Family Preservation - Overview

Overview

Family preservation stems back to the poor laws of the late-eighteen and early-nineteen hundreds. Child-Saving was the theme of the era. With the new labor laws for children, the emphasis on the newly developed child psychology and the fear of family disintegration, social workers put a greater emphasis on the child, who was no longer considered just a smaller adult. Before this, children were systematically taken out of homes if parents did not make enough income to support them. "Extreme poverty itself, many of the leading authorities of the time had argued, was reason enough to break up a family."

Many Americans are forced to live from paycheck to paycheck, as income is just enough to cover the basic cost of living, with little left over to save for an emergency. The United States has no universal health coverage, and half of all poor full-time workers did not receive health insurance through their jobs. This means they must pay medical expenses out of pocket, or simply not use medical facilities. In 2004, just over 1.5 million American workers were affected by mass lay-offs. Many of these people were able to find jobs, but not always as good as the job they lost. The average unemployment rate in 2004 was 5.5 percent.

These trends leave it difficult for someone who hit hard times to recover. The number of mothers living below the poverty level has been increasing for decades, and represented over half of the people living below the poverty line in 2003. This leaves women and children increasingly vulnerable to poverty. With the welfare system defined by temporary aid, assistance may run out leaving these women and their children with no support. Perhaps Family Preservation will once again become an issue as more mothers become unable to afford or take care of their children adequately.