Treating Families and Children in the Child Protective System: Strategies for Systemic Advocacy and Family Healing

Treating Families and Children in the Child Protective Systemis a journey through the praxis and culture of CPS, mapped by therapists working with the clients it is intended to serve. Using theory, strategies and compelling case studies, the author argues that child abuse and neglect are ultimate forms of family injustice and that no intervention can succeed if it does not restore justice to the relationship between victims and offenders. Instead, CPS often supplants the natural family with foster care, thus avoiding these issues and in many cases creating an entirely new level of injustice for child and family. While at times helpful, family preservation strategies typically focus on case management or solution focused cures, failing to address the deeply engrained family injustice expressed in the abuse of children. The author offers neither a simple critique of the system and exoneration of families, nor a disparaging attack on those who mistreat their young. Instead he proposes that criticallyoptimistic therapists, evaluators, court officers and caseworkers approach each case as family-friends with powerful tools to make real and lasting change thereby directing the overwhelming power of the system into a force for the restoration of family justice.