The information presented was collected from an exploratory research project in which caseworkers, educators, students living in foster care, and foster parents were interviewed. This workshop examines the dynamics of dealing with casework staff whose behaviors may be a challenge to supervisors in child welfare agency settings. Role plays, group discussion, and case studies demonstrate suggested supervisory interventions and techniques based upon research and observation. This workshop focuses not only on one organization's experiences conducting a survey, but also draws on the experiences and insights of workshop attendees, either as researchers conducting surveys or as workers responding to surveys. It covers topics such as survey development and construction, electronic methodologies for data collection, data analytic strategies, and statistical power and margins of error.
Emphasis is placed on the strengths and weaknesses of survey data and implications for policymakers.
Several initiatives designed to reduce the use of involuntary restraints and seclusion are highlighted in this workshop. Presenters discuss areas of best practice methodologies, client empowerment, and data review, as well as restraint from the client's perspective. Quality assurance is a function that rarely gets adequate attention in public child welfare agencies. This workshop describes the planning and development process used to establish a quality assurance process in a public child welfare agency in California, the ongoing management of the program, and initial results. The program is both an example of applied child welfare research and of an innovative practice.