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Abstract: Parental substance use significantly increases risk of child maltreatment, but is often under-identified by child protective services. This study examined how agency use of standardized substance use assessments and child welfare investigative caseworker education, experience, and caseload affected caseworkers'' identification of parental substance abuse treatment needs. Data are from a national probability sample of permanent, primary caregivers involved with child protective services whose children initially remained at home and whose confidential responses on two validated instruments indicated harmful substance use or dependence. Investigative caseworkers reported use of a formal assessment in over two thirds of cases in which substance use was accurately identified. However, weighted logistic regression indicated that agency provision of standardized assessment instruments was not associated with caseworker identification of caregiver needs. Caseworkers were also less likely to identify substance abuse when their caseloads were high and when caregivers were fathers. Implications for agency practice are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

National survey data were used to assess whether child welfare agency ties to behavioral health care providers improved placement stability for adolescents served by both systems. Adolescents initially at home who were later removed tended to have fewer moves when child welfare and behavioral health were in the same larger agency. Joint training of child welfare and behavioral health staff was negatively associated with numbers of moves and numbers of days out of home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although performance-based contracts have become increasingly popular in child welfare, administrators are developing these contracts with little empirically guided information about how internal work conditions may influence the services families receive. This study examines how child welfare caseworker role overload moderates associations between child welfare agencies' use of performance-based contracting and services provided to families. Analyses using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being suggest that when caseworkers experience high role overload, use of performance-based contracts may decrease caregivers' likelihood of receiving necessary social and behavioral health services. These findings and their implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Policy makers and advocates are increasingly encouraging child-serving organizations to work together. This study examined how child welfare agency ties with substance abuse treatment providers and schools correlated with substance abuse treatment for adolescents receiving child protective services. A sample of adolescents with substance use risk was extracted from a national survey of families engaged with child welfare. Logistic regressions with adjustments for complex survey design used child welfare agency ties to substance abuse treatment providers and schools to predict treatment. As expected, adolescents were more likely to report treatment when child protective services and substance abuse treatment were in the same agency and when child welfare agency directors reported joint planning with schools. However, child welfare agency agreements with substance abuse treatment providers were negatively associated with treatment. This unexpected finding implies that agencies may sometimes cooperate to address problems and to improve service utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examined health service access among children of different racial/ethnic groups in the child welfare system in an attempt to identify and explain disparities. Methods: Data were from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). N for descriptive statistics=2,505. N for multiple regression model=537. Measures reflected child health services need, access, and enabling factors. Chi-square and t tests were used to compare across racial/ethnic groups. A logistic regression model further explored the greatest disparity identified, that between non-Latino/a Black and White children in caseworker-reported access to counseling. Results: In general, caseworker reports of health care service receipt did not differ across racial/ethnic groups. However, Latino/a children had better reported access to vision services than non-Latino/a White children, and counseling access was lower for non-Latino/a Black children than non-Latino/a White children. Caseworkers¿ self-reported efforts to facilitate service access did not vary by race/ethnicity for any type of health care. In the multiple regression model, both private health insurance and a lack of insurance were negatively associated with counseling access, while a history of sexual abuse, adolescence, and greater caseworker effort to secure services were positively associated with access. Race was just barely nonsignificant after controlling for other factors expected to affect access. Conclusions: One possible reason why Black children are less likely to be identified as needing counseling is the fact that they are less likely than White children to have reports of sexual abuse, which strongly predicts counseling access. Practice implications: First, child welfare practice may be more equitable than many believe, with generally comparable health service access reported across children's racial/ethnic groups. Second, caseworkers may be under-identifying need for counseling services among Black children, although this might reflect less frequent reports of sexual abuse for Black children. Third, both privately insured and uninsured children were less likely to receive needed mental health counseling than those with public insurance. This suggests that policy makers should focus on increasing the numbers of children enrolled in public health insurance programs such as Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Human service agencies are encouraged to collaborate with other public and private agencies in providing services to children and families. However, they also often compete with these same partners for funding, qualified staff, and clientele. Although little is known about complex interagency dynamics of competition and collaboration in the child-serving sector, evidence suggests that competition can undermine collaboration unless managed strategically. This study explores the interrelationship between competition and collaboration, sometimes referred to as “co-opetition.” Using a national dataset of private child and family serving agencies, we examine their relationships with other child serving sectors (N=4460 pair-wise relationships), and explore how variations in patterns of collaboration and competition are associated with several organizational, environmental and relational factors. Results suggest that most relationships between private child welfare agencies and other child serving agencies are characterized by both competition and collaboration (i.e. “co-opetition”), and is most frequently reported with other local private child welfare agencies. Logistic regression analyses indicate that co-opetition is likely to occur when private child welfare agencies have a good perceived relationship or a sub-contract with their partner. Findings have implications for how agency leaders manage partner relationships, and how public child welfare administrators structure contracts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]