Psycho-Legal Concepts for Parenting in Child Custody and Child Protection Vol. 3: Structured Instruments to Provide Objective Assessments in Court-Related Family Work

This book identifies a number of topics that arise in child protection where assessments of individual families are required. The author opines that it is essential to use structured instruments when making assessments on complex topic about risk to reduce bias and to maximise objectivity. The author summarises criteria that are required for an assessment instrument to be viewed by scientists as being objective. The book proposes that introducing more objective assessment instruments into the field of child protection will: improve the focus and brevity of assessment reports; and enable setting of thresholds that distinguish between families who provide good-enough parenting from families who should be referred for parenting education, and from parents who are unfit parents. The author identifies a number of topics that commonly arise in cases where maltreatment of children is alleged, reviews literature, and proposes checklists that can be used to gather data and to form a basis for developing validated assessment instruments for use in child protection. The topics identified are relevant both to therapists as parenting practices can be changed using focused therapy, and for legal assessment purposes as topics have been shown to be related to legal concerns about the safety and welfare of children. The overall aim of this book is to encourage greater use of scientific assessment approaches in the field of child protection.

About the Author

Dr. Don Tustin is a clinical psychologist working in Adelaide, Australia. He has worked for 25 years with vulnerable families where children are at increased risk of maltreatment and mental health disorders because their parents use parenting practices that are inadequate to meet all of the needs of the child. Dr. Tustin has worked in a community mental health team for adults where 30% of clients were parents whose parenting practices were affected when the parent experienced an episode of mental illness including depression, anxiety and mood disorder. Dr. Tustin received two grants to deliver interventions for parents with a mental illness. An innovative collaborative approach was used, where a mental health clinician and an in-home parenting coach worked cooperatively with parents and their children to improve dynamics in the family. Dr. Tustin has presented to World Congresses on Children’s Rights about treatment reports submitted to courts.