FAMILY ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATIVE DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES PROVIDE MULTIPLE BENEFITS IN CHILD WELFARE CASES

This article is about the importance of family engagement and collaborative decision making in child welfare cases. It briefly reviews the history of mediation and family group meetings and suggests that juvenile courts and child welfare agencies should thoughtfully prioritize and expand their use of the techniques and processes of interdisciplinary collaborative decision-making and dispute resolution that have been successful for over thirty-five years. Key Points for the Family Court Community The use of collaborative decision-making and dispute resolution techniques in child welfare cases provides multiple benefits for the families and professionals involved in these cases; Brief history of the development of mediation and family group meetings in child welfare; Discusses the importance of creating an interdisciplinary collaborative relationship between families, attorneys and child welfare agency professionals; Parent engagement and empowerment, use of confidentiality, information exchange and expanded role of the professionals and parties are all benefits of these processes.