The Impact of Poverty on First Nations Mothers Attending a Parenting Program

Urban Aboriginal mothers’ experiences with Family Preservation Services indicate that while such interventions ameliorate the challenges they face, poverty is not adequately addressed. Prominent are the importance of prevention; attention to process; cultural context; and attention to actual needs, however, First Nations mothers (a) feel lucky when they get things they need, (b) feel ‘inadequate’ about the inability to manage finances, and, (c) perceive the lack of support in meeting needs to be a result of racism. As well, poverty often leads to forced compromises which can perpetuate risk of coming to the attention of child welfare.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Animal-Assisted Therapy as an Adjunct to Intensive Family Preservation Services

This study examined the effects of animal-assisted therapy delivered as an adjunct to standard-of-care intensive family preservation services, compared with usual care alone. Method: Families referred by Child Protective Services ( M child age = 6 years ± 4; M parent age = 32 years ± 8.26) were individually randomized to experimental ( n = 14) or control ( n = 14) intervention. Family functioning outcomes were measured using the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale for Reunification. Results: All four targeted family functioning outcomes were significantly increased for participants who received animal-assisted therapy as an adjunct to intensive family preservation services ( n = 14) with medium to large effect sizes. These improvements were sustained in two of the subscales through discharge. No significant differences were measured for the distal clinical outcome of disposition of children at discharge. Conclusions: Findings suggest that adding animal-assisted therapy as an adjunct can improve evidence-based clinical interventions aimed at enhancing the caregiving contexts of children.