Psycho-Legal Concepts for Parenting in Child Custody and Child Protection Vol. 3

Dr. Don Tustin is a clinical psychologist working in Adelaide, Australia. He has worked for 25 years with vulnerable families where children are at increased risk of maltreatment and mental health disorders because their parents use parenting practices that are inadequate to meet all of the needs of the child. Dr. Tustin has worked in a community mental health team for adults where 30% of clients were parents whose parenting practices were affected when the parent experienced an episode of mental illness including depression, anxiety and mood disorder. Dr. Tustin received two grants to deliver interventions for parents with a mental illness. An innovative collaborative approach was used, where a mental health clinician and an in-home parenting coach worked cooperatively with parents and their children to improve dynamics in the family. Dr. Tustin has presented to World Congresses on Children’s Rights about treatment reports submitted to courts.

• 1. Introduction.- 2.Cognitive biases and risk assessment.- 3. Steps in constructing a psychometric assessment instrument.- 4. Screens to assess children’s mental wellbeing and resilience.- 5. Trauma and clusters of children’s disturbed behaviours.- 6. New generation approaches to assess parent-child relationships.- 7. Example of assessment of parent-child relationship.- 8. Personality Assessment Inventory testing in Family Court evaluations.- 9. Parenting Capacity Instrument for child protection.- 10. Proposed criteria for good-enough parenting in vulnerable families.- 11. Example of assessing parenting capacity for a parent with depression.- 12. Example of assessing parenting capacity for a parent with bipolar disorder.- 13. Example of assessing parenting capacity for a parent with substance misuse disorder.- 14. Assess severity of risk to child from parental health conditions.- 15. Hearing the voice of a child, and thresholds for making legal decisions.- 16. Assess impacts on child of exposure to family violence.- 17. Assess impacts on child of parental substance misuse.- 18. Assess parental readiness to change practices.- 19. Assess quality of parent-child contact in out-of-home care.- 20. Assess risk of domestic violence.- 21: Conclusion.- 22. Glossary.