NCJ Number
214269
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 30 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2006 Pages: 381-391
Date Published
April 2006
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study explored the delivery of services by county child protection services (CPS) agencies to children or family members with a disability.
Abstract
Overall, results indicated CPS agencies had no standard approach to the management of cases involving individuals with disabilities. Only 6.7 percent of agencies reported they had a written policy in place related to serving individuals with disabilities. CPS agencies used 18 different approaches to the delivery of services to families with disabilities, including formal and informal case management approaches, collaborative approaches, training and data gathering, systems approaches, and a practical approach. Only five counties had specialty workers who were experts in both child protection and disability issues. Barriers to serving families with disabilities included a lack of resources, a lack of knowledge about disabilities, a lack of providers, and a lack of transportation. The authors observed that although formal policies were scarce, there was both formal and informal collaboration on an individual level. The findings indicate the need for greater attention to disability issues within CPS agencies and the need for worker training and the development of a collaborative case management model. A telephone survey was conducted with the directors of 75 out of the 84 county CPS agencies in Minnesota. The semi-structured interview was conducted between December 2002 and March 2003 and utilized open-ended questions to probe issues related to the delivery of child protection services to families with disabilities. Interviews were transcribed and coded and then entered into SPSS for descriptive analysis. Follow-up studies should use standardized questions based on the results of this study and should be conducted with front-line CPS workers and administrators. Tables, references