Description
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This paper describes a three-pronged solution for the complex problem of improvement of the deficient U.S. trauma-informed child welfare system.
Design: The paper design was structured by the professor’s subheadings, requesting student’s personal experience, research, valid resources, application to proposed solution, actual evidence-based solution, alternative solutions not chosen, assumptions, barriers, feasibility of solution, and social reaction to change over time.
Findings: The findings delineate a three-pronged approach. These are (a) establishment of trauma-informed parenting curricula in schools, (b) improved intake into child welfare system, and (c) alternative to initial police intervention.
Research limitations/implications: Limitations include adequate funding allocations by states and the federal government, disparate sex education laws and curricula in schools, objections by state legislators, and possible lack of support by current staff in the child welfare system. Practical implications: Implementation of the solution would substantially decrease the suffering of children in the child welfare system, help them deal with their traumas, and enable them to obtain the mental health services necessary.
Social implications: The solution would demonstrate that the state and federal governments are humanizing the child welfare system and moving from a punitive to rehabilitative framework. The solution would also decrease the school-to-prison and foster-care-to-prison pipelines.
Originality/Value: This solution to a complex problem pinpoints the major problems in the child welfare system. The description provides an extensive approach to the most important aspects of the child welfare system for greater trauma-informed improvement.
Keywords: child services, child welfare system, foster care, police involvement, trauma
