Child Welfare and Maltreatment.

Catalog description

This is an introductory course in child welfare and maltreatment. This course is organized around four themes: (1) The history, mission, and scope of child welfare services and practice, including the underlying philosophy and values that drive child welfare practice, and addressing cultural and relationship issues when working with families; (2) Conceptual and practical information on identifying child maltreatment, assessing family needs and strengths, and determining the level of risk to children for future maltreatment; (3) Case planning and applying a casework model to working with families; (4) Interviewing skills in a child welfare setting, especially as these skills relate to family assessment, child risk and case planning, and integrating the use of professional authority in these activities. The course utilizes an ecosystem perspective for understanding and assessing the special needs of at-risk children and families. Specific attention is on assessing families and children using the State of Texas’ Family Based Safety Services and other family assessment instruments. Prerequisites: SOCI 1301 , PSYC 2301 , SOCW 2390 , and SOCW 2350 or SOCW 2361 all with a minimum grade of B.