"The timing of the publication with the revised Working Together guidelines could not be more advantageous. This book is a unique and important contribution to child care literature. No agency should be without." - Child Abuse Review Professionals concerned with the protection of children face many challenges. This work demands knowledge from several disciplines, a wide variety of skills, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The editors, Howard Dubowitz, a pediatrician, and Diane DePanfilis, a social worker, together with over 70 experts in this field offer what is known about how best to work with maltreated children and their families, in a very practical, concise, and user-friendly way. Structured to follow the life of a case from the time a report of child maltreatment is made through the various pathways in the child protection system, this edited volume synthesizes the best practice principles for responding to reports of child abuse and neglect; engaging children and other family members in intervention; developing cross-cultural practice competencies; assessing risk, evaluating safety, and conducting family assessments; defining outcomes and planning intervention; evaluating risk reduction; and making permanency decisions; and discusses the unique legal, medical, ethical, and other practice issues that work in the child protection field involves. Professionals facing tough dilemmas in practice should find valuable guidance in these pages.

This up-to-date and comprehensive resource by leaders in child welfare is the first book to reflect the impact of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997. The text serves as a single-source reference for a wide array of professionals who work in children, youth, and family services in the United States-policymakers, social workers, psychologists, educators, attorneys, guardians ad litem, and family court judges& mdash;and as a text for students of child welfare practice and policy. Features include: * Organized around ASFA's guiding principles of well-being, safety, and permanency * Focus on evidence-based "best practices" * Case examples integrated throughout * First book to include data from the first round of National Child and Family Service Reviews Topics discussed include the latest on prevention of child abuse and neglect and child protective services; risk and resilience in child development; engaging families; connecting families with public and community resources; health and mental health care needs of children and adolescents; domestic violence; substance abuse in the family; family preservation services; family support services and the integration of family-centered practices in child welfare; gay and lesbian adolescents and their families; children with disabilities; and runaway and homeless youth. The contributors also explore issues pertaining to foster care and adoption, including a focus on permanency planning for children and youth and the need to provide services that are individualized and culturally and spiritually responsive to clients. A review of salient systemic issues in the field of children, youth, and family services completes this collection.

A step-by-step resource for treating more than 40 prevalent issues with proven strategies This comprehensive handbook for evidence-based mental health and learning interventions with children and adolescents is distinguished by its explicit yet concise guidance on implementation in practice. With a compendium of proven strategies for resolving more than 40 of the most pressing and prevalent issues facing young people, the book provides immediate guidance and uniform step-by-step instructions for resolving issues ranging from psychopathological disorders to academic problems. Busy academics, practitioners, and trainees in schools and outpatient clinical settings will find this resource to be an invaluable desktop reference for facilitating well-informed decision-making. Unlike other volumes that ignore or merely reference the evidence base of various interventions, this book focuses on providing immediate, empirically supported guidance for putting these strategies into direct practice. Issues covered include crisis interventions and response, social and emotional issues, academic/learning issues, psychopathological disorders, neuropsychological disorders, and the behavioral management of childhood health issues. Each chapter follows a consistent format including a brief description of the problem and associated characteristics, etiology and contributing factors, and three evidence-based, step-by-step sets of instructions for implementation. Additionally, each chapter provides several websites offering further information about the topic. Featuring contributions from leading scholars and practitioners on each issue covered, this book will be a valuable resource for child clinical and school psychologists, counselors, social workers, and therapists as well as other health and mental health professionals whose primary practice is with children and adolescents. Key Features: Demonstrates step-by-step, evidence-based interventions for more than 40 common childhood issues Provides treatment procedures that can be immediately put into practice Covers a wide range of mental health and academic/learning issues for children and adolescents Relevance for both school-based and clinically-based practice Includes contributions by noted experts in the field

Six original essays reflect the growing scholarly interest in the history of childhood and youth, particularly issues affecting child health and welfare. These important new essays show how changing patterns of health and disease have responded to and shaped notions of childhood and adolescence as life stages. Until the early 20th century, life-threatening illnesses were a sinister presence in the lives of children of all social classes. Today, many diseases and threats to child health have been eliminated or alleviated. Yet critical problems remain. New threats such as AIDS and violence take a steady toll. Child health remains an active concern for all families. Despite the development of health care policies, social welfare policies, and effective medication, the home remains—as it was in the Colonial period—the most critical site of care. Parents are still central to the preservation of children's health. This work imposes a holistic view of this experience for children and families. By examining the child's perspective of illness, the authors make an important contribution to the understanding of illness as part of the developmental process of growing up.

Address the urgent need for individualized, coordinated mental health care with this book--the only one-stop reference for establishing, evaluating, and improving services and systems of care for children and adolescents with mental health challenges and their families. The new cornerstone of the highly respected Systems of Care for Children's Mental Health series, this comprehensive volume helps administrators, program developers, and clinicians from mental health and partner child-serving systems skillfully navigate every key issue they may encounter on the road to effective service delivery. Weaving all the latest research and best practices into a single accessible handbook, more than 60 expert contributors give readers the in-depth, practical knowledge they need to develop comprehensive, community-based, coordinated systems of care for youth with mental health challenges and their families avoid duplication and fragmentation of services across mental health and other child-serving systems develop individualized care plans for children with complex needs and implement the "wraparound" approach to service delivery incorporate evidence-based practices into systems of care use smart financing strategies that make the most of multiple funding streams ensure the full participation of families and youth in service planning and delivery improve services and care coordination across a variety of systems--schools, child welfare, juvenile justice work effectively with youth and families from diverse backgrounds and communities conduct accurate program evaluation and continuous quality improvement use the best professional development strategies to ensure a skilled and dedicated workforce Throughout the book, extended case studies of children, youth, families, and successful programs take readers beyond the abstract and reveal in vivid detail how high-quality services can transform the lives of children and youth--from early childhood to their transition to adulthood--as well as their families and caregivers. A must-own compendium of knowledge for anyone involved in shaping the future of mental health services, this book is the new blueprint for systems of care that truly respond to the needs of children, youth and families. Learn more about the Systems of Care for Children's Mental Health series.

In recent years, much research has been conducted on why young people start fires inappropriately, but more crucially on how to keep them from doing so. Psychologists, fire prevention specialists, and investigators from around the US share what has been learned about identifying those who set fires and programs for deterring them. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland.