Child Maltreatment and the Child Welfare System as Environmental Factors in the International Classification of Functioning

The WHO defines child maltreatment as any form of neglect, exploitation, and physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, committed against children under the age of 18. Youth involved in the child welfare system report more maltreatment experiences and environmental turbulence (e.g., number of moves, caseworkers), placing them at greater risk for poorer physical and mental health. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) provides a framework to describe health conditions and severity of disabilities for an individual and/or group in the context of environmental factors. The Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathways (MAP) study is a longitudinal study, assessing self-reports on variables (e.g., child maltreatment history, trauma symptoms, dating violence, and substance use) of youth in an urban child protection service system. This study focuses on 11 of the 24 MAP publications that pertain to health and functioning, which can be considered applicable to the ICF framework, following established linking rules. The purpose of this study is to analyze these MAP sub-studies, with maltreatment and involvement in the child welfare system as environmental factors that impact the functioning of child welfare-involved youth. Findings indicate significant relationships across environmental factors (i.e., child maltreatment histories, child welfare system involvement), health conditions (i.e., trauma symptomatology, psychological distress, intellectual disabilities), and functioning problems (i.e., substance use, adolescent dating violence, sexual risk-taking, coping motives, sleep problems). The interrelated nature of these factors in the MAP sub-studies suggests the value of the ICF model to a holistic health view of use to practitioners supporting system-involved youth, clarifying unattended environmental factors in guiding service provision for foster care and/or maltreated youth.

What Counts as Evidence in Child Welfare Research?

In this commentary, we respond to Barth, R. P., Berrick, J. D., Garcia, A. R., Drake, B., Jonson-Reid, M., Gyouroko, J. R., and Greeson, J. K. P. (2021). Research to consider while effectively re-designing child welfare services. Research on Social Work Practice. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497315211050000 and critique their premise that Western-based research with population-level administrative data is the best and only valid evidence on which to base child welfare policy and practice changes. We offer an alternative viewpoint on what forms of evidence should be brought to bear as we consider re-envisioning the child welfare system, highlighting the importance of lived experience and the need to consider the evidence regarding all marginalized racial and ethnic groups. We argue that evidence should represent the perspectives of those with lived experience and that collaborative child welfare research can strengthen the validity of analyses and interpretations. We hold that Barth et al. ask and answer the wrong questions. We press for deeper critical reflection, a more nuanced intersectional lens, and urgent action to address structural and institutional racism in the child welfare system.

Increasing People’s Capabilities by Using Design Thinking in the Decision-Making Process

A growing older population is placing new demands on the welfare system. Elder care has been criticised for its lack of resources, competence, or respect for older people. Caregiving needs to be transformed and based on older people’s real needs and what they perceive as important. However, both older people and service organisations have to be capable of participating in new development processes. Design thinking (DT) has emerged as a field of research that provides tools and processes that are helpful for supporting innovations and new ways of thinking about problems. The concept of capability (Nussbaum M. Creating capabilities: the human development approach. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2011), and how design researchers have embraced it, is discussed. The results from two case studies show that DT can support increasing capabilities among both service recipients and service providers when developing new services and digital solutions. The DT process can generate valuable knowledge about users’ needs in a resource-efficient way, as well as balancing the economic and human perspectives when developing new services. By directing more time and attention towards relevant problems, the solution might end up as something other than initially contemplated, which can increase the capability of being innovative when developing new services.

BRITAIN AND CONSENSUS POLITICS, 1945-1955: MYTH OR REALITY?

This study lies within the framework of the years 1945-1955, which correspond to Clement Attlee’s Labourite and Winston Churchill’s Conservative administrations. The objective is to demonstrate, by means of an analysis of their speeches and the proposals of their respective political parties, that the ideological differences hindered a total agreement. These primary sources are examined from several perspectives. The main emphasis of this study falls on the ideology as a distinctive element and its influence on other fields such as education, the welfare system or the economy. The results reveal a lack of consensus based on their opposite political cultures.

Podmioty służby zdrowia w PRL

In the current legislation, the public tasks related with healthcare are performed by the healthcare entities. In the totalitarian and authoritarian Polish People’s Republic, the healthcare was functioning as a communist health and social welfare system. It was a centralised structure with the main role of the Ministry of Health. The article shows the most important regulations in the field of healthcare system entities in the Polish People’s Republic.