scholarly journals Can the Family Group Conferencing model alleviate tensions between social workers’ dual responsibility of child protection and family support?

New Vistas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mthoko Sampson
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Family Support ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Family Group ◽  
Family Group Conferencing ◽  
The Family

Family Group Conferencing for older adults: Social workers’ views

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-371
Author(s):  
Rosalie N Metze ◽  
Tineke A Abma ◽  
MH Kwekkeboom
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
Family Group ◽  
Care Process ◽  
Family Networks ◽  
Family Group Conferencing ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
The Family

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.

scholarly journals The involvement of family in child protection cases in Iceland

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-49
Author(s):  
Anni Haugen ◽  
Sigrún Yrja Klörudóttir
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Violent Behaviour ◽  
Child Protection Workers ◽  
The Family ◽  
International Comparative ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Shed Light

The aim of this study is to examine the involvement of families in child protection cases in Iceland, as well as to shed light on the attitudes of child protection workers on the importance of including families while working on child protection cases. The study is part of an international comparative analysis called: Social Work with Families: Social Workers’ Constructions of Family in Professional Practice. This article only addresses the Icelandic segment of the research. In the study, qualitative methods were used and three focus groups were conducted, in which the same three-step vignette about a child protection case was presented. The findings highlighted how difficult child protection workers found it to define the family. The main element is that family are those individuals closest to the child and connected to them through emotional ties, as Icelandic child protection workers seem to strive to involve family in child protection cases. However, there are signs which show that when working with more complicated cases the definition of a family becomes narrower, and involvement is restricted mostly to parents and grandparents. The findings also show that attitudes toward fathers differ from those toward mothers. The mother is expected to support and create security for the child, while the father is judged mostly on his violent behaviour and is not automatically regarded as providing support or actively taking responsibility for his child.

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

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.

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

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document