Evaluating Evaluations
In 2001, Karen S. Budd wrote a paper titled “Assessing Parenting Competence in Child Protection Cases: A Clinical Practice Model.” In that paper, Budd cites a study of 190 mental health evaluations completed on parents in child welfare cases in a large urban environment. The study identified “numerous substantive limitations in the content and comprehensiveness of assessments.” The evaluations were completed in a single session, used few sources of information other than the parent, rarely included parent-child observation, and often failed to describe the parent’s caregiving qualities, the child’s feelings about the parent’s caregiving ability, or the child’s relationship with the parent. As a result, Budd found that the evaluations fell short of the American Psychological Association’s guidelines for child welfare evaluations. Although Budd’s paper was published in 2001 we have not made much, if any, progress in implementing meaningful changes to either the content or context of t