Re-Visioning Public Health Approaches for Protecting Children

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxiii

   PDF

2. The Policy and Program History of Child Protection

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. The Successes and Limitations of Contemporary Approaches to Child Protection

      • Daryl Higgins, Bob Lonne, Todd I. Herrenkohl, Debbie Scott

      Pages 3-17

   3. Stakeholder’s Experiences of the Forensic Child Protection Paradigm

      • Helen Buckley, Morag McArthur, Tim Moore, Erica Russ, Tania Withington

      Pages 19-33

   4. Assessing the Outcomes of Alternative Care and Treatment Responses

      • Amy Conley Wright, Melissa Kaltner

      Pages 35-47

   5. ‘Everybody’s Responsibility’: Exploring the Challenges of Community Engagement in Child Neglect

      • Nigel Parton, Sasha Williams

      Pages 49-62

3. Conceptualising Public Health Approaches

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 63-63

      PDF

   2. Changing and Competing Conceptions of Risk and Their Implications for Public Health Approaches to Child Protection

      • Nigel Parton

      Pages 65-78

   3. Using an Injury Prevention Model to Inform a Public Health Approach to Child Protection

      • Carol W. Runyan, Desmond K. Runyan

      Pages 79-95

   4. Intersecting Forms of Child Victimization and Public Health Prevention

      • Todd I. Herrenkohl, J. Bart Klika

      Pages 97-112

   5. Universal Services: The Foundation for Effective Prevention

      • Deborah Daro, Cara Karter

      Pages 113-126

   6. Families – Private and Sacred: How to Raise the Curtain and Implement Family Support from a Public Health Perspective

      • Daryl Higgins, Matthew Sanders, Bob Lonne, Dominic Richardson

      Pages 127-143

   7. Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Strategies for Population-Level Change: Challenges and Future Directions

      • Antonia Quadara

      Pages 145-163

   8. Youth-Serving Organization Safety Risks and the Situational Prevention Approach

      • Keith Kaufman, Marcus Erooga, Daryl Higgins, Judith Zatkin

      Pages 165-180

   9. How Can Differential Response Inform a Public Health Approach to Child Maltreatment Prevention?

      • Lisa Merkel-Holguin, Tamara Fuller, Marc Winokur, Ida Drury, Bob Lonne

      Pages 181-196

   10. Bringing a Health Equity Perspective to the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect

       • Joanne Klevens, Marilyn Metzler

       Pages 197-220

   11. Critiques of a Public Health Model in Child Maltreatment

       • Mel Gray, Leanne Schubert

       Pages 221-234

4. Addressing Operational and Systemic Issues

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 235-235

      PDF

   2. What Are the Risks and Obstacles in Implementing a Public Health Approach to the Well-Being and Protection of Children?

      • Maria Harries, Melissa O’Donnell

      Pages 237-251

   3. The Role, Importance and Challenges of Data for a Public Health Model

      • Debbie Scott, Agatha Faulkner

      Pages 253-267

This volume provides readers around the globe with a focused and comprehensive examination of how to prevent and respond to child maltreatment using evidence-informed public health approaches and programs that meet the needs of vulnerable children, and struggling families and communities. It outlines the system failures of contemporary forensically-driven child protection practice. Detailed guidance is provided about how to re-think earlier intervention strategies, and establish stronger and more effective programs and services that prevent maltreatment at the population level. Service user and stakeholder perspectives, particularly from marginalized groups including Indigenous peoples, highlight how public health approaches can better support families and keep children safe. Case studies from different countries grapple with the fraught nature of large system change and the various strategies needed to effect multi-level reforms. Presenting the reader with an array of innovative services used in different institutional and community context, this volume confronts the complex challenges found in implementing successful prevention programs that are aligned with diverse cultural and political environments and community expectations.

• Public Health Approaches
• Prevention of Child Maltreatment
• Public Health Methodologies
• History of Child Welfare
• Child Abuse and Neglect
• Contemporary Approaches to Child Protection
• Child Protection Service
• Community Engagement in Child Neglect
• Public Health Approaches to Child Protection
• Implement Family Support from a Public Health Perspective
• Child Sexual Abuse Prevention
• Improve the Well-Being of Children and Families
• Promoting Positive Youth Development

“The book brings together experts in law, child maltreatment, public health, social work, and psychology, both academics and practitioners, to offer excellent insights into the translation of research evidence into practice. ... This would be an important read for graduate students and scholars from the social sciences and health and medical humanities entering into public health research and practice.” (Ann M Cheney, Doody's Book Reviews, December 7, 2019)

• School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, Australia

  Bob Lonne

• Senior Research Fellow, Monash University, Victoria, Australia

  Deb Scott

• Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia

  Daryl Higgins

• Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor of Child and Family, University of Michigan School of Social Work, Ann Arbor, USA

  Todd I. Herrenkohl

Prof. Bob Lonne – Professor Lonne has a distinguished professional, management, research and academic career, with a primary focus on protecting children from maltreatment and developing earlier intervention and prevention strategies. He co-authored the Routledge publications ‘Reforming Child Protection’ (2009) and the follow up ‘Working Ethically in Child Protection’ (2016) which have influenced debate and critical analysis world wide of the processes and outcomes of the social and institutional arrangements used to prevent maltreatment and support struggling families. He has a longstanding commitment to the area of child protection and its service-delivery and workforce issues, and has authored and presented extensively on related issues in social work and the human services. Professor Lonne has participated and contributed to policy forums at the state and federal levels, and internationally and is recognized by Inquiries as an expert witness in relation to child protection systems. He has been a passionate advocate for earlier intervention and prevention strategies, highlighting how current approaches fail many children and contribute to poor life outcomes for children in state care. Professor Lonne was the National President of the Australian Association of Social Workers from 2005-2011.

Dr. Debbie Scott is a multidisciplinary researcher with nursing and public health background. Her early work as a nurse and public health injury prevention professional has led to a unique perspective to approaches in child protection and child well-being. Debbie has contributed to more than 100 peer review papers, manuscripts and government reports and is an experienced speaker, presenting at local, national and international conferences – including a number of keynote and invited papers. Debbie was the manager of the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit, using surveillance data to inform policy on product safety, driver licensing for adolescents and toddler drownings, for example. She has extensive experience in the linkage of larger administrative data sets and health classifications, participating in the development of ICD-11 for child maltreatment coding of health data. She has worked in a number of academic and government settings. Her current work as a Senior Research Fellow for Monash University, Australia is focused on the intersection of child protection, family violence, mental health and alcohol and drugs.

 

Prof. Daryl Higgins is the Director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University. He is located at the St Patrick’s (Melbourne) Campus. He was formerly the Deputy Director at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, where he has led innovative knowledge translation/exchange functions that have increased access to the evidence base for policy makers and practitioners working to protect children and promote family and community well-being. His work has focused in articulating thepublic health approach to safe family environments, and strategies for building child-safe organisational environments. Engagement between the research, policy and practice communities—in order to understand, and improve the circumstances of children, young people and their families—has been his passion for more than 25 years. As an academic and a senior commonwealth public servant, Daryl has contributed to more than 230 publications and over 440 presentations and media engagements. He has provided advice to key influential bodies on child protection, family policy, and population-level public health approaches to child safety and wellbeing, in Australia and internationally.

 

Todd I. Herrenkohl, PhD is Professor and Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor of Child and Family at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Formerly, he was Professor and Co-Director of the 3DL Partnership at the School of Social Work, University of Washington. His scholarship focuses onthe correlates and consequences of child maltreatment, risk and resiliency, and positive youth development. His funded studies and publications examine health-risk behaviors in children exposed to adversity, protective factors that buffer against early risk exposure, and prevention. An international scholar, Dr. Herrenkohl works with policy makers, school and child welfare professionals, and community partners to increase the visibility, application, and sustainability of evidence-based programs and practices in prevention, social emotional learning, and trauma-responsive care. 

Policies and ethics