{"product_id":"out-of-harms-way-creating-an-effective-child-welfare-system-9780190618018","title":"Out of Harm's Way: Creating an Effective Child Welfare System","description":"Despite many well-intentioned efforts to create, revise, reform, and establish an effective child welfare system in the United States, the system continues to fail to ensure the safety and well-being of maltreated children. \u003cem\u003eOut of Harm's Way \u003c\/em\u003eexplores the following four critical aspects of the system and presents a specific change in each that would lead to lasting improvements. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- \u003cstrong\u003eDeciding who is the clien\u003c\/strong\u003et. Child welfare systems attempt to balance the needs of the child and those of the parents, often failing both. Clearly answering this question is the most important, yet unaddressed, issue facing the child welfare system.\u003cbr\u003e- \u003cstrong\u003eDecisions\u003c\/strong\u003e. The key task for a caseworker is not to provide services but to make decisions regarding child abuse and neglect, case goals, and placement; however, practitioners have only the crudest tools at their disposal when making what are literally life and death decisions.\u003cbr\u003e- \u003cstrong\u003eThe Perverse Incentive\u003c\/strong\u003e. Billions of dollars are spent each year to place and maintain children in out-of-home care. Foster care is meant to be short-term, yet the existing federal funding serves as a perverse incentive to keep children in out-of-home placements.\u003cbr\u003e- \u003cstrong\u003eAging out\u003c\/strong\u003e. More than 20,000 youth age out of the foster care system each year, and yet what the system calls \"emancipation\" could more accurately be viewed as child neglect. After having spent months, years, or longer moving from placement to placement, aging-out youth are suddenly thrust into homelessness, unemployment, welfare, and oppressive disadvantage. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe chapters in this book offer a blueprint for reform that eschews the tired cycle of a tragedy followed by outrage and calls for more money, staff, training, and lawsuits that provide, at best, fleeting relief as a new complacency slowly sets in until the cycle repeats. If we want, instead, to try something else, the changes that Gelles outlines in this book are affordable, scalable, and proven.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Richard Gelles\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 200\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.90lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.20w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780190618018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRichard J. Gelles, PhD, Former Dean (2001-2014) and Joanne T. \u0026amp; Raymond H. Welsh Chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice; Co-Faculty Director, Field Center for Children's Policy, Practice, and Research; Founding Director, Evelyn Jacobs Ortner Center on Family Violence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":42992710615155,"sku":"9.78019E+12","price":48.85,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/files\/img_805bed8c-6bd2-4f86-b905-70c2bf7ee144.jpg?v=1744715410","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/out-of-harms-way-creating-an-effective-child-welfare-system-9780190618018","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}