I believe the film “Confronting Child Sexual Abuse” enlightened myself on the service of CPS. To be a social worker you need to be able to deal with stress and to be able to leave the job at work when you go home. The case manager is responsible to assure that all the medical and educational needs of the child is meet. The case worker spends 40-50% of their time out in the field.
The top priority of the social worker is to keep the parent and child together as long as the parent can get help to keep the child safe. Both the parent and the child need therapy. The parent needs it because now they are a parent of a child with special needs. Non-abusive parents sometimes see therapy as a sign of weakness. The social worker needs to see changes in the family. They want to see that the non-abusive parent is available for the child.
If the non-abusive parent gets therapy they can learn the signs of sexual abuse. Children are taken out of the home if there is risk to the child to stay at home. They want the family to stay together if possible. Foster parenting is very hard responsibility. The foster parents have to sometimes deal with aggressive acting out, extreme depression, sexual acting out and sexualized behavior.
After what the child has been through this is normal behavior. The social worker must assets to see if the child is safe to go back home. Try to make the social worker and the parent a team working on the behalf of the child. My general impression of the film was that it was very one sided. I believe it is important to learn the side of the social worker but I also believe it should express the side of the family and the child.
