Please discuss the two different types of CFA models outlined by the authors. What are the aims of these specific models, how did they come to be, and what are some of the activities or tenets of each?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Public child welfare specific models have been developed by most states so that child welfare caseworkers have protocols to use when conducting family assessments. The common elements in these are strategies for assessing overall family functioning and the function of the children, parenting practices, parent-child attachment, and the family’s social network resources. The goal of these family assessments is to develop an appropriate case plan. There are also federally-funded demonstration projects, these stemmed from a review of services in 2005, that were associated with positive outcomes, leading to a federal initiative to fund development guidelines for CFAs and demonstration projects for CFAs. The key components are, reviewing existing information, meeting with the family, interviewing children and parents, meeting with the staff of other agencies who have worked with the family, obtaining specialized assessments, making assessments and decisions to the development of the case plan, documenting information, providing ongoing assessment of progress, disseminating information to the family and other providers, and reassessing prior to case closure. The goal of these projects was to obtain more empirical evidence for CFAs.