The "no man's" land of home weekends for children in residential care.
Home Weekends are the main channel of contact between children in placement and their parents. This practice is of special interest because of both the hopes it raises and the risk it entails. The present research examines public welfare agency practice in this domain. Interviews were held with 45 social workers (from 32 agencies) who were responsible for case-managing 74 families with children in residential care (n = 105). Findings clearly indicate that the practice of home weekends is characterized by the following: an absence of professional access to the children and their parent(s) and neglect in assuring the well-being of children; a lack of differential patterns of children's visits or intensity of social worker-parent contact in relation to parents' dysfunctioning; and a lack of implementation of family-oriented intervention. It was also found that, for 50% of the children, the well-being score while at home does not manifest serious distress. This raises the question of whether the conditions obligate placement in a residential setting. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
School of Social Work, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Israel.
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Laufer
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D002669:Child Welfare; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008329:Managed Care Programs; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012114:Residential Treatment; D012931:Social Environment; D012947:Social Work