Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited

by Leon C. Fulcher (Editor), Frank Ainsworth (Editor)

Overview

Find out how group care for children has changed in the last 20 years

Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited focuses on the core issues that shape the quality of care that’s provided in institutional and residential care settings, as well as day care services that rely on the group process. Leading authorities on residential group care practice from around the world examine practice concepts centered on three broad themes: working directly with children; working indirectly to support children and their families; and organizational influences on practice. This unique book offers valuable insights for dealing with the daily challenges of working with young people in responsive group care.

Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited builds on contemporary themes that were explored by the editors more than 20 years ago in Group Care for Children: Concept and Issues, and Group Care Practice with Children, both out of print. Contributors to this updated collection put a fresh spin on the original material, as well as cross-cultural analysis from both sides of the Atlantic, Australia and New Zealand, Malaysia, China, and the United Arab Emirates. They revisit the key issues identified in the earlier books and provide personal and professional reflections on what has happened to their practice themes since the early 1980s. Special attention is paid to how social policy imperativesnormalization, de-institutionalization, mainstreaming, least restrictive environment, minimal intervention, and diversionhave reshaped the field, group care methods and skills needed for direct and indirect care, and group care as an occupational.

Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited examines (and re-examines):

• the relationships between group care practice and education
  
• how group care programs can become hostile to families
  
• primary care in secondary settings
  
• the importance of shared language in a group care center
  
• group development
  
• how group composition can influence the overall functioning of the group
  
• managing occupational stresses in group care practice
  
• patterns of career development in child and youth care
  
• economic influences that impact group care
  
• challenges facing the future of group care services for children
  
• and much more

Group Care Practice with Children and Young People Revisited is a must-read for youth case workers, child and youth care educators, and anyone working in child welfare, including youth justice managers, administrators, and policymakers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135803797
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/06/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	346
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Leon C. Fulcher, Frank Ainsworth

Table of Contents

• About the Contributors
  
• Foreword (Adrian Ward)
  
• Preface (Mark Krueger)
  
• Chapter 1. Group Care Practice with Children Revisited (Leon C. Fulcher and Frank Ainsworth)
  
• SECTION 1: WORKING DIRECTLY WITH CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE, AND THEIR FAMILIES
  
• Chapter 2. The Soul, Rhythms and Blues of Responsive Child and Youth Care at Home or Away from Home (Leon C. Fulcher)
  
• Chapter 3. Developing Social Competencies in Group Care Practice (Richard W. Small and Leon C. Fulcher)
  
• Chapter 4. Group Care Practitioners as Family Workers (Frank Ainsworth)
  
• SECTION 2: WORKING INDIRECTLY TO SUPPORT CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE, AND FAMILIES
  
• Chapter 5. Primary Care in Secondary Settings: Inherent Strains (Henry W. Maier, Introduction by Thom Garfat)
  
• Chapter 6. Developing a Shared Language and Practice (Stephen F. Casson)
  
• Chapter 7. Creating and Sustaining a Culture of Group Care (Frank Ainsworth and Leon C. Fulcher)
  
• Chapter 8. Resident Group Influences on Team Functioning (Gale E. Burford and Leon C. Fulcher)
  
• SECTION 3: ORGANISATIONAL INFLUENCES ON PRACTICE
  
• Chapter 9. Managing Occupational Stress for Group Care Personnel (Martha A. Mattingly)
  
• Chapter 10. Patterns of Career Development in Child and Youth Care (Karen D. VanderVen)
  
• Chapter 11. The Economics of Group Care Practice: A Reappraisal (Martin Knapp)
  
• Chapter 12. ConclusionLooking Ahead (Leon C. Fulcher and Frank Ainsworth)
  
• Index
  
• Reference Notes Included
  

What People are Saying About This

Carol Stuart

Students, front-line practitioners, supervisors, or managers could pick up this book, choose any chapter, and find themselves thinking about how to change what they do with each other to have a positive affect on the shared life space in which a group of young people exists on a daily basis. (Dr. Carol Stuart, Director and Associate Professor, School of Child and Youth Care, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario)

Mark Smith

What struck me about these is the regularity with which the authors have been able to look back on their original contributions and remark, with some justification, that they have stood the test of time—their messages, although now at least 20 years old, still resonate. There is something enduring about the writings contained here. . . . All of the contributions included here have aged well; THE BOOK IS A CLASSIC, OR SOON WILL BECOME ONE, because it is grounded in some enduring truths. . . . The contributions to this book acknowledge and reflect this complexity in ways that little else I have read on group care does. It is A WORK OF SUBSTANCE, DEPTH OF SCHOLARSHIP AND WISDOM; NOT MERE ACADEMIC RIGOUR, BUT THE KIND OF PRACTICE WISDOM THAT ONLY COMES FROM THOSE WHO HAVE A GOOD FEW BACK-SHIFTS UNDER THEIR BELTS. . . . The book WILL HAVE AND RICHLY DESERVES A RESONANCE AND A READY AUDIENCE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC AND BEYOND. (Mark Smith, MA, CQSW, MEd, Lecturer in Social Work, School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh)

Ian Milligan

Many of us have long wished that the 2 original 'Ainsworth and Fulcher' texts were not out-of-print. Well NOW THEY'RE BACK AND ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT THE WAIT HAS BEEN WORTH IT! . . . . These are texts which continue to be useful, probing important facets of the group care challenge. They definitely stand the test of time. . . . In the past 20 years both of the editors have traveled and worked in Australia and New Zealand as well as their home countries of Scotland and the USA. Thus they bring a wide perspective and vision to the task of analysing group care, both in terms of the needs of children and of the staff who care for them. They do not over-claim on this score but, given how parochial much of social work and social welfare literature is, this 'global' perspective is a very valuable strand that is evident at many places in the book, not least in their own chapters. . . . This is a book for reflective practitioners and open-minded educators. . . . Will help the reader think about how group care could and should be used, if child care systems are genuinely going to produce 'care'. If you want to think about the group care of children and youth; GIVE THREE CHEERS for Ainsworth and Fulcher and GET YOUR ORDER IN! (Ian Milligan, Assistant Director (Education), Scottish Institute for Residential Child care, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom)

Floyd Alwon

This book OFFERS A MUCH NEEDED MORALE BOOST FOR GROUP CARE PRACTITIONERS. Fulcher and Ainsworth have pulled together leading thinkers from many countries who address emerging trends and the changing nature of our work. With group care under increasing attack by policy makers and budget setters, THIS BOOK OFFERS A REFRESHING PERSPECTIVE WHILE HIGHLIGHTING INNOVATIVE PRACTICES. (Floyd Alwon, EdD, Vice President, Consultation, Research, and Professional Development, Child Welfare League of America)