Step four: complete assessment/fill out structured decision making/ICWA forms and justify your answers. 1. Throughout the film, it was unclear what nationality the family was other than Caucasian. There were no clear times that the children were given special treatment or were denied treatment due to their ethnicity. The only time there was a clear racial division was due to Gracie’s relationship with Tommy who was a person of colour. When Gracie met his family, there was somewhat of a hesitation due to the racial separation, this could have stemmed from the socioeconomic division between her family compared to his. Gracie’s family fit into the lower socioeconomic demographic due to their low-income statues and poor living conditions. It was …show more content…
Trauma is not a ‘black and white’ situation. There are many forms of trauma that can have different effects and outcomes on different individuals. All five children within the film should be evaluated. “Understanding how a potentially traumatized child experienced a traumatic event is the first step in determining how best to meet the child’s needs in the immediate and longer-term aftermath” (Laliberte & Crudo, 2013, p. 7). This was not done by the social workers and other staff that were involved in the case, it is unclear if this happened off screen or if their focus was not on the younger children as Gracie was the protagonist of the film. It is unrealistic to assume each child’s chopping mechanisms. However, there is room for speculation based on the services and support they had …show more content…
While working within the child welfare system, it is important to recognise the trauma-informed care should explore further into psychological safety of children to benefit their long-term welfare. One of the first focuses a social worker should take when working with this family would be to: maximise physical and psychological safety for the children and family. Workers should have an open dialogue with the family to fully understand what support they need. Through this action, a second one of creating a safety plan may be of benefit to maintain everyone safety. This plan should incorporate protecting the children from their mother and any of her current or previous partners, include everyone’s perspective and what fears they may have (Child Welfare Foundation Training, 2015). This plan is elaborated in the following