Assessment of Parenting

These are the sorts of questions that face mental health practitioners who are increasingly involved in complex child care cases which come before the courts. They have been given little guidance to date on how these assessments should be made, especially where a decision has to be taken as to whether a child has experienced `significant harm.' In this much needed book senior clinicians consider the principles and practice of parenting assessments and how they guide courts' decisions about children's welfare. They describe a number of frameworks for assessment and discuss the factors which help predict the risk of future maltreatment or the likelihood of successful rehabilitation. Throughout the book the emphasis is on the need to integrate the assessments of all relevant professionals in order to serve the best interests of the child, while also addressing the parents' potential to improve their caretaking skills. Offering guidance in areas of crucial significance for child, family and professional alike Assessment of Parenting will be widely welcomed.

1: Introduction; 1: Significant issues in the assessment of parenting; 2: Components of parenting assessments; 2: Assessing family functioning in parenting breakdown; 3: The meaning of the child; 4: The child's perspective; 5: Emotionally abusive experiences; 6: Assessing protectiveness in cases of child sexual abuse; 7: Assessing treatability; 8: Predicting maltreatment; 9: Quantitative measures of parenting; 10: Giving due consideration to the family's racial and cultural background; 3: Specific circumstances; 11: Parents with psychiatric problems; 12: Parents who misuse drugs and alcohol; 13: Parents with learning disability; 14: Parents who are gay or lesbian; 15: Parents who have killed their partner; 16: Alternative caretakers; 17: What constitutes reasonable contact?; 4: Conclusions; 18: Balanced opinions