US: Absolutes Hurt the Conversation on Bettering Child Welfare (Opinion)
Imprint – November 10, 2021
As I get older, I find that the more I learn about our system, the less I understand it. That’s because within child welfare, the facts are nuanced, the stories rarely flow in a linear way and almost every choice we make is compromised. Among ourselves, we have always been a testy group, and historically, the system has served as an occasional whipping post for the press and other media. But this current tone of self-loathing is damaging, because it sets the stage for a circular firing squad and discourages respectful dissent. We espouse a strengths-based approach with children and their families, but fail to model that behavior with each other. Labelling and blaming doesn’t improve performance.
https://imprintnews.org/opinion/absolutes-hurt-the-conversation-on-bettering-child-welfare/60312