ABSTRACT
Child protection workers are the front-line professionals charged with primary responsibility in perhaps the most sensitive area of human service. They often labor without definitive procedural guidelines in a difficult and demanding environment. Child protection workers are confronted daily with the task of working with unmotivated family members who resent their efforts. There are two objectives fundamental to the field of child protection. Achievement of the first, the prevention of maltreatment, would of course render the second, treatment of the abusive/neglectful family, meaningless. Increasingly, child mistreatment cases have found their way into state courts. Mental health treatment frequently has abstract goals for which there is no single related tangible outcome. A patient’s feeling better about himself may be viewed as treatment success. The child protection worker can be justifiably encouraged by therapeutic progress which presumably will lead to the intended behavioral change.
