This book will teach your students an exciting and powerful problem-solving method from start to finish (includes 30 reproducible classroom activities). Students will learn to work together and individually to find appropriate and unique solutions to real-world problems by using this tested method. Grades 2-8

This book is the first to systematically describe the key components necessary to ensure successful implementation of Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) across mental health settings and non-mental health settings that require behavioral management. This resource is designed by the leading experts in CPS and is focused on the clinical and implementation strategies that have proved most successful within various private and institutional agencies. The book begins by defining the approach before delving into the neurobiological components that are key to understanding this concept. Next, the book covers the best practices for implementation and evaluating outcomes, both in the long and short term. The book concludes with a summary of the concept and recommendations for additional resources, making it an excellent concise guide to this cutting edge approach. Collaborative Problem Solving is an excellent resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and all medical professionals working to manage troubling behaviors. The text is also valuable for readers interested in public health, education, improved law enforcement strategies, and all stakeholders seeking to implement this approach within their program, organization, and/or system of care.

"It might be the most important book about being a parent that you will ever read." —Emily Rapp Black, New York Times bestselling author of The Still Point of the Turning World "Brooks's own personal experience provides the narrative thrust for the book — she writes unflinchingly about her own experience.... Readers who want to know what happened to Brooks will keep reading to learn how the case against her proceeds, but it's Brooks's questions about why mothers are so judgmental and competitive that give the book its heft." —NPR One morning, Kim Brooks made a split-second decision to leave her four-year old son in the car while she ran into a store. What happened would consume the next several years of her life and spur her to investigate the broader role America’s culture of fear plays in parenthood. In Small Animals, Brooks asks, Of all the emotions inherent in parenting, is there any more universal or profound than fear? Why have our notions of what it means to be a good parent changed so radically? In what ways do these changes impact the lives of parents, children, and the structure of society at large? And what, in the end, does the rise of fearful parenting tell us about ourselves? Fueled by urgency and the emotional intensity of Brooks’s own story, Small Animals is a riveting examination of the ways our culture of competitive, anxious, and judgmental parenting has profoundly altered the experiences of parents and children. In her signature style—by turns funny, penetrating, and always illuminating—which has dazzled millions of fans and been called "striking" by New York Times Book Review and "beautiful" by the National Book Critics Circle, Brooks offers a provocative, compelling portrait of parenthood in America and calls us to examine what we most value in our relationships with our children and one another.

This account of six families whose children were wrongly seized by child protection services vividly illustrates the constitutional balancing act where medicine, family interests, and child safety can clash. They Took the Kids Last Night shows a rarely exposed side of America's contemporary struggle to address child abuse, telling the stories of loving families who were almost destroyed by false allegations—readily accepted by caseworkers, doctors, the media, and, too often, the courts. Each of the six wrongly accused families profiled in this book faced an epic and life-changing battle when child protection caseworkers came to their homes to take their kids. In each case, a child had an injury whose cause was unknown; it could have been due to an accident, a medical condition, or abuse. Each family ultimately exonerated itself and restored its family life, but still bears scars from the experience that will never disappear. The book tells why and how the child protection system failed these families. It also examines the larger flaws in our country's child protection safety net that is supposed to sort out the innocent from the guilty in order to protect children.

Guide children to new heights with the Creative Problem Solving methods outlined in CPS for Kids. This book will teach your students an exciting and powerful problem-solving method from start to finish. Each step in the process, from finding problems to finding solutions, is outlined in detail and includes accompanying activities on reproducible pages. Designed for students in grades 2-8, these activities are challenging and interesting. Creative Problem Solving is a process that allows people to apply both creative and critical thinking to find solutions to everyday problems. CPS can eliminate the tendency to approach problems in a haphazard manner and, consequently, prevents surprises and/or disappointment with the solution. Students will learn to work together or individually to find appropriate and unique solutions to real-world problems they may face by using this tested method. Most importantly, they will be challenged to think both creatively and critically as they tackle each problem they face. CPS for Kids includes 30 reproducible classroom activities. Grades 2-8

From the Preface: This manual, Child Protective Services: A Guide for Caseworkers, examines the roles and responsibilities of child protective services (CPS) workers, who are at the forefront of every community's child protection efforts. The manual describes the basic stages of the CPS process and the steps necessary to accomplish each stage: intake, initial assessment or investigation, family assessment, case planning, service provision, evaluation of family progress, and case closure. Best practices and critical issues in casework practice are underscored throughout. The primary audience for this manual includes CPS caseworkers, supervisors, and administrators. State and local CPS agency trainers may use the manual for preservice or inservice training of CPS caseworkers, while schools of social work may add it to class reading lists to orient students to the field of child protection. In addition, other professionals and concerned community members may consult the manual for a greater understanding of the child protection process. This manual builds on the information presented in A Coordinated Response to Child Abuse and Neglect: The Foundation for Practice. Readers are encouraged to begin with that manual as it addresses important information on which CPS practice is based-including definitions of child maltreatment, risk factors, consequences, and the Federal and State basis for intervention. Some manuals in the series also may be of interest in understanding the roles of other professional groups in responding to child abuse and neglect, including: Substance abuse treatment providers; Domestic violence victim advocates; Educators; Law enforcement personnel. Other manuals address special issues, such as building partnerships and working with the courts on CPS cases.

By using positive methods of discipline parents have the opportunity to provide their children with an optimal home environment for healthy emotional growth and development.