School of Social Work Dean Richard Barth, PhD, Associate Professor Bethany Lee, PhD, and PhD student Mary Hodorwicz had their article "Equipping the child welfare workforce to improve the well-being of children," published in the Journal of Children's Services.
Purpose
To discuss ways of equipping the child welfare workforce to improve the well-being of children through graduate education and post-MSW training.
Design/methodology/approach
To analyse the barriers to providing mental health services to vulnerable children and families and discuss three evidence-based ways of overcoming them.
Findings
Child and family social workers need to do more than comply with regulations if they are to influence the well-being of the children and families they seek to help. A variety of methods is necessary to implement this changed role and three initiatives – Partnering for Success, Motivational Interviewing for Child Welfare Trainees and Training Adoption-Competent Welfare Professionals – show promising results. Child welfare workers can learn to implement evidence-informed mental health practices with high fidelity.
Research limitations/implications
None of the studies are controlled studies.
Practical implications
The paper offers innovative ideas about workforce implications and implementation strategies.
Originality/value
Provides details of three innovative evidence-based projects – national models in the US – concerned with promoting children’s well-being.
CITATION: Richard P Barth, Bethany R Lee, Mary Theresa Hodorowicz, "Equipping the child welfare workforce to improve the well-being of children", Journal of Children's Services, https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-05-2017-0017