Abstract
The Illinois/West Virginia Project was a three-year research and demonstration effort funded by the United States Children’s Bureau. Its main purpose was to develop and test procedures for decision making at child welfare intake.1 Intake was defined to include all transactions that occur between workers and clients from the point of initial contact through development of a service plan.2
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Notes and References
As noted in chapter 4, our concern was with clinical decisions, those that often require some measure of worker judgment in selecting a final option. Decisions involving client eligibility for cash and in-kind services, where a predefined set of criteria are applied to a known set of client characteristics, were not considered.
Project staff worked with line workers and agency administrators to identify decisions made at intake. The final roster of decisions compared favorably with those identified by Peat, Marwick, and Mitchell from their investigation of child welfare practice (see System of Social Services for Children and Their Families: Detailed Design (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, DHEW Publication No. (OHDS) 78–30131, 1978) and with those identified by the New England Resource Center for Protective Services (see, Charles Dickinson and Carolyn Friedman, “Proposed Conceptual Framework for Intake Decision-Making: A Review of the PMM/CWLA Model” (unpublished).
U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 875 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1980).
The percentage is greater than 100 because some Hispanic people are double-counted as both white or black and Hispanic. “1980 Population Statistics for the City of Chicago,” prepared by the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission.
Mark Testa and Fred Wolczyn, The State of the Child, (Chicago: The Children’s Policy Research Project, 1980), pp. 34–38.
Charles A. Rapp, “Effect of the Availability of Family Support Services on Decisions about Child Placement,” Social Work Research and Abstracts, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring 1982), p. 22.
Ibid.
Ibid.
The system for handling investigations was changed part way through the project when child protective service investigative teams were created. Teams, which included social work staff, an investigator, and a nurse whose task it was to assist in evaluation of medical aspects of abuse and neglect, were made responsible for all investigations except those involving reports of sexual abuse and police-initiated protective custody. The latter were to be handled by workers from the geographic teams. See Child Abuse and Neglect Investigation Decision Handbook (Springfield, Illinois: Illinois Dept. of Children and Family Services, July 1982). The model described here was not implemented at Catholic Charities.
“Credible evidence means that the available facts when viewed in light of the surrounding circumstances would cause a reasonable person to believe that a child had been abused or neglected.” Ibid. p. 33.
Cases could be closed even if there was credible evidence if there was no reason to assume ongoing risk and the family did not want services.
Testa and Wolczyn, op cit., pp. 42–44.
“State Rural Profile Sheet and West Virginia Advance Counts: Region VII Development Program,” Region VII Planning and Development Council, (mimeographed), 1979–1980, p. 7.
Ibid., p. 8.
Ibid.
J. C. Dillan, Jr., ed., and Bethel Adkins and Carl Lilly, assoc. eds., West Virginia Blue Book (Charleston, West Virginia: Jarrett Printing Co., 1980), p. 1052.
“Title XX Comprehensive Annual Services Program Plan for the State of West Virginia,” prepared by the West Virginia Dept. of Welfare, July 1, 1980, pp. 71, 76, 83, and 98.
Demographic information was collected by project staff. Each time a case was assigned to a participating worker, a research assistant abstracted relevant information from the case file.
Because of the time commitment required by the project, we had requested that all staff be volunteers. Lack of interest by a sufficient number of staff resulted in the administrative selection process.
The number of cases carried by participating workers was negotiated with administrators, supervisors, and line workers. Project cases became a part of each worker’s caseload. But, intake staff at IDCFS and Catholic Charities do not carry an ongoing caseload in the usual sense of the term. Rather, cases move through these units within 48 hours and are transferred to a service worker if there is evidence to substantiate maltreatment. Service workers at Catholic Charities and at the WVDOW carried an average of 20 cases.
A new case was defined as one that had not received services from one of the participating agencies in the two years prior to the project.
The contract between the IDCFS and Catholic Charities called for the latter to handle neglect and minor abuse cases.
The categories of maltreatment are based on the reporting form used by the IDCFS. Categories are not mutually exclusive since some refer to process (for example, excessive corporal punishment and torture) while others refer to the outcomes of these behaviors in terms of their effects on children, e.g., bruises, cuts, wounds, etc.
See Theodore J. Stein and Tina L. Rzepnicki, Decision Making at Child Welfare Intake: A Handbook for Social Workers, Child Welfare League of America, 1983.
In terms of education and experience, student-judges compare favorably with workers practicing around the country. See Ann W. Shyne and Anita G. Schroeder, National Study of Social Services to Children and Their Families (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, DHEW Publication No. (OHDS) 78–30150, 1978), pp. 76–81.
The decision What is the appropriate long-range case goal? was not subject to reliability testing. This, because of directives in agency policy stating, for example, that when protective services is initiated the goal must be to maintain the child at home. If emergency placement is required, family reunification must be the goal. Thus, the goal is determined by the decision as to where the child will be living.
The vignettes were structured to look like case records. Information was recorded on forms like those workers would use to describe the contents of a child abuse report or those they would use to record information regarding a client’s service history.
The worker’s task is threefold. Problem specification, identification of the likely effects to a child(ren), and identification of ways to mitigate problems. For example, assume that there is evidence that a parent uses barbiturates and amphetamines. Frequency is not known. The parent’s work attendance is good. When under the influence, however, he does not supervise his 6-year-old nor is the child fed on a regular basis. It is reasonable to assume that the youngster is at risk of physical injury or ill health. There are neither relatives nor neighbors to assist. Services whereby a regular child care plan can be established are called for.
See Stein and Rzepnicki, op cit.
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Stein, T.J., Rzepnicki, T.L. (1984). Description of the Illinois/West Virginia Project. In: Decision Making in Child Welfare Services. International Series in Social Welfare, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5648-3_5
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