Abstract
This study aimed to identify the expertise and professional roles of child and family support centers by examining staff perceptions regarding management policies, community support policies, cooperation with other organizations, and support methods. It consist of semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 60 minutes with staff from 32 centers. Through a qualitative method using similarity-based classification for data analysis, this study classified data in terms of similarity and interrelation between categories. The results indicated that the centers implemented management policies and that the awareness that the centers had roles in providing professional consultation and support enabled the center to supplement the “lack” of community support. In addition, the study found that to actualize these community support policies, centers cooperated closely with other organizations, provided flexible consultation services through social workers and psychologists utilizing their expertise, and provided consultation services respectful of the perspectives of the families and children. These results suggest that focusing on the perception of each policy and method of cooperation and support of the staff helped to clarify the centers' professional roles.
