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Full-Text Articles in Social Work
Rescuing Children And Punishing Poor Families: Housing Related Decisions, Corey Shdaimah
Rescuing Children And Punishing Poor Families: Housing Related Decisions, Corey Shdaimah
The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare
Child welfare policy is not self implementing; an understanding of child welfare policy must therefore include the decision making practices by those whom Michael Lipsky (1980) has called "streetlevel bureaucrats." This article reports data from a qualitative study exploring perceptions of child welfare professionals about housing-related child welfare decisions. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 18 child welfare lawyers, judges, and masters level social workers from a large city in the mid-Atlantic U.S. All agreed that there is insufficient affordable adequate housing. They held conflicting views, however, on: 1) the standard for adequate housing in the absence of …
The Social Construction Of Client Participation: The Evolution And Transformation Of The Role Of Service Recipients In Child Welfare And Mental Disabilities, Terry Mizrahi, Mayra Humphreys-Lopez, Denise Torres
The Social Construction Of Client Participation: The Evolution And Transformation Of The Role Of Service Recipients In Child Welfare And Mental Disabilities, Terry Mizrahi, Mayra Humphreys-Lopez, Denise Torres
The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare
This article presents a comparative analysis of client participation (CP) in child welfare and mental health and mental retardation systems. It identifies three rationales for client participation (philosophical, pragmatic, and political), along with the limitations surrounding each rationale. It uses social construction theory to examine the historical and ideological underpinnings of organized, institutionally-sanctioned client involvement inside and outside government. In order to enhance the capacity of clients to influence service and benefit systems, their role must evolve through the mutual efforts of government-strengthening client participation policies and independent organizing from the bottom up through community development and advocacy programs.