Child Protective Services Pros and Cons
My practicum site was at the Department of Children and Family Services within the Legally Free Unit with Tommy Williams. He has been a social worker for DCFS for approximately seven years. The purpose of DCFS is to protect abused and neglected children. The program is The program is responsible for the investigation of child abuse and neglect complaints, child protection, family preservation, family reconciliation, foster care, group care, in-home services, independent living and adoption services for children ages 0 to 18 years. I specifically worked in the Legally Free Unit of DCFS which is for children ages approximately 7-17 whose parents have has their parental rights terminated and the children are not able to be adopted for various reasons. The type of psychological work the agency engages in primarily is cognitive behavioral therapy, they also tend to use a family dynamic therapy because one of the main focuses of children within the system is the role of the family and how they always want the child to go back home. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychological approach that uses talk therapy to address dysfunctional emotions, behaviors and cognitions through a goal-oriented, systemic process. Due to the fact that a lot of children in foster care tend to place blame on themselves, CBT helps them to replace maladaptive, coping skills, cognition, emotions and behaviors with more adaptive and acceptable ones, by challenging an individual’s way of thinking and the way that they react to certain habits or behaviors. Specifically the kids that I worked with were considered “legally free” meaning that they are “unadoptable.” The parental rights to the children have been terminated due to neglect or any type of abuse. Usually these kids suffer abuse/neglect for years before they are taken from the care of their parents and placed into the system. Because of this most, if not all had some sort of mental problems. A lot of them have lost hope for a