The Child Welfare System
Abstract
Child welfare programs in the US have been in existence for quite some time, and the results of the services have been evident. Although social welfare in the US has been operating against several challenges, the child welfare programs have struggled to stand against the odds and to protect the children’s rights as desired. The needs of both children and their families have made child welfare services of significant importance in the US, and thus research on how the child welfare programs can be made effective is essential. The 20th century saw several attempts by the US government in collaboration with various human rights agencies to change and protect the lives of the children across the US. The first visible efforts by the government were in 1909 when the White House hosted the first national conference whose theme was to come up with strategies that would ensure the care for dependent children. The fight against child mistreatment has impacted several perspectives among them being, the economy, social systems, psychological systems, and the family system. The government has the responsibility of ensuring the successful functionality of the child welfare system.
The Child Welfare System
Children are always victims of harm when society fails to respect the rights of the children. The fact that children are helpless places them in a disadvantaged position. Social policies remain as the only protection for children who have nowhere to turn to whenever circumstances dictate. In several occasions, social policies have come to the rescue of children who have needed protection from their own families, relatives, and even the society in general. Governments have been supporting child welfare services that have been in existence for some time. The operation of child welfare services has, however, been limited to some extents according to the rules set by the respective governments. In the United States of America, child welfare programs have been in existence for quite some time, and the results of the services have been evident. Although social welfare in the US has been operating against several challenges, the child welfare programs have struggled to stand high against the odds and to protect the children’s rights as desired. The needs of both children and their families have made child welfare services of significant importance in the US, and thus research on how the child welfare programs can be made effective is essential.
Child welfare programs in the US have a rich history beginning from the ages when the rights of the children were not recognized in the policies of the land. Several events have happened in the past and have all contributed in one way or another in building up the current child welfare program in the US (Hacsi, 2017). The 20th century saw several attempts by the US government in collaboration with various human rights agencies to change and protect the lives of the children across the US. The first visible efforts by the government were in 1909 when the White House hosted the first national conference whose theme was to come up with strategies that would ensure the care for dependent children. The 1909 conference started a series of seven conferences that ran up to the 1970s in a bid to improve the lives of children. The conferences were concerned with assessing the impact of democracy on the lives of children. For example, the passing of the policy to improve the welfare of children who were unlucky to benefit from their biological parents due to various circumstances was one of the objectives of the conferences. One of the acts that came to the rescue was the Social Security act that gave benefits to victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, and even providing aid to dependent mothers and children.
The Social Security act was signed to law by President Roosevelt. Upon the signing of the act into law, the National Foster Parents Association was established and received a three-year grant that would provide support to foster parents. Foster parents in the US were increasing, and the people believed that the government was supposed to take the responsibility of improving the welfare of foster families. The main aim of the child welfare programs has, therefore been an attempt to save the children from possible mistreatments by the primary caregivers. The confusion between responsible parenting and extreme punishment leaves the child welfare agencies in a situation that requires well-defined policies to establish the boundaries beyond which caregivers cannot go while bringing up children. The move to accept the legality of foster families further came with the challenge of establishing the safety of the children in the hands of the foster parents. Generally, the history of child welfare programs has been enriched with the attempts that the government has been employing to overcome the challenges posed by the need for child welfare.
Psychological Perspective
The US records an alarming number of cases involving children exposed to abuse and mistreatment. The government has been forced into heavy spending to deal with impacts of the mistreatments directed to children (Brown, & Bailey-Etta, 2018). The psychological perspective concerning the mistreatment of children provides an undesirable outcome that may cost the nation stability in the future since the children are being exposed to an environment that may turn them to irresponsible adults if immediate measures are not enacted. The seriousness of the child mistreatment issue has been evidenced by the government’s recognition of the issue as a national emergency. However, the current situation does not mean that no attempts have been put in place to deal with the issue. Unfortunately, the attempts to address the issue of child mistreatment in the US have been unsuccessful and have ended up costing the government significant amounts of money. Additionally, the government has been forced to spend even further into finding out why the initial attempts have been unsuccessful. The issue of addressing child welfare issues requires the input of psychologists who are in a better position to aid in the decision-making process towards passing policies for child protection.
Decision-making appears to be the problem to the failure of the government’s attempts to lead successful child welfare programs. The failures that have led to the issue of child mistreatments becoming a national disaster can, however, be solved if psychologists are allowed to apply their profession in leading the decision-making processes. The decisions that are made concerning the policies to guide the child welfare programs are essential in ensuring that all the stakeholders are involved in the procedures that follow after the policies are passed. The combination of expertise and access to crucial information may not be available to courts. Therefore, psychologists are in a prime position that is crucial in ensuring that the parties involved in child welfare programs are in a position to operate without obstacles. Therefore, the role of professional psychologists comes in at the evaluation of the child protection policy development. However, the psychologists also face challenges while helping with the decision-making process and therefore, should seek support where appropriate.
The decision-making process is always demanding and sometimes stressful. First, several parties have to be considered while coming up with any form of a decision. The main parties involved in the decision-making process are the children, parents, and the state. Therefore, the psychologist cannot be left to struggle with the decision-making process alone. Supporting agencies come in to use the advice provided by the psychologist to ensure that the relevant parties a properly represented. Besides, child welfare services involve issues such as mistreatments and neglect where the services of psychologists are required to ensure that the mental issues are properly addressed and that the policies made do not ignore any of the relevant parties.
Economic Perspective
Child abuse and neglect have been one of the leading liabilities of the government. The economic costs of child abuse and neglect have been evident with some of the costs appearing directly while others come indirectly, although some costs are severe (Moffitt, 2015). The nature of child mistreatments takes different forms that include physical abuse, sexual harassment, and even emotional abuse. On the other side, a struggling economy may also be blamed for creating an environment that encourages child mistreatment. Some of the ways that a struggling economy may encourage child mistreatment are where parents are forced to let their children engaging in employment at a young age to provide income for their families. Also, child mistreatment cases have been blamed for having negative impacts on the growth of the economy. The economic perspective of child welfare, therefore, takes different positions and the state has to consider all the available possibilities since the children will end up suffering in one way or another if the different positions are not managed responsibly.
The economy of the nation suffers directly when child welfare is ignored. When the child welfare programs are not developed, the result is a series of children mistreatments that run from physical abuse to emotional abuse. The government is left with the responsibility of taking care of the children who undergo such mistreatments. Besides, most children who go through such mistreatments come from low-income families that cannot afford the costs of treatment where children are physically hurt. Also, emotional abuse leaves children mentally disturbed and in need of counseling services that may be expensive for most parents. Therefore, the government is forced to set aside funds to take care of the treatment costs for children who go through mistreatments. The funds to be set aside are obtained from funds that the government could have invested in productive ventures, and thus, the economy loses severely. The direct economic impacts of child mistreatments form the basis for the government’s investment in child welfare programs that aim at preventing child mistreatments and thus saving the government from costs of taking care of child abuse victims.
Moreover, the economy suffers when society’s attention is diverted from productive economic activities to deal with children in mistreatment cases. When the government appears reluctant in addressing the issue of children being mistreated, the general public may decide to force the government into taking necessary actions. For example, people may decide to engage in demonstrations, which do not benefit the growth of the economy. Also, a growing economy requires the promise of a bright future. However, the mistreatment of children could destroy the promise of society’s future since the children grow up to be bitter adults who may also end up irresponsible. Therefore, child welfare programs should be supported to address the rights of the children so that the economy grows in the desired direction.
Social Perspective
The social perspective of child welfare programs presents different positions like economic perspectives. On one side, the government will be willing to help the children to achieve their dreams by living lives free from mistreatments (Davidson, Morrissey, & Beck, 2019). On the other side, however, the caregivers feel that the government does not trust them in taking care of the children. The laws allow the government to intervene where the caregivers appear to be neglecting the duty of taking care of the children. However, the most affected children by the crisis between the state and the caregivers are the children under growing up in foster families. Biological parents have proved to be more responsible, and the government does not need to worry about children who have the opportunity to be brought up by their biological parents. Therefore, the government has been turning the attention to children who grow up in foster families since such children are at more risk of going through neglect and other forms of mistreatments. Also, the factors that have been leading children into foster families are a concern to the government, especially where death to the children’s parents is not the main cause.
The increase in the number of children growing up in foster families is a point of concern. The fact that foster families come up due to the death of the child’s parents or the inability of the biological parents means that the government has some questions to answer concerning the main cause of the increase. For example, if the reason is found out to be the death of most biological parents, then the government should be alert concerning the high mortality rates of parents. The cause of the increasing mortality rates should be addressed, and measures are put in place to address the problem. For instance, the government may encourage parents to buy insurance covers that will give financial protection to children after the death of their parents and keep the children away from foster families that use the excuse of poverty to take over the responsibility of bringing up orphaned children. Alternatively, the government could help the parents to get over the cause of mortality, for example, by improving the quality of health services where the deaths are caused by diseases. Also, the government could set up guidelines to assess the qualification of an individual who is willing to become a foster parent.
Moreover, the government meets challenges where the caregivers feel that the government is overstepping the responsibilities of child welfare programs. In a bid to perform its responsibilities, the government collides with various caregivers. The collisions are, in most cases, brought about by the lack of well-defined policies concerning the upbringing of dependent children. For example, the government may come to the rescue of a child who complains about severe punishments from their caregiver. Most of the times, the government tends to believe that the children should not be punished, but the caregivers understand the consequences of bringing up children without punishing them for making mistakes. The conflict between the government and the caregivers ends up leaving the children suffering in the middle of the crisis. In most cases, the government has been blamed for taking away children from caregivers who were responsible due to misunderstandings and eventually leading the children into the suffering that would not have occurred.
Impact on Family System
The primary goal of child welfare services is to promote the general welfare of children in terms of protecting children from harm and abuse. In a bid to ensure effective protection of children from possible mistreatments, the child welfare services are tasked with investigating cases of suspected child mistreatment and taking the necessary actions (Diane et al. 2018). The actions that follow the investigations by child welfare services include lawsuits against the responsible offenders and taking children to children homes or assigning them to different foster parents. However, the functions of child welfare services tend to overstep the family system. The family system in the US has been facing the risk of destruction with the government taking over the responsibilities that should be left to the parents, and child upbringing is slowly turning into a difficult task. However, the child welfare system has been improved to maintain the family system while protecting the rights of the children.
The responsibilities of child welfare systems have been transformed to take into consideration the importance of strong family systems. Parents have been given the recognition due to their crucial role in the bringing up of children. For example, one would expect that parents who are found to have been abusing their children should be charged before a law court and even be denied the right to interact with their children. However, parents who are found to have violated the rights of children are instead subjected to training concerning the importance of respecting the rights of their children as well as being given the support to bring up their children without challenges. The children who are found to have been through abuse are also allowed to remain with their parents, although severe cases of abuse mean that the children are taken to foster parents. Therefore, the child welfare services cannot be blamed for breaking the family system in the US but should be credited for putting significant efforts to ensure that the family system remains as firm as possible.
Recommendations
Child abuse is an issue that may be viewed from different perspectives, and no perspective should be ignored. The Government should, however, be on the forefront in ensuring that the child welfare system receives the required support to curb the child abuse menace. First, the government should ensure that sufficient funding is given to child welfare agencies to support the programs that are aimed at helping children. For example, the child welfare system requires funds to be able to train parents on the importance of respecting child rights as well as assigning children to foster parents.
Additionally, the government should offer support for the development of policies that aid in the successful functionality of the child welfare system. The policies developed with support from the government are crucial since they specify the boundaries beyond which the child welfare services take responsibility for protecting the children. Where policies are developed with proper decision making, the functionality of the child welfare systems is boosted, and the rights of the children are protected. Therefore, the government should take the initiative to ensure that the child welfare system operates without challenges and where challenges appear, that the government offers sufficient support.
In sum, children are helpless where society neglects its responsibility to protect the rights of the children. The US government has been keen on ensuring that American children are protected from any form of mistreatment, and the child welfare system has been keen on supporting the government’s move. The history of the child welfare service dates back to 1909 when the first national conference on child rights was held in the White House. The fight against child mistreatment has impacted several perspectives among them being, the economy, social systems, psychological systems, and the family system. The government has the responsibility of ensuring the successful functionality of the child welfare system.
References
Brown, A. W., & Bailey-Etta, B. (2018). An out-of-home care system in crisis: Implications for African American children in the child welfare system. In Serving African American Children (pp. 65-84). Routledge.
Davidson, R. D., Morrissey, M. W., & Beck, C. J. (2019). The Hispanic Experience of the Child Welfare System. Family Court Review, 57(2), 201-216.
Diane, S., Amster, B. J., Ross, P. E., Margaret, Z., Paul, D., & Judith, S. (2018). Starting young: Improving the health and developmental outcomes of infants and toddlers in the child welfare system. In Family Foster Care in the Next Century (pp. 149-166). Routledge.
Hacsi, T. (2017). From indenture to family foster care: A brief history of child placing. In A history of child welfare (pp. 155-173). Routledge.
Moffitt, R. A. (2015). The deserving poor, the family, and the US welfare system. Demography, 52(3), 729-749.