Child protection

At the time of discharge, all infants were placed in the homes of relatives or foster parents. In the State of California, a child born withdrawing from drugs or alcohol is considered to be abused and must be reported to child protection agencies (Los Angeles County 1982). Therefore, all the infants reported in this paper... 

Alain Schmitt, bom 1960, studied veterinary medicine and psychology at the University of Vienna and worked there for nine years on animal and human behaviour subjects. Currently, he is a psychologist at a child protection center in Vienna. 

The approach taken by practitioners in dealing with parental drug problems as they impact on child welfare and child protection forms Chapter 9. The nine focus groups convened were each made up of three or four practitioners (n=35). The focus groups were split evenly between health visitors, drug workers and social workers (three groups of each discipline). 

Had they been known about, both instances illustrated above would have been significant child protection concerns. The emotional vulnerability engendered as a result of such unstable patterns of parental contact is just as significant. The following child s description of his disappointment that neither parent consistently comes to see him in foster care is a depressingly flat statement of his low expectations that they will turn up, or even really understand the importance of the visit to him ... 

This chapter considers practitioner responses to parenting and child welfare in the context of drug problems. The increased vulnerabilities of these children and the statutory framework around child protection merits a closer consideration of the ways in which practitioners think about such cases. The key question that informs this discussion is why had so few of the children described in this study been the subject of investigation The interviews with parents, with their children and with grandparents, all indicated... 

I think what an order [child protection order] would do, would allow the worker to put that wee bit of added pressure on the mother saying, Look, we ll expect you to do this and to do that, or to expect you to liaise with us, and if not we have to go back to the [Children s] hearing. ... 

I mean there are certainly policies about child protection issues, there is training and, there is a notion that we ll all adhere to that, but I think we know that that s not necessarily the case. 

What one sees in these responses is a subtle, yet significant, shift away from addressing the immediate child protection issues, to focus on the mother s rationale for increased drug use. The attendant assumption is that given time (next day, next week) the practitioner can address the mother s stress and, in so doing, sort things out for the children. The focus on the mother, however, distracts attention away from the saliency of the child protection concerns. 

A recurrently raised problem for the referring workers (whether drug workers or health visitors) was that in transferring the case to social work, there was the possibility of a different interpretation of how best to respond to the case. Most commonly for drug workers was uneasiness over a narrow focus on a child protection agenda. There was the expressed anxiety that the response might be overly coercive ... 

Children and family social work services in the UK are chronically understaffed the remaining staff are often demotivated and stressed by the volume of work, and the strain of working with difficult, frequently highly conflictual and chronic child protection cases. Many of the drug workers and health visitors expressed their sense of social work as a service in crisis, with extremely limited capacity to respond to anything other than the worst child protection cases, triggered usually by incidents rather than the chronic accumulation of problems ... 

Buckley, H. (2000) Child protection an unreflective practice. Social Work Education 19, 3,253-263. 

Ferguson, H. (2005) Working with violence, the emotions and the pyscho-social dynamics of child protection reflections on the Victoria Climbie Case. Social Work Education 24, 7, 781-795. Forrester, D. (2000) Parental substance misuse and child protection in a British sample a survey of children on the Child Protection Register in an Inner London district office. Child Abuse Review 9, 235-246. 

O Brien, S., Hammond, H. and McKinnon, M. (2003) Report of the Caleb Ness Inquiry. Edinburgh Edinburgh and Lothians Child Protection Committee. 

Potential reasons for noncompliance include resistance to taking medication in either the child, the parent, or both incomplete or poorly understood directions for taking the medication and poor organization of medication administration. In addition, parents or legal guardians may be resistant to treatment if they feel pressured to have the evaluation and treatment provided by outside agencies such as the school, child protective services, or the legal system. 

The opportunity of using this task as my project for the Effective Management course did give me some confidence, however. I have a background of specializing within Children and Families Services, specifically child protection, though part of my responsibilities include an overview of physical... 

The special vulnerability of children should form the basis for development of child-protective policies and risk assessment approaches. A lack of lull proof for causal associations should not prevent efforts to reduce exposures or implement intervention and prevention strategies. 

Some children are exposed to toxic chemicals or to hazardous environments in unique circumstances. There is a need to understand chemical exposures and other health stressors in special settings in the world (child labourers, street children, refugees). Globally, millions of children live under these conditions. Currently, data on children s exposures are inadequate to effectively assess multimedia and multiroute exposures in order to conduct child-protective risk assessments. The limited exposure data that are available have focused on children in developed countries, and information on the levels of chemical exposures in children in developing countries is generally lacking. 

There was a significantly increased prevalence of infection in the infants of cocaine-using mothers. Hepatitis was 42 times more common, syphilis was 15 times as common, and human immunodeficiency vims positivity was 16 times more common (although the overall prevalence was only 0.1%). Exposure to cocaine increased the likelihood of involvement with social services such as child protection agencies. 

Because of Sara s previous cognitive impairment and violent behavior toward her son, the therapist refers her to a physician at the free clinic for immediate attention. The therapist also reports the suspected child abuse to Child Protective Services (CPS). 

What are some of the legal issues inherent in this case How can the collaborative team deal with them There are two key legal issues in this case—child protection and confidentiality. The therapist, Dr. E, addressed the first key issue by immediately reporting the situation to CPS. He set the tone for this referral by talking to the sisters about the need for outside support and help since Sara was a single mother with no health insurance. He framed the call to CPS as a call for help and resources and told CPS about this framing. 

Child protective closures are required for certain medicines, salicylates, paracetamol, iron tablets or capsules and camphor preparations (MCC Circulars 5/80, 9/80 and 10/84). 

Recent policy decision by the Medicines Control Council Child protective measures... 

Childproof packaging of medicines (from Child protection packs compiled by Ciba Geigy, Hoffman la Roche, and Sandoz) Die... 

The FHSA was amended hy the Child Protection Act of 1966, the Child Protection Toy Safety Act of 1969 and the Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970. For the most part, the purpose of these amendments was to strengthen the provisions of the FHSA which apply to toys and other products used hy children. 

Child Protective Services (CPS) will not be able to help the nurse with information regarding the poison. 

This is not the nurse s responsibility. The nurse would report the case to Child Protective Services (CPS), who could call the police if necessary. 

Who has the authority to issue a blanket waiver of the child protection requirement ... 

VI. Treatment of the Intoxication Is based on the clinical effects of the dmg(s) Involved. Assessment and treatment of effects related to Individual drugs Is detailed In Section 11 of this book. In addition, victims often need psychological support and counseling, and the Involvement of law enforcement authorities. If the assault Involves a minor, state law generally mandates reporting to child protective services and law enforcement officials. 

Child Protection—Circular 9/93 Protection of Children Disclosure of Criminal Background of those with Access to Children Circular 10/95 Protecting children from Abuse the role of the Education Service Circular 11/95 Misconduct of Teachers and Workers with Children and Young Persons... 

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