Best Practice is a way of thinking about problems in imaginative ways and applying knowledge creatively to solve performance problems. Providing services in community based settings is vital to the best application of occupational therapy principles and beliefs. Best Practice Occupational Therapy: In Community Service with Children and Families applies theoretical and evidence based knowledge to best practice with emphasis on children and families in community settings. It emphasizes best practice, and incorporates clinical reasoning and practice models into the material. Students are provided with methods for working through the problem solving processes as they learn the material. The text introduces core principles and demonstrates how, along with OT knowledge, they can be applied to the best interests of children and families. Included throughout the book are worksheets, space for writing notes, and 10 detailed case studies illustrating the core principles and knowledge application in practice.
Now more than ever there is a need to ensure that best practices are being used in residential programs. As the focus on costs and outcomes increase, residential programs must clearly demonstrate that the interventions provided are efficient and effective. Readers will learn how to: Create strength-based, empowering and healing environments; Better engage and partner with children, adolescents and families, in meaningful ways; Support those who have experienced trauma and loss, and to prevent and eliminate the use of restraint and seclusion; Respect and include cultural indices in practices; Train, mentor, supervise, support and empower staff about how to deliver promising and best practices, and evidence-informed and evidence-based interventions; and Track long-term outcomes, and create funding strategies to better support sustained positive outcomes. This book encourages readers to think strategically about how agencies, communities and systems can identify and implement actions that lead to positive change and how to work more collaboratively to improve the lives of children and adolescents who have experienced emotional and behavioral life challenges and their families.
Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.
Social work practice with children, young people and families is complex, highly skilled - and fascinating. Writing about social work increasingly acknowledges the complexities and uncertainties of practice but rarely features the voice of the social worker themselves. This book takes a different approach, that of Critical Best Practice: a constructive, realistic and strengths-based approach that takes as its starting point the telling and analysing of in depth stories about 'live' practice. The reader is encouraged to join the social work practitioner or manager as they engage with the everyday dilemmas and uncertainties of 21st century practice. Ten narratives, based round the themes of relationships, risk, and negotiation & problem solving provide varied opportunities for critical reflection and learning about social work in different contexts. Insights are offered into social work with children, from young babies to adolescents, and families with differing needs in different parts of the UK: England, Scotland and Wales.
As the occupational therapy profession concerns itself with how people occupy their time during daily life, it is critical for occupational therapists who serve children to understand how to apply their knowledge and skills within the complex and varied environments of the community. A core text for over 10 years, Best Practice Occupational Therapy for Children and Families in Community Settings, Second Edition by Dr. Winnie Dunn provides a clear insight into how to conceive, design, implement, and evaluate services that reflect core principles. Best Practice Occupational Therapy for Children and Families in Community Settings, Second Edition provides the most current information about providing services within community settings, with material addressing early intervention, early childhood, school-age services, and transitions. The context of this text is rooted in best practice principles from interdisciplinary literature and illustrates how occupational therapy professionals implement those principles in their everyday practices. New Features of the Second Edition: Updated assessments, evidence, and appendices Case studies that illustrate the implementation of ideas in a practice situation Worksheets that outline each step in the occupational therapy process from what to include to how to provide rationale for team members, families, and consumers Tables and inserts that summarize key points Information regarding state and federal legislation to guide the occupational therapists in how to negotiate for best practice services within parameters of regulations Integrated throughout the text is the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Occupational Therapy Practice Framework Additional on-line resources that are available with new book purchases Included with the text are online supplemental materials for faculty use in the classroom. Best Practice Occupational Therapy for Children and Families in Community Settings, Second Edition contains many suggestions about how to practice the skills needed for evidence-based practice, making this the perfect resource for occupational therapy students, faculty, and practitioners who serve children and families.
This edited collection situates the wellbeing and safety of vulnerable children as the focus of leadership. It provides a guide to theories and practice of leadership for those who want to make a difference to the lives of these children and their families. Drawing on the experience of a highly successful postgraduate program in Child and Family Practice Leadership, the book explores the changing context of Child and Family Practice and the role of leadership, in addition to the knowledge and skills required for effective practice. Contributors draw upon their own practice experiences and insights into the most effective ways to support the work of practitioners to achieve the best outcomes for children and families. The content comprises a mixture of theoretical consideration, discussion of original research and interviews with child and family practitioners. Bringing together contributions from leading specialists and professionals in the field, this book will be essential reading for individual practitioners, organisations and policymakers looking to assist the development of leadership within the child and family practice sector. It will also be of interest to those working in child protection and related workforces.
This book provides an account of parenting support initiatives in children and family services from a number of jurisdictions, paying particular attention to their impact on both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ outcomes for participants and to the inclusion of parents in the design and delivery of these supports. By focusing on parents who are experiencing challenges outside of the normal day-to-day task of parenting and in receipt of formal support services, their perspectives on the experience of receiving these supports and the difference experienced by children and family members are analysed. Conceptually driven and reflecting the individual theories and frameworks that underpinned the parenting supports, the participatory processes and the research undertaken, this book includes case studies from Australia, Bulgaria, England, Italy, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Serbia and Spain. By highlighting the theoretical, conceptual and practical considerations required when supporting parents in an inclusive manner, it will be of interest to all scholars, students and practitioners working in the following areas: social work and social care, child development, child protection and social policy.
A classic text in social work education, Case Critical opens the door on Canada's social services from the perspective of social workers themselves, and service users or "cases", people whose voices we rarely hear. This completely revised and updated fifth edition includes new interviews and topics of discussion to reinforce Carniol's passionate case for social work as "liberation practice."
