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Residential child care workers as primary agents of family intervention

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Abstract

Residential child care has moved away from the goal of providing substitute parenting for children and toward services designed to intervene in families so that children can be reunited with their parents. With a goal of more effective family interventions, this article describes a model for professional responsibilities in residential child care in which the child care worker is a primary catalyst of family change. Both the difficulties and advantages of this model are outlined, with suggestions for implementation. In this model, the role of social workers is to consult with the child care staff, intervene in the complex ecology of these families, and provide extended services to reunited families.

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Garland, D.S.R. Residential child care workers as primary agents of family intervention. Child Youth Care Forum 16, 21–34 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01086118

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