engleski

The welfare centres experts experience on interventions for child protection in high conflict divorce situations

The paper presents the results of qualitative research. The research goal was to gain insight into the experiences and suggestions of the welfare centres experts how to improve interventions focused on child protection in high conflict divorce situations. Data were collected through two focus groups involving ten social workers and a psychologist (N=11). All participants in the study are employed at the Social Welfare Centre in Zagreb and have many years of experience working with high- conflict divorces. The research sample is purposive sample (participants were selected by their long work experience and knowledge on high-conflict divorces). The collected data were analyzed using qualitative analysis through a process of systematic classification coding. The research results show that experts working with parents in highconflict divorces are face with a strong initial resistance and unwillingness of parents to cooperate with experts, and with inadequate perception of their parental roles and responsibilities. Further, experts are faced with problems related to the legal framework and the operating conditions of the given social welfare system (frequent legislative changes, the lack of clear rulebook, mismatch intervention with other systems, lack of support from the system and etc.) which leads them to the experience of insecurity in their professional role and burnout. Participants give a specific guideline for practice in terms of parental responsibility encouragement, protecting the position of experts, improving the procedure framework and changing negative perceptions of professional experts work in social welfare centres in Croatian media and public. In conclusion authors emphasize the importance of conducting further evaluation research in this field, in order to obtain detailed insight into the models of creating a more efficient intervention system. Also, professionals who work with high-conflict divorces and users’ perspective should be implemented in further studies.

high conflict divorce ; experience of the welfare centers experts ; social systems interventions

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