Family Support : Preventing Out-of-Home Placement

The author notes that efforts to keep children in their own homes when they are found to be at risk within the meaning of child protection legislation have resulted in the creation of family preservation programs. Typically, these services are crisis-oriented. She points out that short-term, intensive work with families is offered with a goal of maintaining the child in his or her own home. She examines a family support program which provides these services in the Anglophone community of Montreal. The author's data for this qualitative study were obtained through indepth interviews with the program staff and through an examination of agency files. Her findings suggest that service is limited to those families who are assessed to be motivated -- that is compliant with the objectives of the program and accepting of the intensive nature of the service. The author concludes that interventions focus on individual parenting, most often the mother's parenting. For the workers, the dual role of support and scrutiny is managed within a relationship of trust. However, her findings further indicate that families who are experiencing severe problems, often related to alcoholism, family violence and extreme poverty, are not served by this program.

Master's Thesis

McGill University

Montreal

1994

iv-83p.

en