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Reposting: Torn apart: A skewed portrait of child welfare in America

Child Welfare Monitor

As an illustration, I am reposting my 2022 review of Roberts’ most recent book, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families–and How Abolition Can Build a Safer Worl d. child welfare system. See my commentary on the abuse homicides of Rashid Bryant and Julissia Batties , for example).

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Torn Apart: How the Abolition Movement Destroys Foster Youth – And How Listening To Us Can Build A Safer World

Child Welfare Monitor

by Patty Flores I am grateful to be publishing this essay by a gifted and needed young voice in the child welfare space. She spent half of her life in foster care, struggling with substance abuse. Youth with lived experiences in foster care face countless challenges, even when the abuse finally stops – one way or another.

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The fundamental misconception at the heart of the Family First Act

Child Welfare Monitor

States have been hard-put to devise plans for implementing the new services because the bill was designed to fix a problem that did not exist–the alleged absence of child welfare services designed to help families stay together. ” As the Child Welfare Information Gateway, an information clearinghouse of the U.S.

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How the journalism of child welfare fails

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

I single these stories out not because they are exceptionally awful - there’s far worse out there - but precisely because they are so typical of the journalism of child welfare. The stories blithely attribute West Virginia’s high rate of removal to the fact that “More than half entered the system because of a parent’s substance abuse.”

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NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending Sept. 24, 2024

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

The reports were careful, nuanced assessments – far better than what’s spewed forth from certain politicians, and the state’s child welfare “ombudsman.” Those last 11 paragraphs are an indirect reminder of how, in less than 25 years, Maine child welfare went from national scandal to national model to national disgrace.

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As foster care removals plummet, where’s the promised help for families?

Child Welfare Monitor

Supporters of the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), which passed in 2018, said that declining foster care counts would result from providing support to parents who needed help to address the problems (like substance abuse, mental illness and poor parenting skills) that led to their maltreatment of their children.

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September is National Recovery Month: Supporting the Journey to Recovery 

Social Work Blog

The CDC explains what substance use disorders are along with different treatment and recovery options and the importance of reducing stigma. National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare Disrupting Stigma: How Understanding, Empathy, and Connection Can Improve Outcomes for Families Affect by Substance Use and Mental Disorders.

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