Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Advance Access originally published online on August 28, 2007
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2007 7(4):291-304; doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhm014
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Characteristics of Supervised Visitation Programs Serving Child Maltreatment and Other Cases
From the Florida State University College of Social Work
Contact author: Wendy P. Crook, Associate Professor and Director, Institute for Family Violence Studies, Florida State University College of Social Work, University Center C 2307, Tallahassee, FL 32303-2570. E-mail: wcrook{at}fsu.edu.
Supervised visitation programs allow parents who may be a risk to their children or to another parent to experience parent–child contact while in the presence of an appropriate third party. Use of a "neutral third party" to oversee such contact has long been recognized as essential in child maltreatment cases in which the child has been removed from the home. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study of the structural and functional characteristics of 47 supervised visitation programs in Florida. Findings indicated that programs are typically operated on small budgets, with the related challenges of limited hours of operation, delayed or denied services to families in need, small and/or unpaid staff, and inadequate security measures. Recommendations for stable and sufficient funding as well as statutory legitimization are provided.
KEY WORDS: supervised visitation, court referrals for dependency cases, child abuse and neglect, child maltreatment, domestic violence, program characteristics, communities