Building Solutions in Child Protective Services

12 September 2000

Insoo Kim Berg (Author), Susan Kelly (Author)

Description

"[O]ffers creative ways to build alliances with families…using language and motivational interviewing to help parents focus on problem-solving….a valuable resource." --Virginia Child Protection Newsletter

How does one change the attitudes and practices of child protective services (CPS)—a statewide bureaucracy often overwhelmed and understaffed? First, take an outsider to the system, Insoo Kim Berg, who has a vision and a solution-focused model. Add an insider, Susan Kelly, who understands the system. Spend many hours with CPS workers in the field, learning from them and helping them make the shift from a deficit perspective to a collaborative model that emphasizes strengths and solutions. Envision and implement change throughout the system. Celebrate small successes on the way to building family self-sufficiency and integrity.

This recipe for reforming child protective services is being followed in many public child welfare agencies, with growing success. In Building Solutions the authors explain how to conceptualize, implement, and sustain this hopeful and positive frame in a daily practice for dedicated frontline workers as well as for those in supervision, management, and administration.

The book has two parts. In the first, the authors put child protective services in context, introducing the system and their new approach, giving a brief history of child protection in the United States, and setting the stage for change. In the second part, the authors walk readers through the nuts and bolts of implementation, from the first phone call to case closure—including discussions about placing a child out of the home. Berg and Kelly also discuss supervision, consultation, and ongoing training, as well as their vision of the future of CPS.

This book is not a manual; it is a challenge to step out of the traditional CPS "box" and think differently—to create client-driven services that make sense. The authors challenge CPS administrators, supervisors, and workers to begin conversations about how the system can be more helpful and respectful to the families so that the parents can get what they need to care for their children. Building Solutions should have a place on the desk of everyone involved in child protective services.

Also By: Insoo Kim Berg View all by author...

  • Brief Coaching for Lasting Solutions

    Insoo Kim Berg, Peter Szabó

    E Book, 2016

    Like so many helping professionals today, coaches are discovering that the most effective treatment plan is not always the one that takes the most time.
  • Brief Coaching for Lasting Solutions

    Insoo Kim Berg, Peter Szabó

    Hardback, 2005

    Like so many helping professionals today, coaches are discovering that the most effective treatment plan is not always the one that takes the most time.
  • Children's Solution Work

    Insoo Kim Berg, Therese Steiner

    Hardback, 2003

    How to use solution-focused therapy with children and adolescents.
  • Tales of Solutions: A Collection of Hope-Inspiring Stories

    Insoo Kim Berg, Yvonne M. Dolan

    Paperback, 2001

    Clients and solution-focused therapists often accomplish remarkable results under seemingly hopeless economic/political/social conditions. In this book mental health and social service...
  • Solutions Step by Step: A Substance Abuse Treatment Manual

    Insoo Kim Berg, Norman H. Reuss

    Paperback, 1998

    A practical guide introducing the solution-focused approach to clinicians working with substance abusers.

Hardback

9780393703108

165 x 244 mm • 328 pages

£38.00

Add to Basket