What is Child Protective Services (CPS)?
Child
Protective Services is a specialized social service for children who are
believed to be neglected or abused, and to their parents or other adults having
permanent or temporary care, custody, or parental responsibility, or to
household or family members, to decrease the risk of continuing physical, sexual
or mental abuse or neglect. In instances where a child can be safely protected
in his or her own home through the provision of services or other assistance to
the child's family, such an alternative is preferable to foster care
placement.
What are the goals of the Child Protective Services?
To
protect the child and assist the parents in providing proper care and attention
to the child and to remedy and decrease the risk of continuing abuse and
neglect; and
To provide an alternate plan of care for the child when
parents are unable to provide proper care and attention to the child.
Child Protective Services are not designed to address all issues related
to family dysfunction nor the whole range of parent-child problems. The focus is
on protecting children from abuse and neglect. Protecting children is a
community responsibility. Resources should be coordinated through team efforts.
The community has an obligation to ensure that the required services are
available for prevention, intervention, and treatment of child abuse and
neglect.
What is the Rehabilitative Philosophy for Child Protective
Services?
Child Protective Services attempts to assure the safety and
welfare of children through various strategies. A CPS worker enters into a
relationship with a family to identify, control, and reduce the risk to
children. Factors relating to the origin of the risk are identified and matched
with client outcomes. The treatment process is a deliberate, reasonable,
mutually agreed upon strategy to reduce the risk which required CPS
intervention. It involves planned action to move the family toward desired
goals.
Using a combination of support, direction, and authority, the
worker may provide direct services to the family members and also act as case
manager in coordinating the provision of other services that are
needed.
Fundamental philosophical principles to the social work
discipline for CPS:
The ultimate success of CPS intervention rests with
the family, which must be encouraged to be involved with and participate in the
intervention process.
Most CPS clients can change their behavior if
provided sufficient help to motivate and empower them.
Personal, social
and societal factors may lead to inadequate parenting and to child maltreatment.
Most often, they represent examples of failure and despair, rather than willful
premeditated behaviors. Therefore, child abuse and neglect are principally
social rather than legal problems.
Effective intervention requires that
CPS respond in a non-punitive, non-critical manner and offer help.
Child
Protective Services should collaborate and coordinate with other disciplines,
e.g. law enforcement, medical providers, and educational personnel, while it
maintains its unique roles and functions.
It is best to keep children
with their parents when safety can be assured and maintaineable for prevention,
intervention, and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
Child Protective
Services, 3780 S 4th Ave # 2a, Yuma, AZ 85365, (928) 341-1159.