Introduction

     The purpose of this educational toolkit is to help prepare social workers for a situation they will likely encounter at some point during their career, namely, the decision to report suspected child abuse or neglect and then the ability to maintain the therapeutic relationship with the client. The decision to report suspected child abuse or neglect may, at times, be straightforward while in other circumstances the social worker may be presented with information that is ambiguous, unclear, or comes from a third party. These latter situations can leave a social worker uncertain as to the appropriate course of action. Once a decision is made to report child maltreatment, many social workers are concerned with maintaining the therapeutic relationship and managing the often-negative feelings and reactions of family members. This concern may be heightened in situations where on-going contact is likely or inevitable, such as in rural or remote locales.

     The purpose of this educational toolkit is to provide social work students and practitioners with important information on reporting child abuse and neglect and maintaining the relationship. Our goal is to help social workers (students and practitioners) feel empowered and knowledgeable when working with children and their families. This educational toolkit will present specific strategies currently used by social workers in the field to repair and restore the therapeutic relationship after a report to Child Protection Services.

     This educational toolkit includes a training manual, presentation, reflection questions, case vignettes depicting the typology of maltreatment at low, moderate, and high levels of severity, simulation videos, and discussion questions. For training environments wishing to implement an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), the module contains a performance rating scale, reflection rating scale, reflection questions and instructions on implementing an OSCE.

To start exploring the toolkit, use the drop-down navigation menu on the left-hand of the e-text to expand and click on the different chapter contents!