PARENTAL CAPACITY ASSESSMENTS (1st of 2 parts)

Parental Capacity assessments (1st of 2 parts)

Written by Ray Ferris. Ray Ferris is a retired child-protection worker and the author of The Art of Child Protection and occasional contributor to this GPS blog.

Parental capacity assessments, or PCAs are the sacred cows of the family courts. Neither the courts, nor the lawyers nor the social workers understand the parameters and limitations of these assessments. So for the benefit of any readers who may be at the mercy of the MCF I will give you the basics.

PCAs are one of a related group of family studies, which require the same skills to accomplish. These are adoption home studies, foster home studies, custody and access reports, general social assessments and risk assessments. All these studies should be carefully compiled and factual family histories done with the emphasis on normal social functioning. Families who have normal educational achievements, good work records and stable housing do not suddenly change their natures and haul off and injure kids or become negligent. One needs to know the risk factors such as parents, who have poor education, poor work records, poor financial histories, serial marital relationships, histories of alcohol and drug abuse, family violence and so on.

I am grateful to Zabeth Bayne for digging up good guidelines for me. These are not issued by the professions of psychology or social work. Neither the college of psychologists nor their association has guidelines for parental capacity assessments and the same goes for social work. The guidelines come from the Law Society in its online education program. They clearly state that psychologists are not qualified to do PCAs without further mentored training. Yet psychologists are hired all the time to do them and they follow no firm guidelines. Guidelines also only recommend psychometric testing in special cases. Also that any psychometric testing should not be done be the same person who does the parental capacity assessment.

Now we have the courts leaving it all to psychologists to determine the outcome of cases. Judges abandon their judicial responsibilities and leave it all on the shoulders of untrained psychologists. Usually the ministry pays for these assessments, and it is well known that so-called expert opinion favours the hand that pays. Repeat business may be in mind. (contact me if you have a question, rtferris@telus.net.)

DR. CONRAD BOWDEN, CREDENTIALS, EXPERIENCE / 519

Dr. Bowden, Van Psych-Ed Services Site

 

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) is the sponsoring organization that publishes the series of papers under the title Practice Made Perfect, and in that series is one piece written by Dr. Conrad Bowden who is the MCFD engaged psychologist who is conducting a parental capacity assessment of Paul and Zabeth Bayne.
Prepared for a 2009 Child Protection Conference, Dr. Bowden's article is entitled, “Parenting Capacity Assessments: A PsychologistsPerspective.”

We know that Dr. Bowden’s service in the Bayne case is paid by the MCFD. That can make parents like the Baynes understandably nervous. Yet Bowden has written a provocative paragraph. Understanding that this paper is intended for diverse child protection personnel, Dr. Bowden’s remarks express a level of objectivity that is encouraging. “While in most cases the PCA is initiated and paid for by MCFD, the psychologist’s job is to consider the whole circumstances of the parent’s situation including their relationship with MCFD. MCFD social workers and others make operating assumptions about their clients that may be erroneous. The psychologist’s job is to increase understanding of the client so as to make it more likely that a constructive working relationship can be formed between social worker and client leading to a return of the child or children.”