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Psychological Evaluation Of Parenting Capacity In Child Welfare Proceedings, Katherine L. Rosenblum, Joshua B. Kay
Psychological Evaluation Of Parenting Capacity In Child Welfare Proceedings, Katherine L. Rosenblum, Joshua B. Kay
Articles
In the child welfare context, courts, attorneys, and child protection agencies often turn to psychologists to evaluate parenting capacity. As evaluators in child protection cases, psychologists may be asked to evaluate different parties for different purposes, acting as agents of the court, the child protection agency, or directly retained by the parents or the lawyer guardian ad litem. In this article we focus specifically on psychological evaluations addressing issues pertaining to parenting capacity (in contrast to, for example, assessments that focus solely on child psychological well-being or developmental status). These types of assessments may help to inform dispositional decisions, including …
Representing Parents With Severe Mental Illness In Child Welfare Cases, Joshua B. Kay
Representing Parents With Severe Mental Illness In Child Welfare Cases, Joshua B. Kay
Articles
Parents with severe mental illness are at greater risk than others of becoming involved in the child protection system, and their cases are more likely than others to result in termination of parental rights. Among women with severe mental illness, 26-75% lose custody to one or more of their children, rates far higher than for women without mental illness. Lawyers who represent mentally ill parents in child protection matters face a number of challenges, including maintaining a productive attorney-client relationship, advocating for appropriate services and reasonable accommodations for their clients’ disabilities, and refuting assumptions about their clients’ parenting abilities that …