Child Abuse and Culture: Working with Diverse Families

Dr. Lisa Aronson Fontes has written a unique and extremely helpful book that is a must read for anyone who works with children and families. I had my graduate students in school counseling read and discuss the book this past year and they found it to be extremely practial, enlightening and applicable to their work. It really engaged and challenged them and sparked an extremely rich and useful dialogue. I have been looking for a book like this for some time now and I am thrilled to have finally found a well researched, compassionate and clearly written book which speaks respectfully to the complexity of these issues.

This book is useful for professionals, and graduate and undergraduate students who are trying to work more effectively with people from a range of cultural groups. Some books are theoretical. Others are "hands on." This book is both. It enhances our understanding AND helps us learn some practical skills--such as interviewing and assessing in a culturally competent way. I think my favorite chapter is the chapter on working with interpreters. This information simply is not available elsewhere. Not just for social workers, not just for psychologists, and not just for police officers--although I'm sure this book is helpful for people from those professions. I think this book is important reading for ANYONE who works with people from a variety of cultural groups. I could see it being an important resource for doctors, nurses, attorneys, physical and occupational therapists, and so on, who have immigrants in their caseload. This book focuses on child abuse but its message is far broader. A lot of the books on multicultural work today are a big "ho-hum." They resemble each other and rarely contain new insights. Many are poorly written. This book, like the other Guilford books on multiculturalism (such as Falicov's Latino Families in Therapy and Boyd-Franklin's Black Families in Therapy) breaks new ground, is well-written, and is immediately applicable to the real world. I have read some of Fontes's other work and have found it all to be supremely useful for myself and my students.

Oh how I struggle with trying to be culturally sensitive when I work with children and families from cultural groups that I don't know enough about! I don't want to be racist, I do want to be sensitive. I want to protect children but i don't want to destroy families. I don't speak every family's language, but i want to give them the best services possible. This book discusses the range of issues in child protection with culturally diverse families--from interpreters to punishments to sexual abuse to prevention and interviewing. It's written in an enjoyable style and has a lot of important content. It's interesting and really got me thinking.

By far the most readable book on this subject, and chockful of invaluable hints. The writer obviously cares deeply about the families we are all trying to help. There's no excuse for professionals to make insensitive mistakes if they've read this book.

Dr. Fontes has done a masterful job in creating a highly readable and mind invigorating text that would be of interest to any thinking person in search of deeper self-knowledge and examination of their communication skills with diverse populations. Although I am not in a field directly related to the text, I do see the well-being of children and families as something in which we must all take part, and in our increasingly global community we are indeed challenged on a daily basis to look beyond our own limited scope into the lives of our neighbors with working knowledge and respect. If you are one of those who feel overwhelmed and ill-equipped to handle the fast pace of a changing world, this book will open the doors of your mind and heart.