Background

In the Canadian province of Quebec, placing children in foster care is an exceptional measure whose ultimate goal is family reunification. When child-protection workers decide that reunification is unlikely, they must design permanency plans that ensure continuity of care and stable relationships for the child. Most studies of this important decision-making process have focused on individual practitioners as if they acted alone. This process is collective, interactive, and influenced by various contextual elements.

Objective

The objective of this exploratory study was to examine the collective, interactive aspects of the decision-making process involved in permanency planning.

Participants and setting

The participants were key players involved in child-protection decisions at an Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre (CIUSSS).

Methods

The theoretical approach of this study combines Giddens's structuration theory with ethnomethodology. Data were collected through interviews with 16 key players and nine months of observing advisory-committee meetings.

Results

In making permanent placement decisions, the participants must engage in extensive interactions with one another. They must also apply various institutional (clinical, legal, and managerial) logics with differing goals and differing operational frameworks, the tensions among which make the process more complex and challenging.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the complexity of making permanent placement decisions and the importance of interaction and collaboration in this process. These findings suggest that management of this process should focus not on holding practitioners accountable and penalizing them for mistakes, but rather on providing adequate conditions for practice to facilitate thoughtful collective deliberation and learning and ethical decision-making.

中文翻译：

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集体互动和制度逻辑如何影响魁北克儿童保护的永久性规划

背景

在加拿大魁北克省，将儿童寄养是一项特殊措施，其最终目标是家庭团聚。当儿童保护工作者决定不可能重新团聚时，他们必须设计永久性计划，以确保儿童的照顾连续性和稳定的关系。大多数关于这一重要决策过程的研究都集中在个体从业者身上，就好像他们单独行动一样。这个过程是集体的、互动的，并受各种上下文元素的影响。

客观的

这项探索性研究的目的是检查永久性规划中涉及的决策过程的集体、互动方面。

参与者和设置

参与者是综合大学健康和社会服务中心 (CIUSSS) 参与儿童保护决策的关键参与者。

方法

本研究的理论方法将吉登斯的结构化理论与民族方法学相结合。数据是通过对 16 位主要参与者的采访和九个月的观察咨询委员会会议收集的。

结果

在做出永久安置决定时，参与者必须相互进行广泛的互动。他们还必须应用具有不同目标和不同操作框架的各种制度（临床、法律和管理）逻辑，其中的紧张关系使过程更加复杂和具有挑战性。

结论

我们的研究结果强调了做出永久安置决定的复杂性以及在此过程中互动与协作的重要性。这些发现表明，对这一过程的管理不应关注从业者的责任和对错误的惩罚，而应着眼于为实践提供足够的条件，以促进深思熟虑的集体审议和学习以及道德决策。