Reflection Paper On Intern

Every year in the United States, hundreds of children and adolescents are taken from their parents and primary caregivers and placed in out-of-home care situations due to issues in their homes and family lives which contribute to unsafe living conditions. These children and adolescents often face many health, behavioral, developmental, and psychological issues.

Foster Care and Adoption are the most multi-faceted areas of child welfare. Foster care consists of placing children outside of the custody of their parents or legal guardians. This out-of-home placement can be temporary or long-term. Adoption on the other hand, consists of the legal and permanent process that establishes a parent/child relationship between individuals not related biologically (Downs, Moore, & McFadden, 2009). These two areas of child welfare are constantly evolving and the decisions made on a child’s behalf can affect many areas of their biological, spiritual, social, and emotional wellbeing.

The chosen population of interest for the course project is children who are placed in foster care. Children in foster care are considered vulnerable due to a variety of reasons for which they are taken away from home and placed in the child welfare system. Foster care children are often removed from their home due to physical abuse, drug exposure, or in some cases due to parental inability to fulfill the child basic necessities. Foster care children are at greater risk of mental, health, and behavioral problems (Lovie, Beadnell, & Pecora, 2015). Case management is an essential part of the care plan to improve the outcomes of the population of interest. Foster care children face additional problems when the health care system is inadequate.

Randall Thigpen is a case manager professional interviewed for this assignment. The introduction and purpose of the interview was done through the phone, but the questionnaire was sent via email. Randall’s official title is Placement Desk Coordinator. Randall provides services to foster care children in the Arapahoe county DHS in Colorado. Although the Randall does not have a nursing degree, eight years of experience working with foster care children was valuable when providing information about the population of interest. Some of the responsibilities include finding a home for children who are removed from their home and their parents or caretakers are regarded as not fit to take care of their children. Other job responsibilities include the supervision of other case workers and to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child in foster care through continuous assessment of the current placement and adjustments as necessary. The following questions were developed and sent to the foster care professional.

I started my reading with the New York Times Magazine article (I could not resist an article from the Times). During my internship, I had an experience where I suggested to a client that she might reach out to Allegheny County Children, Youth, and Families (CYF) for assistance. I could not understand her apprehension. Reading about Marie and her sons gave me an entirely different perspective. When Marie walked into the DCF office pregnant and the department decided to petition the court to claim her sixth child permanently - while still in her womb; made our clients apprehension real.

My field placement will be at Child protective services in El Paso TX. The department of child Protective Services withholds a wide range of services and responsibilities that include, investigating reports of abuse and neglect of children, provide services to children and families in their homes, providing services to help youth in foster care successfully transition to adulthood and helping children find adoption. There are many subdivisions within the department itself which offers different amenities during an open case with CPS, although these services solely justify the department, there is a unit known as Family Based Services or also FBSS which focuses on resources that will strengthen the family’s privation in order to ensure child safety and wellbeing. The Department predominantly benefits from task groups rather than treatment groups, because the department is on deadlines with each individual case, a treatment group would not benefit for the departments ultimate value which is Family Reunification. If the department is involved with a family for too long this may cause emotional distress on the children as well as the family. Every year in the United States, more than one out of every hundred children are victims of substantiated child abuse and neglect. For instance, in 2006, 3.6 million cases of child maltreatment were investigated, which is a rate of 47.8 per 1,000 children. In that year, nearly 1 million maltreatment claims were substantiated

“Visualize Child Protective Services (CPS) walking up to your home to take your children away from you. Now picture this, picture what the children feel like escorted away from their parents left to wonder where they will end up.” Says Larry in the beginning of our interview. “Many children experience these thoughts as they walk out the front door of what they call home.” What can we do to ease the anxiety of these young children taken away from parents? Kinship care is one viable option that can ease the worry for children. However, kinship care is not the only placement for children who are taken away from their homes. Other out-of-home placements include group homes, residential treatments, private child welfare institutions, shelters,

My spring internship with Charles L. Levy Law Firm introduced me to the complexities of children protective services (CPS) cases and contractual law. While working with Mr. Levy on CPS cases, I was able to observe over 30 civil cases at the Waco courthouse and help supervise child visits. I developed a more complete understanding of the importance of CPS cases through attending meetings with caseworkers, investigating suspect parents, and visiting children that had been placed in new homes. Mr. Levy also gave me the opportunity to collaborate on various insurance cases that exposed me to legal materials, such as depositions, that are common in many legal practices. Although tedious at times, helping Mr. Levy with insurance cases was interesting

Foster care is intended to serve as a temporary haven for abused or neglected children who cannot safely remain with their families. However for some children, the journey through foster care is characterized by further trauma and abuse; and even in the best situations, foster care is inherently fraught with uncertainty, instability, and impermanence. The number of children and families who require foster care services has grown substantially over the past two decades, and these families are typically contending with a multitude of complex and interrelated life challenges such as mental illness, unemployment, substance abuse, and domestic violence. Child welfare agencies face chronic organizational challenges that undermine their ability to provide appropriate case management, services, and supports to the children and families in their care. Reports of children being injured while in care thrust the system into crisis and reaction, yet reforms in response to tragedy have generally failed to result in meaningful change.

The school liaisons focus group focused on school stability, teamwork with the home, teamwork with child welfare (CW), and foster youth needs. The agency advocates focus group focused on concerns about the CW education liaison position, foster youth needs, problems dealing with schools, and recommendation for improving services. In the discussion section of the study the discussed how everything went in the study and how the results turned out. All three sets of participants recognized that students in foster care experience serious academic, social, and behavioral problems in the school setting. Each of the groups thought that all of the groups could work together better on how to bring foster kids more success.

Review Board for Youth, an advisory panel on the child welfare established by the Maryland

UTSA Social Work Assistant Professor Dr. Alfred G. Pérez’s research is distinct. As a youth who aged out of foster care, and a past child welfare practitioner, Perez’s research is influenced by his own professional and lived experience.

Ms. Melina Goode is an Administrative Assistant for the D.C Superior Court with 2 years’ experience in the Supervised Visitation Center of the D.C Superior Court. As the highlight of her career with the Court’s, Ms. Goode provided quality reinsurance to families in complex legal matters, domestic relations, and mediation cases. With her background in youth volunteering with Prince Gorges County Parks & Recreation, she idealistically focused on demonstrating the sincere message of concern for the need of fathers in children’s lives and families function together. Ms. Goode’s diligence in her administrative capacity to move throughout the courts to various division’s for providing support, has left a trailblazing impact on families in the District

My current field placement as a social work intern is at the Family Assessment Program (FAP). FAP is a voluntary program that aims to strengthen families and help them stay together. FAP seeks to reduce youth’s future involvement with the juvenile justice and the child welfare system. The clienteles that FAP deals with, are parents who are having difficulties with their teenage children and want assistance and guidance with changing the children’s behavior and developing a positive relationship. In addition, FAP is the last step before parent files for a Person In Need of Supervision (PINS). FAP would assess the family situation by interviewing parents and children individually and together, they determine the best suitable intervention for the family. If the intervention does not solve the issue or the child refuses to participate, then the alternative is to file a PINS to control the child’s behavior. Engaging with some families, I was able to apply four concepts; empathy, boundaries, social taboo and focused listening. In applying these concepts, I was able to identify my obstacles, weaknesses, strengths and develop my social work skills. The following scenarios will focus on my strategies with applying the concepts, the obstacles I encountered and ways in which I could have improved the concepts. Through self-reflection, I was able to select four cases where I was able to apply the above-mentioned concepts.

The internship that I acquired during the summer of 2010 at the Greenwood Sports and Industrial Rehabilitation Center (GSIRC), allowed me to gain an immeasurable amount of experience during my tenure at this facility. Within this period, the exposure to new concepts within the physical therapy industry allowed me to observe and work hands on with patients of all ages and disabilities that exposed me to various treatment plans and programs to restore client’s mobility. The essential Physical Education and Exercise Science (PEES) courses taken at Lander University were beneficial to my academic knowledgebase, which prepared me and developed me for the opportunity within the physical therapy discipline. Working as