Can the Family Group Conferencing (FGC) model alleviate tensions between social worker’s dual responsibility of Child Protection and family support? A Systematic Review

Summary Family Group Conferencing as deployed in child care might be useful in elderly care to strengthen older adults’ social networks and self-mastery. When Family Group Conferencing was implemented for older adults in the Netherlands, social workers were reluctant to refer. To discover reasons for this reluctance, we examined social workers’ views and attitudes concerning Family Group Conferencing for their clients. Findings In an initial exploratory study, we distributed a survey among social workers who worked with older adults and were informed about Family Group Conferencing, followed by three focus groups of social workers with and without Family Group Conferencing experience. We also held semi-structured individual interviews with social workers and an employee of the Dutch Family Group Conferencing foundation. The respondents were positive about Family Group Conferencing, but hesitant about referring their older clients. Reasons were: they were already working with their clients’ social networks; they feared losing control over the care process; and they wondered how they could motivate their clients. They also reported that their clients themselves were reluctant, because they seemed to fear that Family Group Conferencing would lose them self-mastery, and they did not want to burden their social networks. Applications Our findings indicate that implementing Family Group Conferencing in elderly care is a complicated and slow process, partly because social workers have little experience with Family Group Conferencing. To facilitate social workers it might be necessary to offer them more guidance, in a joint process with the Family Group Conferencing foundation. One might also experiment with alterations to the Family Group Conferencing model, for example, by focusing less on family networks and more on reciprocity.

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FAMILY GROUP CONFERENCING AND CHILD PROTECTION MEDIATION: ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR PRIORITIZING FAMILY ENGAGEMENT IN CHILD WELFARE CASES

Family Court Review ◽

10.1111/j.1744-1617.2009.00239.x ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 47 (1) ◽

pp. 53-68 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Kelly Browe Olson

Keyword(s):

Child Welfare ◽

Child Protection ◽

Family Engagement ◽

Family Group ◽

Family Group Conferencing

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Child Protection or Family Support — Directions in Family Welfare for the 80's

Children Australia ◽

10.1017/s0312897000016763 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 11 (2-3) ◽

pp. 16-19

Author(s):

Phillip A. Swain

Keyword(s):

Family Support ◽

Child Protection ◽

Continuum Of Care ◽

Family Welfare ◽

Children's Services ◽

The Family ◽

Critical Issues ◽

Children’S Services ◽

The Continuum

Child Protection and Family Support. These are two aspects of our work in family and children's services that have been much discussed over recent years. Can you protect a child whilst at the same time purport to support the family? Should the two functions be organisationally and structurally separated? Are they really just parts of the continuum of care and commitment which we all share in families and children? These and other similar questions have been frequently repeated during the first half of the 80's as we all searched for ways to meet the obvious deficiencies in the networks of families and children's services that had been established. But as we look to the remainder of the 80's there a number of critical issues which are well indentified but which we have yet to really come to grips with.

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Family Group Conferences as a Shared Decision-Making Strategy in Adults Mental Health Work

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.663288 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Shulamit Ramon

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Decision Making ◽

Shared Decision Making ◽

Child Protection ◽

Implementation Process ◽

Family Group ◽

Shared Decision ◽

Implementation Phase ◽

Adult Mental Health ◽

The Family

Family Group conferences (FGC) provide a system by which a client and their family reach jointly key intervention decisions, from a number of options proposed by professionals. The system originated in child protection social work.Conceptually FGC is based on the assumption that the family is potentially a supportive social system for an individual with a variety of difficulties, including mental ill health. Reaching a family network agreement can lead to long term positive outcomes in self-confidence and social relationships. This strategy of shared decision making (SDM) can re-unite the family around the client's needs and wishes. It fits well the strengths based and the recovery-oriented approaches to mental ill health.Methodologically, this article provides a narrative review of existing empirical research about FGC in the context of adult mental health. In addition, two community case studies consisting of videos of a mother experiencing mental ill health and a daughter are analysed in terms of their subjective experience of the FGCs they were involved in, and looks at both the process and the outcomes of FGCs.The key findings demonstrate a high level of satisfaction from participating in the FGC meeting, while the evidence pertaining to the outcomes is inconclusive. Only very few systematic review studies, or comparative studies of different approaches to family decision making, exist, and there are no studies which offer cost effectiveness analysis.Discussion: The observed gap between the satisfaction from the process of FGC by the participants vs. the inconclusive outcomes relates to the implementation phase, in which the decisions made by the family are tested. Evaluating FGC processes and outcomes is complex. A systematic and comprehensive research of the implementation process is missing at this stage.In conclusion, FGC is a promising strategy of SDM in adult mental health. The research evidence indicates the need for further exploration of its implementation process, evaluative methodology and methods.

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Frontline Response to High Impact Domestic Violence in Hungary

10.18690/978-961-286-543-6.12 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 201-214

Author(s):

Gábor Héra ◽

Dóra Szegő

Keyword(s):

Domestic Violence ◽

Family Support ◽

Human Trafficking ◽

Child Protection ◽

Good Practice ◽

Criminal Code ◽

National Crisis ◽

Physical Injuries ◽

Telephone Helpline ◽

The Family

The first part of the chapter describes the legalisation of domestic violence. The Criminal Code criminalises domestic violence, including several areas of domestic violence such as emotional, physical, economic, and sexual violence. Two main limitations are that the Criminal Code does not sanction verbal abuse, and the police are obliged to file a criminal complaint ex officio only if domestic violence involves serious physical injuries. In all other cases, it is upon the request of the victim to file a criminal complaint against the offender. The second part of the chapter describes the roles of the different front-line agencies in responding to domestic violence; the police, the Child Protection Perceiving and Reporting System, the Guardianship office, the family support and child welfare services and the different NGO's that operate crisis management and different helplines. The next part of the chapter introduces the work of the National Crisis Telephone Helpline as a good practice of cooperation between stakeholders that helps victims of domestic violence and human trafficking through a free of charge telephone line. The last part shows the main challenges and shortcomings characterising the handling of domestic violence in Hungary.

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