How I Helped Caregivers Navigate Complex Cases Using Psychoeducation
The Importance of Caregiver Involvement in Complex Cases Collaborative care is a key principle in social work practice. Collaborative care draws from our understanding that problems do not exist in a vacuum so neither can our solutions. The clients that we serve and the problems that we treat are complex and multifaceted, so we too […]
The Impact of Trauma on the Growing Brain
If the 0-3 years are the first few chapters of a child’s life, then the prenatal period is the prologue, foreshadowing what may come. Toxic stress can alter the brain’s development even before birth, shaping the way a child responds to the world. The amazing thing about the brain, however, is that it’s adaptable, flourishing […]
Best Practices for Coordinating Children and Family Services Programs
Effective care coordination in children and family services can mean the difference between transforming lives and missing crucial opportunities to help. The complex web of social services, healthcare, education, and community support requires a carefully orchestrated approach to ensure families receive comprehensive care that actually works. This guide explores the essential strategies, proven models, and […]
5 Youth Risk Factors and How to Identify Them
A Guide to Youth Risk Factors and How to Identify Them As a social work professional, you might have seen youth face many challenges on the path to adulthood. Thus, identifying risk factors early is crucial for providing the support and interventions needed to help at-risk youth thrive. In this guide, we’ll examine five key […]
The Importance of Relationships in Early Childhood Mental Health
The Golden Thread I first learned about early childhood mental health at the beginning of my career, when I was supervised by someone passionate about attachment and supporting young, vulnerable families. As a home visiting social worker, I learned how critical the early years are for children while also coming to understand that I needed […]
Using Psychoeducation to Help Providers and Caregivers Understand Early Childhood Trauma
Using Psychoeducation to Shift from What’s Wrong to What’s Happened Caring for young children who have experienced trauma and toxic stress is a formidable task, leaving many caregivers confused, burnt out and helpless. Many of us in the helping professions interface with these young children and their families every day, putting us in a unique […]
Top 5 Mistakes You Can Make Choosing Family Services Software
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If you’re on the lookout for a software solution for your family services organization, proceed with caution. Your choices have exploded in the last few years, but not all of your options are capable of meeting the needs of your organization or the people it serves. To identify and implement your ideal solution, it’s incumbent […]
Certifying a Foster Parent is One of the Most Consequential Decisions in Child Welfare
If you ask any public or private child welfare agency in the United States, I submit that every single one of them would say they need more foster parents and they need them now. This causes recruiters to source the community for prospects, heartfelt PSAs to be playing on media outlets, and foster parent certification […]
How a Plastic Garbage Bag Became the Unofficial Luggage of Foster Care
It was a scene that I would see play out time and time again during my 13-year career, serving some of our nation’s most vulnerable youth. A child comes into care needing foster care, and the youth and their caseworker shows up with a couple of black garbage bags full of everything the child owned […]
Understanding the CCWIS Final Rule
On June 2, 2016, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) issued a final Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) rule to replace the Statewide and Tribal Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (S/TACWIS) rule, which for more than twenty years had been the vehicle through which states sought federal assistance for funding child welfare technology […]
