Mediation and empowerment in child protection cases

Abstract

Child protection workers are vested with certain powers and authority to ensure the safety and welfare of children. When issues of neglect and abuse arise, workers are challenged with how to promote self‐determination and autonomy of families, without putting children at risk. The participant‐focused study reported here examined how mediation might have an empowering effect on family members. Participants suggested that mediation empowers through four processes: development of options, equal opportunity to participate in the process, decision‐making responsibility, and power balancing.

Beyond basic training: A model for developing mediator competence

“…This could be attributed to the fact that neutrality depends on personality traits that are more difficult to change during a training course (for example, mediators who tend to be judgmental might encounter difficulty in developing this skill). Mediators might be perceived as biased if they empower one party and not the other (Tjosvold and Van Vliert, 1994;Regehr, 1994;Barsky, 1996;Neumann, 1992). Inefficient use of empowerment can make it difficult for the party receiving less attention to believe in the neutrality of the mediator.…”

“…Inefficient use of empowerment can make it difficult for the party receiving less attention to believe in the neutrality of the mediator. The strategies used to empower a party with less knowledge, power, or status might be perceived by the other party as biased (Matz, 1994;Barsky, 1996). Neutrality can be affected in other ways, as when mediators allow the first narrative of events to become the dominant one.…”

Need to Be Heard: Increasing Child Participation in Protection Mediation Through the Implementation of Model Standards*

“…64 Mediators encourage the parties to keep open minds, consider new options, and look for creative solutions. 65 Families experiencing child protection issues can enter mediation voluntarily 66 or by court order. 67 In child protection mediation, a mediator brings parents, caseworkers, attorneys and other interested parties together to discuss issues concerning the child and help them work together to come to a mutually agreeable settlement.…”

Disputing neutrality: A case study of a bias complaint during mediation

“…Empowerment is one of the ways mediators can ensure that mediation is a fair process when (as is usually the case) the disputants are unequal in power, status, or knowledge (Neumann, 1992). As Barsky (1996) notes, one view of empowerment is as a method of power balancing. The mediator identifies the weaker party and helps him or her compensate for these inequalities (see also Harrington, 1985;Regehr, 1994;Wall, 1981;Tjosvold and Van de Vliert, 1994).…”