|
||||||||||||
EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL SERVICES TO AFDC RECIPIENTS Dorothy L. Miller, D.S.W. Contracted by California State Assembly Rules Committee In conformance with federal law, the California State Department of Social Welfare began to provide social services for AFDC families. This study was conducted to assess the degree to which such services were helpful? Among various conceptions of what constitutes "help" in the social service context, especially as it applies to welfare recipients, this project employed a common criterion of social workers: people are "helped" who feel "helped" -- i.e., if a person's perceptions about managing a problem undergo a favorable change, then one might expect a favorable behavioral change to follow. Interviews were conducted with a representative sample of 158 social workers in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and with one client served by each. The matched pair interviews produced data on the respondents' social characteristics, their view of the recipient's problem, the services offered in a specific instance, and the consequences of that service. Most social workers were White, under 30, childless, and college-educated. Most recipients were non-White, over 30, had on average four children, and had a high-school education or less. Obstacles to communication and mutual understanding were further exacerbated by the highly transient nature of the worker-client relationship and by the infrequency of encounters during the relationship. Social workers and clients had very different perceptions of problems, services, and their value. Most recipients viewed their primary problem as a shortage of money -- the average monthly allotment for a family with four children was $200. Most social workers saw their clients' primary problem as personal or emotional difficulties, even though one fourth said their clients did not have enough money to get through the month. Only one third of the recipients said social workers had "helped" with a problem. Social workers thought they had "helped" in more than one half of the cases. Agreement on help was registered in only 15 percent of the cases. On one point there was a broad consensus: only one sixth of the clients said they would voluntarily go to a social worker for "help," and only one fourth of the social workers thought that they should. "It would seem," the report concluded, "that both workers and recipients are engaged in shadowboxing." The overriding finding was that recipients did not get enough money to live on. Another major finding was that unless a recipient perceives the need for help and seeks it voluntarily, social services were ineffectual (except in protective services such as child abuse protection). Social services were ineffectual in either moving recipients off welfare or in giving them help with social or personal problems. Dorothy L. Miller, D.S.W. Contracted by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors The 1962 welfare amendments to the Social Security Act were enacted with the intent to provide adequate social services that would prevent prolonged dependency, strengthen family life, and rehabilitate and train recipients for full employment and economic security. Using case records and field interviews with a sample of 117 cases, this study investigated what progress was made toward those goals in Santa Clara County's Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. The investigators compiled and analyzed data on the social and demographic characteristics of the AFDC families, on their problems (physical, mental, emotional, marital, familial, socially pathological), on factors that led to apply for AFDC, on their experience as recipients, on reasons for their departure from AFDC, and on their post-welfare history. Also compiled, analyzed, and compared were perceptions of clients and social workers of problems, services and relationships. Opinions were elicited from clients of what should be done to improve the program. In sum, it was found that in the years since it began, the program revealed no significant progress toward the goals of the 1962 legislation. The AFDC budget and caseload went up. More than half the families remained chronically dependent upon AFDC after five years. Of those who departed from AFDC at any time, only a fourth did so because they secured employment. The first and most pressing problem of AFDC recipients, as perceived by themselves and as confirmed by objective criteria, was the inadequacy of their financial grant. Solution to this problem was held to be primary. Supplemental recommendations included remedial programs, self-help programs to develop a new identity and sense of self-worth, and provisions for adequate housing, child care facilities, and family planning services. Most basically, the study found, a concerted effort is required to create alternatives to the "welfare culture" way of life, to abolish the "welfare status" with its stigma and indignity, to provide opportunity for needy persons to obtain support through common status models -- e.g., pensions, insurance -- or through newly devised modes free of stigma. SOCIAL SERVICES IN ALAMEDA COUNTY Dorothy L. Miller, D.S.W. Contracted by California Taxpayers Association One third of the 1971 Alameda County budget was allocated for public welfare programs. One eighth of the welfare budget was spent for "social services." What were these services, and how effective were they? Answers to these questions were sought from providers and recipients of the County’s welfare services. A representative sample was drawn from the county's 300 social service workers. In interviews with these sample workers, each was asked to describe two recent recipients of social service deliveries -- one "successful," the other "unsuccessful." Subsequently, each of the "successful" and "unsuccessful" clients was interviewed. The final data were derived from 33 social service workers and 66 clients. All were asked similar questions about the nature and value of the services. Additionally, all were asked to describe problems affecting delivery of social services, and to make a suggestion for improvement. The average monthly income of the client households was approximately $315. The average number of children per family was 4.3 for the "successful" cases, and 5 for the "unsuccessful" cases. "How much," the report asked, "can be accomplished by social services for families living at such a low level?" Clients revealed a more acute concern with the basic economic issue than did case workers. Asked to suggest an improvement in social services, almost half of the "successful" cases and two fifths of the "unsuccessful" cases suggested increases in monetary grants. Among case workers, lower caseloads, better agency relationships, and better training were the more frequent suggestions. Only 10 percent listed "more realistic money grants." In the same vein, case workers saw "counseling" as the principal service they rendered, whereas both groups of clients saw the major service as "direct action" or referral to another agency. In a discussion appended to the findings, it was argued that the whole area of "social services" is poorly defined and responsibility for such services is much too diffuse. It was noted that primary responsibility for social services and their delivery seemed to rest with no single public agency and no single professional or occupational group. Following a list of short-range recommendations, centered on greater community and client involvement, two long-range recommendations were made: (1) the establishment of a special community agency that would draw together all aspects of social services under its auspices, so that it could provide a supermarket of social services to all community residents, and (2) a research and demonstration project (with funds sought from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare) to develop a model for the nation's welfare system in supplementing a potential income maintenance program. FOSTER CARE: POTENTIAL AND SELF AND PUBLIC IMAGE David Kallen, Ph.D. Contracted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development This project was designed to respond to a critical gap between the demand for foster homes and the supply of foster parents by examining the possibilities for enlarging the potential foster family pool. A demographic survey of foster parents found that they are part of a vanishing breed -- i.e., city dwellers who had migrated from the country early in their adult lives and then settled rapidly and solidly into jobs and homes. This finding underscored the need for revising the processes for recruiting and selecting foster parents to meet the growing demand. Interviews with a random sample of White and Black women females in Baltimore were designed to ascertain their potential as foster mothers. The finding was that one third of the White married women and one half of the Black married women fell into a "high" potential category, as distinct from "limited" and "low" potential categories in a structured Foster Care Recruitment Scale. Criteria used by agencies to screen prospective foster parents were then applied to the sample. Those that tended to eliminate the largest proportions of the high potential group were: substandard housing and high anomie for Black women, and lack of confidence in the foster mother role for White women. About half of both ethnic groups failed to meet the residential stability standard requiring continuous dwelling for five years or more. The report suggested: (1) instead of eliminating Black families with substandard housing, agencies would do better to help them attain housing that meets the requirements; (2) high anomie need not disqualify Black families, as disaffection from the larger White dominated society might well signify adjustment in the black subculture; (3) lack of confidence among potential White foster mothers might be overcome by education and closer cooperation of agencies; (4) a more flexible residential stability standard would more closely conform to residential mobility patterns in contemporary America. Another suggested possibility for enlarging the foster care pool was relaxation of the rigid policy that excludes unmarried couples and gay couples from consideration, regardless of their stability or other positive characteristics. The need for more money was recognized, but it is argued that money in itself will not solve the crisis without a change in the attitudes and policies of the agencies, both federal and local, that wield power in the foster care family system. Dorothy L. Miller, D.S.W. Supported by a grant from the Social and Rehabilitation Service Two extant data bases were analyzed to assess the effectiveness of social services to runaways, foster care children, and children of AFDC families. One set of data was compiled in a two-year study of 215 runaways and how they were served by existing social agencies. The other was accumulated in a multifaceted, 25-year follow-up study of 396 subjects reared in urban multi-problem families. The latter data afforded the opportunity to examine long-range consequences of foster home and public welfare services. Over all, little or no evidence of social service effectiveness was found. Performance was examined in relation to the three major social service functions: (1) to socialize individuals into future roles, (2) to act as a social control agency to prevent major social disruptions, and (3) to provide means and resources to integrate individuals into various social units and roles. Socialization: The 25-year follow-up study provided the most persuasive evidence that foster care recipients and AFDC clients were significantly worse off in terms of their adult adaptation than their matched controls. The findings on runaways were less conclusive, but did indicate that social services generally failed to prevent recurrent runaway episodes or to help the youth on the run. Social control: Runaways viewed child welfare, along with the juvenile justice system, as repressive and harmful. Foster care and AFDC subjects were significantly more prone than their controls to engage in some form of deviance or crime. Social/functional integration: Relatively few runaways knew of available social services and fewer yet used them. Thus, few were exposed to the possibly integrative influences of such services as counseling or material assistance. Among foster care subjects, 83 percent felt their foster care experience had serious negative impacts. They were, in fact, less well integrated into adult roles than were their controls. Such material assistance as AFDC subjects did receive was judged to be inadequate and perhaps stigmatizing or demeaning. These subjects had poorer adult adjustments than their controls and were less well integrated both socially and psychologically. Based on the findings, five recommendations were offered with respect to each of the three target groups. These included the development of youth hostels, travel stipends, youth job training programs, varied alternatives to foster care with significant participation by the affected youth in the selection process, the integration of welfare services with the health, employment, housing, and educational systems with a focus on prevention of serious disruption, and far more power for clients in the choice and provision of services. GROUP
HOMES FOR ADOLESCENTS: Scott Kester, Ph.D. Supported by a grant from the Office of Human Development Services This was a study of group homes for adolescents in Los Angeles, which at the time was far ahead of the rest of the country in resorting to this form of child-placement service. The study focused on three essential components: (1) the agencies that placed juveniles in group homes and the decision-making processes that went into such placements; (2) the group homes themselves, their operation and their methods, and their organizational structure as it affects costs and quality of care; (3) the clients, their characteristics, their demographic composition as it relates to the homes in which they are placed, and their reactions to group-home placement. A systems analysis of the group home structures and their consequences critiqued many issues. These findings were used to modify group home regulations at the federal level. GROUP
HOMES: IMAGES AND REALITIES OF Scott Kester, Ph.D. Supported by a grant from the Office of Human Development Services This study of group homes in the Los Angeles area compared the "ideal" group home as evolved in the literature with the group home as it existed in practice in the Los Angeles area. Principal data were derived from interviews with 35 placement workers in the four principal public placement agencies and with 33 group home operators. The operators were drawn from three types of homes, as categorized by the placement workers: "Good" (12), "Problem" (8), and "Mixed" (13). Those labeled "Mixed" had been categorized as "Good" by some placement workers and as "Problem" by others. Agency workers acknowledged that the most common determinant of placement was expediency – i.e., the conjunction of an available bed and the time pressure to place a child. The next most common determinant was familiarity with a given home. "Fit" between a child's needs and a home's services did not appear to play a significant role in the placement process. Interviews with operators indicated inadequate staffing with high turn-over, mixed clientele (e.g., delinquent youth, some of them violent offenders, and non-delinquent youth), and a lack of program specialization -- factors rendering dubious an effective response to individual needs. Both placement workers and group homes operators perceived group homes as useful and viable services for troubled adolescents. Yet, both groups, from different and at times conflicting perspectives, indicated concern about the quality of care and about the ambiguity of who (placement worker, licensing agency, or group home operator) is responsible for what in the group home system. Both groups were highly critical of how the licensing function was performed, and both were highly critical of each other. Ultimately it was found that the attributes of the idealized image of the group home -- a facsimile of "normal" home environment, individually tailored treatment programs administered by resident staff, openness, community involvement -- were most often honored in the breach. Recommendations included: interviews with a representative sample of group home residents to ascertain their experiences and perceptions, initial work on development of a "quality-of-care" measure, a subsidy system to encourage group home specialization and facilitate matched placements, development of a "services receipt" that would provide each group home resident with a detailed list of services to he delivered, and a training program for placement and group home workers. Dorothy L. Miller, D.S.W. Supported by a grant from the Children's Bureau, This national two-year study, in which the Regional Institute of Social Welfare Research collaborated with ISA, was undertaken to examine "The Impact of Status Offender Deinstitutionalization on Public Child Welfare Services." The findings were based on two primary sources: (1) secondary analyses of data compiled in a two-phased National Study of Social Services to Children and Their Families, conducted by Westat, Inc., in 1977 and 1978, and of data on child services in state Comprehensive Annual Service Plans (1975-1979), submitted under Title XX, Social Security Act; and (2) national direct mail surveys of alternative youth-serving agencies in the private sector and state agencies responsible for group homes, which were conducted to discern how deinstitutionalization of status offenders impacted upon both types of services and what the implications of this impact were for the public child welfare system. The findings indicated that status offender deinstitutionalization, as mandated by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, had a relatively modest quantitative impact upon the public child welfare system, and corroborated other studies that found a sizable gap between the number of status offenders diverted from the juvenile justice system and the number absorbed by the child welfare system. Some of the gap was filled by alternative private agencies and group homes, which had proliferated in the interim years with federal assistance and include a large proportion of status offenders in their clientele. The qualitative impact of status offender deinstitutionalization upon public child welfare services appeared to be the more significant, as the system's personnel and traditional services are ill-prepared to cope with the troubled and troublesome adolescents engaged in status-offense behavior. Among the problems of the child welfare system that were highlighted or exacerbated by status offender deinstitutionalization were the following: the absence of programmatic and structural initiatives to differentiate between adolescents and prepubescent children in the provision of services, the absence of an outreach program for adolescents, undertrained and underqualified staff, a potential in out-of-home placements for reverting to institutionalization under different labels, fragmentation of public child services that compounds serious difficulties of providing effective leadership in formulating and implementing child-service policy. Fortuitously, final phases of the study coincided with enactment of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-272). Recommendations, strongly emphasizing the need for distinct programs for adolescents, were therefore directed to implementation of those sections of the Act that could facilitate an approach to solution of the problems noted. |
||||||||||||
|
