The Northern Child and Family Clinic incentives and barriers to utilization: a contradiction

Declining referrals from local Ministry for Children and Families (MCF) child protection social workers threaten the viability of the multidisciplinary approach to child maltreatment operating out of the Northern Child and Family Clinic (the Clinic) in Prince George, British Columbia. This exploratory study used grounded theory methodology to discover and describe the incentives and barriers to referrals for local MCF child protection social workers. In-depth open ended personal interviews were conducted with six local MCF child protection social workers who had used the Clinic at least once. The findings of this study suggest that local MCF child protection social workers would value and use a multidisciplinary approach that has specific characteristics. However, additional findings indicate that the design of the approach in use at the Clinic contradicts what child protection social workers need to do their job and relates to alienation and non-utilization of Clinic services. The findings that emerged from this study are used to develop recommendations about the multidisciplinary model used at the Clinic.