Aligning with the Battered Woman to Protect Both Mother and Child

Abstract

Summary The act of addressing domestic violence in the context of Children Protective Service (CPS) work has been inconsistent at best. Generally, battered women and CPS workers collude in avoiding the subject for reasons ranging from fear of children's removal to anticipation of an emotional response to increasing caseload time restrictions. Recently some innovative programs and training efforts have begun to help CPS workers navigate these very complex intersections and assessments. This paper explores the historic background to these efforts. It then describes a sample of innovative CPS programs and explores the components of a specific training program. The latter was a Department of Health and Human Service funded program which was designed at UCLA for the largest Public Child Welfare agency in the country. An assessment instrument was specifically developed for use in the training and agency; it is outlined here. The author examines the obstacles the training encountered as well as the resistance to the implementation of a comprehensive approach which follows the assessment instrument. This examination led to a consideration of policy issues that were addressed and those which require ongoing attention. Key Words: Domestic violencechild abusechild neglectchild welfarefamily violencechild welfare trainingchild welfare policy