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Expanding Role and Reach: A Community-Centered Child Welfare Response to COVID-19
Start Date:8/6/2020
Start Time:1:30 PM EDT
Duration:60 minutes
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The legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic will be a significantly elevated need for core child welfare services over the months and years to come. COVID-19 has created a high degree of anxiety, stress, grief, and loss. It has reduced access to support networks at a time when families need them most. Public health measures like physical distancing and quarantine may be necessary, but their unwanted consequences - unemployment, financial and food insecurity, mental illness, family violence, and separation from family and culture - undermine child safety and well-being.
A review of the literature indicates that the impact of the pandemic on children, youth and families includes:
· Increased child abuse and neglect
· Disruptions in cultural knowledge due to family separation and isolation
· Deterioration of mental health due to a combination of uncertainty, isolation and trauma
· Increased domestic violence, with fewer opportunities to reach out for help
· Deterioration in economic and food security
· Disproportionate suffering for families living in poverty or with housing insecurity.
We do know that there is not yet an end in sight. Until a vaccination or treatment is widely available, it is likely that there will be ongoing infections, physical distancing and periodic lockdowns. Once the pandemic itself is over, secondary impacts like economic recession will continue to impact well-being. Recovery from mental illness and the traumatic aftermath of gender-based violence and abuse and neglect can take years. There is emerging recognition that managing the fallout is likely to require a long-term response.
Child welfare agencies will need to adapt to this new context, and effective adaptation appears to entail the expansion of the child welfare role and engagement in hitherto unlikely community partnerships.
Specific learning objectives for this presentation are to:
1. Become familiar with the existing pandemic literature, as it pertains to the impact of COVID-19 on children, youth and families and its implications for practice.
2. Engage in long-term thinking around how to adapt to the new context with an eye to innovative community partnerships and responses.
The legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic will be a significantly elevated need for core child welfare services over the months and years to come. COVID-19 has created a high degree of anxiety, stress, grief, and loss. It has reduced access to support networks at a time when families need them most. Public health measures like physical distancing and quarantine may be necessary, but their unwanted consequences - unemployment, financial and food insecurity, mental illness, family violence, and separation from family and culture - undermine child safety and well-being.
A review of the literature indicates that the impact of the pandemic on children, youth and families includes:
· Increased child abuse and neglect
· Disruptions in cultural knowledge due to family separation and isolation
· Deterioration of mental health due to a combination of uncertainty, isolation and trauma
· Increased domestic violence, with fewer opportunities to reach out for help
· Deterioration in economic and food security
· Disproportionate suffering for families living in poverty or with housing insecurity.
We do know that there is not yet an end in sight. Until a vaccination or treatment is widely available, it is likely that there will be ongoing infections, physical distancing and periodic lockdowns. Once the pandemic itself is over, secondary impacts like economic recession will continue to impact well-being. Recovery from mental illness and the traumatic aftermath of gender-based violence and abuse and neglect can take years. There is emerging recognition that managing the fallout is likely to require a long-term response.
Child welfare agencies will need to adapt to this new context, and effective adaptation appears to entail the expansion of the child welfare role and engagement in hitherto unlikely community partnerships.
Specific learning objectives for this presentation are to:
1. Become familiar with the existing pandemic literature, as it pertains to the impact of COVID-19 on children, youth and families and its implications for practice.
2. Engage in long-term thinking around how to adapt to the new context with an eye to innovative community partnerships and responses.
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Speakers
Carolyn Oliver, Ph.D.
Carolyn began her career as a social worker for children and families 25 years ago. She has worked as a frontline practitioner, supervisor, consultant, researcher and policy developer, in Australia, England and Canada. Carolyn most recently led research, policy and development work at one of Canada’s largest urban Indigenous child welfare agencies. She runs her own research and consulting practice.
She is the author of Strengths-Based Child Protection: Firm, Fair and Friendly (2018). Passionate about social justice and reconciliation, Carolyn seeks to build individual and organizational capacity in sustainable, strengths-based ways.
She has taught at the University of British Columbia School of Social Work and at multiple professional training sites, holding a Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work from the University of British Columbia, a Bachelor of Arts in Modern History from Oxford University (U.K.) and a Masters in Social Work from London University (U.K.). Carolyn is a reviewer for the British Journal of Social Work, Child and Family Social Work, Social Work Education and International Journal for Teaching and Learning journals. She has trained as a Family Mediator and Suicide Intervention educator.