Socialinis Darbas: Patirtis ir Metodai (May 2021)

Child rights protection workers; Child removal; Decision making

  • Gevorgianienė Violeta,
  • Gvaldaitė Lijana,
  • Charenkova Jūratė,
  • Petružytė Donata,
  • Seniutis Miroslavas,
  • Šumskienė Eglė,
  • Žalimienė Laimutė

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 1
pp. 33 – 54

Abstract

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The article analyses the challenges faced by child protection workers when they come to a family and have to decide whether to take a child out of an unsafe family environment. The identification of these challenges is im¬portant in order to reduce the risk of inadequate decision-making and the negative consequences of this decision for the well-being of both the child and the family, as well as the employee herself. On the other hand, because challenges are understood not only as situations that require a great deal of mental or physical effort on the part of the employee to solve them suc¬cessfully, but also as an opportunity to test one’s abilities and powers, they can be seen as a motivating factor. A survey of child protection workers implementing the function of child removal allowed identifying a number of key challenges facing these specialists. First, there are challenges associated with treating one’s activities as a professional mission and the complexity and contradictions of removal situations to accomplish that mission. Second are the challenges posed by the behaviour of parents and children, which sometimes threaten the safety of workers, and the stress and tension expe¬rienced when they have to lie to a child to avoid her resistance. Third, there are challenges relating to the uncertainty caused by the lack of information and the limited time allocated to make a decision, because the action must be taken “here and now”. Last, there are challenges arising from institu¬tional, organisational problems, such as insufficient organisational support, teamwork problems, and insufficient cooperation with other institutions. In order for child protection workers to be able to successfully overcome chal¬lenges and be motivated to work, it is important to ensure comprehensive organisational support, strengthen trust relations with managers, implement traditions of practice reflection, and pay sufficient attention to the composi¬tion of teams formed.

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