Additionally, if you do enough self-reflection (which obviously all social workers and mental health providers should do), you’ll realize that there’s a reason why you’re drawn to this type of work. . I was the eldest child of my adolescent parents, and I was lucky enough to come from a large family with grandparents. and Great-grandparents on both sides supported my parents through their difficult journey as young parents. I felt like one of the lucky ones and wanted to make sure I gave back some of what I received to children who had gone through similar or worse experiences than I had.
Did your field experience with Children’s Special Services in New York City motivate you to continue working with children in the child welfare system?
When I first graduated from college, I knew I wanted to be a social worker. I directly attended his MSW program and from 1978 until 1980 he was assigned to the New York City Department of Child Welfare, formerly known as Special Services for Children (SSC). It was the beginning of the cocaine epidemic and the beginning of child welfare. Policies focused on keeping children out of foster care. My first year was spent in the prevention ward and my second year in the foster care ward. Let’s talk about trial by fire! I worked with families in Harlem, the South Bronx, the Lower East Side, as well as East New York in Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Brooklyn. Imagine knowing absolutely nothing and being responsible for the outcome of a highly complex child welfare case.
Thanks to the amazing supervision at SSC, I learned how to become a better clinician with extremely vulnerable children and families. As I understood the strengths of the communities in which I worked, I became less fearful of areas with traces of poverty. I also learned valuable lessons that have supported me throughout my career. This means that people’s lives and social policies cannot be changed overnight; we need to play the long game.
I have probably learned more about being a good child clinician by working with children in the foster care system than any other population, but this experience has taught me more about how children enter the system. I decided that I wanted to dedicate my work to preventing this. A nation can never be a parent. Children’s desire for parents to be with them throughout their childhood and beyond fueled my desire to immerse myself in prevention programs.
There have been cases where parents with drug use problems have kept their children while they address their own needs through drug use and other treatment. Parents with large numbers of children received much of the support they needed to prevent neglect. Parents with developmental disabilities have learned the most basic parenting skills, such as feeding and clothing their children. And parents of children with illnesses and disabilities have acquired the special skills they need to raise their unique children. Through working with them, parents were given validation that they were. of The most important part of children’s lives. These are the families I still respect and value all these years later, and love working with and representing them as scientist/practitioners.
What is your favorite part of your job?
I am grateful to have found a job that uplifts my heart and soul. All of my research aims to inform policy and practice, so I have the opportunity to work on all aspects of issues that are important to me. My descriptive research helps me learn about the specific population I want to develop interventions for. For example, I’m very interested in the neonatal period right now. This is because the newborn period is a very difficult time in raising a child. The incidence of child abuse and child abuse mortality rates are highest during this period. I am working on research that helps us understand children’s needs at this point in their development and the supports that can help parents do what’s best for their children during these early months. My goal is to develop an intensive intervention that addresses families in the most difficult situations during this vulnerable time and incorporate it into primary and secondary prevention programs (e.g., home visiting, Early Head Start) to help reduce stigma. The goal is to avoid this and increase the family’s desire to participate.
What are you working on now?
My biggest project is a national NIH-funded study that includes a comprehensive research question on the effects of early adversity on children’s brain and behavioral outcomes (i.e. Healthy Brain and Child Development Research on – HBCD). The goal is to collect longitudinal data (starting from conception and during the first 10 years of life) from 7,500 children and their families. We collect a wide range of data, including physiological, brain, and developmental functions, as well as familial and contextual processes such as parental drug use. On this project, I am the recruitment and retention lead for the national consortium and our site. Another role I am proud of is engaging researchers in the consortium to understand the role of the child welfare system in the lives of these children and families, and to demonstrate their experience with this service delivery system. This can be clearly documented.
I also use a smaller sample to examine the effects of early adversity (e.g., trauma) in a narrower way, and to examine early childhood programs that promote positive outcomes for children growing up in difficult circumstances. I also have some smaller projects evaluating . I have been working on these issues for many years and am heavily involved in national advisory committees and technical workgroups focused on prevention programs, early childhood systems, and child welfare issues.
You joined the faculty in the School of Social Work this fall. Why did you choose to come to Colombia?
When I was offered this position, I thought it would be a great way to finish my career by serving children and families where I started as a social worker. I learned a lot in New York City, not only in my undergraduate and graduate social work programs, but also in my first experience as a young social worker. The children and families I worked with taught me humility, gave me a lifelong thirst for learning, and helped me find my niche professionally. I always respected her CSSW. These are the giants of child and family policy who were here because of the books I read, and the women of African American descent who ended up here. I will “stand on their shoulders” and provide support to schools, New York children and their families, and the larger social work practice and policy community as I learn here and in other service and academic activities. , we would like to offer you some of the privilege of experiencing it. A setting that shaped my career.