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collaboration be adversaries
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>State policy in child welfare makes much of the notion
that solutions are found by means of collaboration between family and the agency
and invokes the concept, widely stated (at least) in, say, systems involving
children with special health care needs, special education, and so on that
"parents are experts." Yet parallel to casework are the legal
proceedings--deprivation adjudications, custody petitions, and so on. I'm sure
different prosecutors (which, when you come down to it, is what they are) take
different approaches to their work, but what certainly can happen is that as
long as parents exercise their right to have their case heard in court they are
subject to a difficult tearing-down process, in which the very person who most
represents the agency in casework is also the person whose information is used
as the weaponry (possibly with considerable sharpening efforts by the
prosecutor). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Any comments, study, papers, or anything else on this
topic and how it impacts the concept of collaboration? Government publications
do tend to focus on the fact that whatever the court outcome or other clear
legal requirements for parents happens to be, those must be taken seriously--but
shy away from the issue of how destructive that process can be, and what
agencies can do to lessen the destructive impact. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I was involved in a case in which the agency made the wise
decision, after the parent prevailed in a TPR proceeding, to change caseworkers
so the reunification ordered by the court could proceed without resentment.
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Sheri McMahon</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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