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Child Welfare Consultant
Skills and Abilities
Litigation Consultant and Expert
Witness
My practice, IM4KIDS, Inc., consists of two areas of focus. The first area of focus involves providing consultation to agencies and states in how to improve services and reduce risk to vulnerable children.
The second focus is providing litigation consultation to attorneys in out-of-home care child abuse cases. I have been retained as a litigation consultant on 40+ cases in 16 states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
I'm a Ph.D. psychologist working full-time as an independent child welfare consultant. I have had professional experience in the design, evaluation, and regulation of children’s out-of-home care facilities since 1979. I have worked for a University, been an administrator in a Community Mental Health Agency, provided therapy for foster children and their families, conducted protective services investigations, been a presenter at state, regional, and national conferences, including Child Welfare League of America and Council on Accreditation, conducted national surveys, and written a book on the placement of older and handicapped children for adoption.
My practice, IM4KIDS, Inc., consists of two areas of focus. The first is providing Child Welfare Consultation for Children's Agencies and Institutions as well as City and State Departments of Social Service to assist them in improving the quality of other services and reducing risk to the vulnerable children in their care or custody. This may include assistance with strategic planning, utilization review or quality assurance programs, staff training for licensing, foster care, adoption, and institutional line staff supervisors, and administration, strengthening communication and empowerment skills, treatment planning, and documentation, and providing formative and/or evaluative program-specific evaluation or research. The second focus is providing Litigation Consultation to attorneys in out-of-home care child abuse cases. I have served as an Expert Witness regarding the adequacy and appropriateness of abuse and complaint investigations, staff training, supervision, foster home licensing and assessment, and the matching of foster and adoptive children with appropriate caregivers. To date, I have worked for attorneys in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.
The driving force behind my work is to do whatever I can to help reduce the risk of harm to children in out-of-home care. Since many of these children must live with the anger and pain produced by separation and loss, feelings of abandonment, self-doubt, lack of trust, and, all too often, the emotional and physical scars of abuse, my focus is to do whatever I can to reduce the number of children who are being re-victimized by the very people and systems entrusted with the responsibility of assuring their health, safety, and well-being.
In its simplest form, I'm for kids. This phrase so clearly reflects my professional philosophy and focus that I have put it on my license plate as well as used it as my E-mail signature.
To learn more, please feel free to visit my other pages and consider linking to some of the other wonderful child-focused web sites you can reach directly from my pages. Thanks! (Top)
Dr. Unger received his Ph.D. in Psychology and Education from The University of Michigan, a Masters in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and a B.S. and B.A. in Psychology and English from St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York.
Dr. Unger's experience spans more than 25 years of commitment to strengthening the delivery of quality social welfare and mental health service, including 20+ years as a consultant to children's agencies and institutions. He was consultant to two of the three major national training packages designed for staff who license children's out-of-home care facilities and has been a symposium leader/workshop presenter at more than a dozen national conferences. He is author of a book on the placement of older and handicapped children for adoption and has been Director of a Community Mental Health case management department and a member of the psychology staff at the Institute for the Study of Mental Retardation and Related Disabilities, University of Michigan.
Dr. Unger has served as an expert witness in more than 40 cases in 16 states regarding out-of-home care child abuse, the adequacy and appropriateness of abuse and complaint investigations, staff training, supervision, foster home licensing and assessment, and the matching of foster and adoptive children with appropriate caregivers by both public and private social service agencies.
Large project or small, Dr. Unger is able to provide expertise and guidance to effectively assist with:
STRATEGIC PLANNING:
- Creative, long-range, progressive planning
- Review, creation, expansion, and reorganization of programs and departments
UTILIZATION REVIEW / QUALITY ASSURANCE:
- Design, implementation, evaluation of UR/QA programs for agencies and institutions
EDUCATION:
- Assessment of professional, educational, and training needs of staff and providers
- Effective strategies to meet those needs
TRAINING:
- Hands-on, situation specific training for licensing, foster care, adoption, and institutional line staff, supervisors, and administration
- Creative strategies for increasing recruitment rates of qualified foster parents
- Assessment of attitudes and values needed by today's foster and adoptive parents
- Skills for writing and implementing successful treatment plans / service agreements
- Proven approaches for ensuring timely, appropriate responses to licensing problems
- Practical strategies for implementing effective supervision and program management
COMMUNICATION:
- Development of reasonable, effective, enforceable licensing laws and rules
- Development of "user friendly" service delivery documents, procedures, and manuals
- Design of progress and goal-oriented performance evaluation systems
- Strategies and programs for improving staff relationships and morale
RESEARCH:
LITIGATION CONSULTANT and EXPERT WITNESS- Design, implementation, and evaluation of operation-based research to help guide administrative decision-making (Top)
(Area of Specialization: Child Abuse in Out-of-Home Care: sexual abuse, physical abuse, physical assault, burns, death, and wrongful adoption.)
As a Ph.D. psychologist (University of Michigan) working full-time as an independent child welfare consultant since 1991, I have had professional experience in the design, evaluation, and regulation of children's out-of-home care facilities since 1979.
I have worked for a University, been an administrator in a Community Mental Health Agency, provided therapy for foster children and their families, conducted protective services investigations, been a presenter at state, regional, and national conferences, conducted national surveys, written a book on the placement of older and handicapped children for adoption, and evaluated children's agencies for the Council on Accreditation.
My practice, IM4KIDS, Inc., consists of two areas of focus. The first area of focus involves providing consultation to agencies and states in how to improve services and reduce risk to vulnerable children.
The second focus is providing litigation consultation to attorneys in out-of-home care child abuse cases. I have been retained as a litigation consultant on 40+ cases in 16 states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
I have been retained as a litigation consultant regarding the adequacy and appropriateness of abuse and complaint investigations, foster home/agency/institution licensing and assessment, staff training, supervision, and the matching of children with appropriate caregivers by public and private social service agencies. My expertise also includes wrongful adoption as well as licensing, supervision, and service delivery related to camps, residential care, day care homes and centers, detention centers, and respite care for medically fragile children.
Services provided span record and document review, case preparation, and consultation involving avenues for discovery, interrogatories, and questioning during deposition and trial.
Precipitating case issues have included sexual abuse, physical abuse, physical assault, burns, death, and wrongful adoption.
Fees for document review, case preparation, and consultation are based on an hourly rate for agreed upon work to be done. Monthly billing statements are payable upon receipt. Fees for deposition and court time are based on an hourly or daily rate plus expenses. It is my hope that my services will be retained in good faith in a reasonable, open, and honest manner and that I will be provided with an opportunity to review and discuss all case documents necessary for the professional and reputable provision of my services.
The driving force behind my work is to do whatever I can to help reduce the risk of harm to children in out-of-home care. Since many of these children must live with the anger and pain produced by separation and loss, feelings of abandonment, self-doubt, lack of trust, and, too often, the emotional and physical scars of abuse, my focus is to do whatever I can to reduce the number of children who are being re-victimized by the very system entrusted with the responsibility of assuring their health, safety, and well-being.
In its simplest form, I'm for kids!
To learn more, please feel free to visit my other pages and consider linking to some of the other wonderful child-focused websites you can reach directly from my pages. Thanks! (List at Top)