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Understanding the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on families involved in the child welfare system: Technological capital and pandemic practice.
- Source :
- Child & Family Social Work; Feb2022, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p11-21, 11p
- Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Child‐welfare practices transformed drastically in 2020 after governments instituted quarantining and social‐distancing measures. Child visitation, mental health evaluations and treatment, and court hearings either ceased or only accessible via information communication technologies (ICTs). Peer‐reviewed published scholarship about technology use in child welfare is limited to voluntary, supplemental contexts and insufficient to understand the nuanced effects of this transition on vulnerable populations. We used a critical case study ethnography to name this phenomenon, 'pandemic practice', and describe how case‐management challenges were compounded and/or masked by pandemic practice. Mandatory ICT use in case management contributed to injustices for some families in the child‐welfare system, including children spending extended time in foster care, families receiving superficial treatment services and irreparable harm to timely case progression. We used technology adoption theory and technological capital framework to identify and understand the complexities of pandemic practice beyond a simple digital divide perspective. We present a hierarchy of technological capital necessary to participate in pandemic practice, suggestions to create sufficient capital and implications for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- RESEARCH
PROFESSIONS
DIGITAL divide
CHILD abuse
SOCIAL networks
FAMILIES
INTERVIEWING
CHILD welfare
TELECOMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION
CASE studies
SOCIAL worker attitudes
FIELD notes (Science)
COURTS
RESEARCH funding
SUPERVISION of employees
STATISTICAL sampling
THEMATIC analysis
SOCIAL case work
INFORMATION technology
COVID-19 pandemic
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 13567500
- Volume :
- 27
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Child & Family Social Work
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 154688819
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12876