Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't: Working in Child Welfare

by Anthony McMahon

This text explores the lives of eight child welfare workers in an inner city office in Chicago, Illinois, USA. These men and women work in stressful conditions which frustrated and circumvented their child protection mission. Among the stressful working conditions were large and ever increasing case loads, bureaucratic deprofessionalization of their skills, antagonistic courts, and dangerous neighbourhoods. Each of the workers had native American children on their caseloads. These children, in particular, were made invisible within the child welfare bureaucracy.

129 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1998