13 Child Protection in a Rural Setting
Cathy Rocke
This chapter will review the unique aspects of providing mandated child protection services in a Canadian rural setting. First, the development and current state of child welfare in Canada will be presented with specific reference to child welfare services in rural Canada. Secondly, a review of rural social work practice models and the characteristics of effective rural social workers will be explored. Finally, the policy, practice and ethical considerations of child protection within a Canadian rural setting will be presented, drawing on the author’s experiences working in a rural community.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter you will have had the opportunity to:
- Describe the theories of rural social work practice.
- Describe the history of child welfare services in Canada.
- Explain the principles of effective child protection practice and how these principles have unique aspects in a rural setting.
- Discuss how your own values may help or hinder your ability as a child protection worker in a rural setting.
Child Welfare in Canada
Intervention by the state into the family is relatively recent in Western countries. During Roman times, laws were based on the concept of patria potestas, which viewed children as the property of their fathers allowing them complete control over their children’s lives. This control included the right to sell his children into slavery or even put them to death. With the spread of Christianity, the powers of the father became more circumscribed but still allowed fathers the right of “reasonable chastisement” of their children (Bala, 2004, p. 2). With the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th century, the condition of children began to gain the attention of social reformers that resulted in the beginning of the child welfare system.
The development of the current child welfare system originated in urban centers. Social reformers including J.J. Keslo—founder of the first Children’s Aid Society in Toronto—were part of the Child Saving and Child Rescue movements (MacLaurin & McCormak, 2007). The increasing numbers of neglected and abandoned children in urban settings were the focus of these movements. Members were motivated by their Christian beliefs to save these neglected and abandoned children from their current circumstances to be raised in good Christian homes (Cameron et al., 2007). Ontario became the first province in Canada in 1893 to enact legislation allowing the state to intervene in families and remove children from their caregivers, if the children were deemed to be neglected or abandoned (Bala, 2004). In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the first child welfare legislation was enacted 1898 and 1909 respectively (Dornstauer & Macknack, 2009; Hurl, 1984).
Despite the enactment of child welfare legislation in most provinces at this time, delivery was urban-focused, and delivery of services to rural areas was left to either the family and/or