Children and families from a refugee background seem to escape the technical view usually adopted by educational and health practitioners, which is based on a mixture of diagnostic tests and special needs policies. This approach struggles to cope with the multiple needs -- in terms of health, culture, language, and learning -- involved in taking…

Explores the ways in which shifting meanings of childhood and constructions of sexually abused children and the structuring of team practice pose problems for multidisciplinary team members. Argues that understanding child sexual abuse and developing community-based practice approaches must be informed by broader perspectives. Suggests a model of…

Reviews literature about rural and urban social work practice; discusses theory relevant to rural-urban differences, focusing on the organization-in-environment perspective. Highlights statewide survey of Missouri public child welfare employees, which found that rurality was strongly negatively correlated with agency size. Both locale and agency…

Discusses facilitating opportunities for a grounded knowledge base, building culturally competent relationships, facilitating discussion of stereotyping, and forming collaborative alliances with culturally and ethnically diverse communities. Asserts that child welfare workers need to lay a foundation of excellence in these areas and presents child…

Explores the Navajo Nation Division of Social Services' efforts to transform the Bureau of Indian Affairs service delivery paradigm into a more holistic case management paradigm for child and family services congruent with Navajo culture and rural location. Discusses a composite case to illustrate issues experienced by many Navajo clients.…

Keeping children safe in foster care is a critical concern for foster parents and the professionals working with them. This document is comprised of a set of four pamphlets, addressed to foster families and those working with foster families, providing information on medication safety, making foster care placements successful, working with social…

A special curriculum to be used in training sessions on Mexican American culture was developed to assist Texas Department of Human Resources personnel with service delivery for Mexican American children. Designed to heighten awareness in caseworkers and other personnel on the cultural variables affecting their relationship with Mexican American…

The findings of the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) were analyzed to identify ways of improving the process of moving people from welfare to work. Selected lessons from the analysis were as follows: (1) welfare-to-work programs that rely on adult basic education programs for the general population are unlikely to improve…