire and intent of a
woman to keep her family intact and also help build safety for that family.
Each person is socialized to acquire the habits, beliefs and knowledge of his/her
society. Socialization occurs in institutions such as schools, families, communities of
worship, and the media. The socialization process is essential
to the survival of a society, as individuals learn societal norms.
At the same time, however, many longstanding negative
messages can be passed on through socialization.
Individuals also develop their own attitudes and beliefs.
Having some knowledge of your own value system is
critical as it profoundly influences how you do your
work. An awareness of your value system is important in
understanding and preventing harm in the families with
whom you are working.
In their approach to casework, Turnell & Edwards (1999) list 12 core principles in the
helping relationship. The first one is to “respect service recipients as people worth
doing business with.” Child welfare professionals need to be able to maintain a
position that the family is capable of change and be open minded as to how they will
help the family build safety.
A child welfare professional’s ability to help can be compromised by holding an
attitude or belief that the service user is unable to change. In some communities there
may be families who have previous contact with child welfare and where, as an
individual, you may have seen a number of recurring situations. Employing a
strengths based approach to service delivery will assist child welfare professionals to
respect the family and believe in their ability to change.
ACKNOWLEDGING THE POWER OF THE CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM
“Child welfare workers need to learn the
power of being a worker.” “They need
to learn how to work with the families,
not over them and judge them.” “CAS
workers have power that they can
abuse.” - Focus group participants
The child welfare system has a great deal of power; with that
power comes a great deal of responsibility. Parents are fearful
because child welfare professionals can assume authority and
control for decisions that the parents would normally make.
In some cases, strangers (foster parents) have control over
parents’ decisions with respect to their children. Assessing
the risk without prejudice or influencing thought is critical
in child protection work. To build a trusting relationship, it is
critical that child welfare professionals make safety and risk
assessment decisions based on observation and fact, and not
on personal prejudices.
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