This book identifies a number of topics that arise in child protection where assessments of individual families are required. The author opines that it is essential to use structured instruments when making assessments on complex topic about risk to reduce bias and to maximise objectivity. The author summarises criteria that are required for an assessment instrument to be viewed by scientists as being objective. The book proposes that introducing more objective assessment instruments into the field of child protection will: improve the focus and brevity of assessment reports; and enable setting of thresholds that distinguish between families who provide good-enough parenting from families who should be referred for parenting education, and from parents who are unfit parents. The author identifies a number of topics that commonly arise in cases where maltreatment of children is alleged, reviews literature, and proposes checklists that can be used to gather data and to form a basis for developing validated assessment instruments for use in child protection. The topics identified are relevant both to therapists as parenting practices can be changed using focused therapy, and for legal assessment purposes as topics have been shown to be related to legal concerns about the safety and welfare of children. The overall aim of this book is to encourage greater use of scientific assessment approaches in the field of child protection.

Informs other countries about initiatives occurring in Australia due to the Australian Government's progressive attitude Aims to be a practice manual to help other therapists enter this important but complex field of work Aims to inform family lawyers about relevant developments in psychology

Autorentext

Dr. Don Tustin is a clinical psychologist working in Adelaide, Australia. He has worked for 25 years with vulnerable families where children are at increased risk of maltreatment and mental health disorders because their parents use parenting practices that are inadequate to meet all of the needs of the child. Dr. Tustin has worked in a community mental health team for adults where 30% of clients were parents whose parenting practices were affected when the parent experienced an episode of mental illness including depression, anxiety and mood disorder. Dr. Tustin received two grants to deliver interventions for parents with a mental illness. An innovative collaborative approach was used, where a mental health clinician and an in-home parenting coach worked cooperatively with parents and their children to improve dynamics in the family. Dr. Tustin has presented to World Congresses on Children's Rights about treatment reports submitted to courts.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2.Cognitive biases and risk assessment.- 3. Steps in constructing a psychometric assessment instrument.- 4. Screens to assess children's mental wellbeing and resilience.- 5. Trauma and clusters of children's disturbed behaviours.- 6. New generation approaches to assess parent-child relationships.- 7. Example of assessment of parent-child relationship.- 8. Personality Assessment Inventory testing in Family Court evaluations.- 9. Parenting Capacity Instrument for child protection.- 10. Proposed criteria for good-enough parenting in vulnerable families.- 11. Example of assessing parenting capacity for a parent with depression.- 12. Example of assessing parenting capacity for a parent with bipolar disorder.- 13. Example of assessing parenting capacity for a parent with substance misuse disorder.- 14. Assess severity of risk to child from parental health conditions.- 15. Hearing the voice of a child, and thresholds for making legal decisions.- 16. Assess impacts on child of exposure to family violence.- 17. Assess impacts on child of parental substance misuse.- 18. Assess parental readiness to change practices.- 19. Assess quality of parent-child contact in out-of-home care.- 20. Assess risk of domestic violence.- 21: Conclusion.- 22. Glossary.