Rural Child Welfare Practice: Stories from the Field

Rural Child Welfare Practice provides students and practitioners with case studies about rural people as a diverse group, a topic rarely taught. This means that millions of rural people spread across the majority of the land in the United States, Canada, and Australia may not receive culturally-sensitive rural child welfare services. The casebook is drawn from real stories of rural child welfare practice. It displays lessons learned from people working in the services "field" of child welfare, while set within the geographic expanses of the "fields" of rural land. The text has 18 chapters illustrating rural child welfare practice rewards, challenges, strategies, and practice wisdom. All of the stories were drawn from real rural child welfare practice cases. The rural settings include the south, north, east, west, and middle of the United States. There is a Canadian and an Australian chapter. The case vignettes include racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, and rural diversity, with particular attention to working with Native American/American Indians as well as First Nation (Canada) and Aborigine (Australia) people. The book covers a wide range of child welfare services (such as protective services, kinship care, and adoption) and does this from a variety of perspectives. For example, some stories are told by mental health and health services providers with special attention to child and family voice. Generalist practice interventions are detailed. Each chapter provides background information with professional literature, a case vignette, "take away" learning application, summary. In addition, each chapter has discussion questions, learning/teaching activities, recommended resources/readings, and a bibliography. It is likely to be useful for students, professionals, and educators for learning what today's rural child welfare experts say must happen to engage in effective rural child welfare practice with children and families.