Collaboration in the child welfare system in the District of Columbia: Interprofessional perceptions of social workers and lawyers.

摘要

The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (PL 96-272) and the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 were enacted by Congress to decrease the number of children in foster care. It is the goal of both laws to promote permanent living arrangements for children. The implementation of the law calls for the involvement of a lawyer (Guardian ad Litem or GAL) and social worker to advocate for the best interest of the child. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the interprofessional perceptions of social workers and lawyers and their perceived levels of collaboration. Role theory was used as the theoretical guide to the study. The design of the research was an exploratory non-experimental study. Collaborative practice behavior (dependent variable) was measured by the Collaborative Practice Scale based on Weiss and Davis' (1985) Scale. Interprofessional perception (independent variable) was measured based on the Interprofessional Perception Scale (Ducanis and Golin, 1979). The hypothesis was as follows: Controlling for profession and the number of years in child welfare practice, there is a positive linear relationship between the perception of professionalism and the level of perceived collaboration. The hypothesis was tested using multiple regression analysis. The sample of lawyers and social workers was obtained using accidental sampling. Written questionnaires were distributed by mail. Results of the research showed that there is a relationship between the perceptions of professionalism and the perceived level of collaboration of the two professions. Profession and perceived professionalism of the other group are positively related to perceived collaboration of both one's own and the other group. The higher one profession perceives the other, the higher the perceived level of collaboration. Study limitations included the small response rate, the District of Columbia's unique child welfare challenges, and social desirability. Future research is warranted to further and develop and examine models of collaboration.