Counseling 415
Children, Youth and their
Systems
Dr. Jeffrey K. Edwards
Family Counseling Program
Department of Counselor Education
Northeastern Illinois University
The Class!!
This class is web enhanced. All of the material you will need
to complete this class is located on the website. To access this
site you may go to:
http://www.neiu.edu/~jkedward/child.htm
Have fun!!
A Short History of Work with Children
Child wagons, sent around the country to pick up children,
The orphanage system was born of this endeavor.
The Social Security Act of 1935 provided funding of child welfare services
thus created incentives to move children out of private institutions and
into publicly funded foster care.
A Short History of Work with Children.
Changes in the care of orphaned children are the result of the emergence
of social work as a distinct profession. Among the more educated social
workers at the turn of the century, foster care was embraced as the better
way to deal with dependent children.
A Short History of Work with Children
Social Security Act provided professional study of social work subsidized
by the federal government thus this increased the use of public foster
care in place of private, charitable institutional care.
A Short History of Work with Children
There are critics of long-term institutional stays for children who
charge that such stays damage children emotionally, intellectually, and
behaviorally.
A Short History of Work with Children
However, the findings of the 1st large survey of middle-aged and older
adults who several decades ago spent a significant portion of their childhoods
in institutions that provided long-term care for disadvantaged children--orphanages.
A Short History of Work with Children
The study covers the survey responses of nearly 1,600 alumni from 9
homes in the South and Midwest.
A Short History of Work with Children
The general conclusion drawn from the survey responses stands in sharp
contrast to conventional professional opinion:
A Short History of Work with Children
As a group, the "orphans" outpaced their counterparts in the
general population by significant margins on practically all social and
economic measures covered, not the least of which are education, income,
and attitude toward life.
A Short History of Work with Children
Child Guidance Movement – 40’s and 50’s
Hospitalization
Community Mental Health – 60’s and 70’s
Schools seen as primary prevention and assessment sources – 80’s –
Youth Service bureau movement
Family Systems Movement
Psychiatry and Managed Care – Era of mental health as big business.
Research
Only efficacy studies show positive outcome
Filial Therapy has higher evidence of positive outcome than individual
play therapy, and;
Family Treatment of children's problems have a greater positive outcome
with certain problems
Research
Association for Play Therapy and their Research studies.
http://www.iapt.org/index.html
House, Tree, Person, and Kenetic House, Tree Person