Collaborative Family Work

Life can be a struggle for some families and support from skilled human service workers can make a real difference. Collaborative Family Work offers practical strategies for working with families, always emphasising the importance of collaboration in assisting them in developing strategies to learn new skills and improve their lives. Chris Trotter explains how to identify strengths, assist families in setting goals, articulate strategies for change and develop methods of ongoing evaluation. He offers a systematic overview of family work models and theories, from long-term therapeutic and narrative approaches to short-term solution-focused and mediation models. His evidence-based model for family work draws on extensive field research and observation with experienced professionals. Collaborative Family Work is a valuable reference for professionals seeking to enhance their professional skills, and an essential text for students in the human services. 'Chris Trotter addresses the ''how'' of practice in a field that is often stronger on general principles than it is on practical detail.' - Dr Chris Beckett, University of East Anglia, UK

Collaborative Practice with Vulnerable Children and Their Families focuses on the knowledge and skills needed by professionals who work across disciplines to meet the needs of parents and children experiencing complex difficulties. It establishes the importance of both interprofessional and interagency collaboration. After detailing the characteristics of parents and children who may be in need of specialized services, the authors describe different approaches to service delivery in theory and practice, provide case examples and exercises, and address the developments in interprofessional education for those currently working in the field. They present evidence supporting collaborative practice as a means of achieving better outcomes for vulnerable children and their families, and explore the difficulties in working successfully across agencies and disciplines. A provocative examination focused on the wellbeing of families in crisis and the care they receive, this book: Introduces terms that are used in collaborative practice Details the legal mandate for working with families experiencing complex problems Provides legal definitions of ‘children in need’ and with a right to receive "targeted" services Outlines the circumstances that require court action (family law and criminal law) to protect children from "significant harm" Collaborative Practice with Vulnerable Children and Their Families examines the values and ethical standards shared by all professionals who work together to help at-risk children and their families, and serves as a definitive guide to professionals in social work, nursing, general practice, pediatrics and related professions. A volume in the series CAIPE Collaborative Practice Series Series edited by Hugh Barr and Marion Helme

In this engaging guide, Matthew Selekman presents cutting-edge strategies for helping children and their families overcome a wide range of emotional and behavioral challenges. Vivid case material illustrates how to engage clients rapidly and implement interventions that elicit their strengths. Integrating concepts and tools from a variety of therapeutic traditions, Selekman describes creative applications of interviewing, family art and play, postmodern and narrative techniques, and positive psychology. He highlights ways to promote spontaneity, fun, and new possibilities—especially with clients who feel stuck in longstanding difficulties and entrenched patterns of interaction. The book updates and refines the approach originally presented in Selekman's acclaimed Solution-Focused Therapy with Children.

This book is the first to systematically describe the key components necessary to ensure successful implementation of Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) across mental health settings and non-mental health settings that require behavioral management. This resource is designed by the leading experts in CPS and is focused on the clinical and implementation strategies that have proved most successful within various private and institutional agencies. The book begins by defining the approach before delving into the neurobiological components that are key to understanding this concept. Next, the book covers the best practices for implementation and evaluating outcomes, both in the long and short term. The book concludes with a summary of the concept and recommendations for additional resources, making it an excellent concise guide to this cutting edge approach. Collaborative Problem Solving is an excellent resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and all medical professionals working to manage troubling behaviors. The text is also valuable for readers interested in public health, education, improved law enforcement strategies, and all stakeholders seeking to implement this approach within their program, organization, and/or system of care.

"Finally, family law lawyers have a single, authoritative Canadian treatise on collaborative family law. "Collaborative family law" is a process where parties and their counsel adopt a cooperative, constructive approach to resolving family law conflicts. Family law lawyers across the country are embracing the collaborative law approach as the preferred method of serving their clients.

An interdisciplinary framework for sustainable helping through cross-system collaboration This hands-on resource provides clear, practical guidance for supportive service professionals working in a home-based environment. Drawing on best practices from a range of disciplines, this book provides a clear map for dealing with the complex and often ambiguous situations that arise with individuals and families, with applications extending to supervision and organizational change. Readers gain the advice and insight of real-world frontline helpers, as well as those who receive care, highlighting new ways to approach the work and re-think previous conceptualizations of problems and strengths. Helping efforts are organized around a shared, forward-thinking vision that anticipates obstacles and draws on existing and potential supports in developing a collaborative plan of action. The book begins with stories that illustrate core concepts and context, presenting a number of useful ideas that can reorient behavioral services while outlining a principle-based practice framework to help workers stay grounded and focused. Problems are addressed, and strength-based work is expanded into richer conversations about strengths in the context of intention and purpose, value and belief, hopes, dreams, and commitments. Topics include: Contextual guidance with helping maps Engaging people and re-thinking problems and strengths Dilemmas in home and community services Sustainable helping through collaboration and support A strong collaboration between natural networks, communities, and trained professionals across systems creates an effective helping endeavor. Ensuring sustainability may involve promoting systems change, and building institutional supports for specific supervisory, management, and organizational practices. Collaborative Helping provides a framework for organizing these efforts into a coherent whole, serving the needs of supportive services workers across sectors.

Teachers as Collaborative Partners assists future and inservice teachers in developing a research-based framework for understanding the dynamics of school, family, and community relations. It provides foundational knowledge important for understanding families and communities, while exploring conditions that influence family-school-community interactions. The text is designed to engage the critical reflective capability of teachers in ways that will support their ability to work with diverse families in a variety of teaching contexts. *Part I focuses first on the social, cultural, and historical roots of the family, with specific attention to the evolution of public schools and the family as interdependent social institutions, and then on the multiple ways families conceive of and conduct family life, as well as the impact of community attributes on the work of families and schools. *Part II explores the relationship among families, communities, and schools within social, political, legal, and educational contexts. *Part III addresses educational practices that respond to authentic partnerships with families and communities. The goals of the text are supported by pedagogical tools that provide opportunities for readers to make connections between information in each chapter and realistic family-community-school situations. *Case Studies are embedded in most chapters. These serve to complement research-based with authentic and personally articulated experiences of parents. Teachers then have the opportunity to make connections between theory and lived experiences. *Each chapter includes Inquiry and Reflection questions and Guided Observations to engage readers in case study analysis, situated learning exercises, and classroom and community observations and reflections. *The Family-Community-School Profile introduced in this text as a teacher-generated summary allows for evaluation of family-community-school dynamics in specific contexts, and provides teacher candidates opportunities to engage in self-introspection around family-community-school issues before becoming an interacting member of a school-family community. Inquiry and Reflection and Guided Observation activities completed throughout the text are used to generate the Profile. These exercises have been coded to align with specific Profile components. The Profile, which is also aligned with INTASC Principles and NBPTS Propositions, easily becomes a portfolio section documenting teacher skills and knowledge associated with school, family, and community dynamics. Completion of the profile is described in-depth in the text. While the text is aligned with standards and field experiences that are a part of preservice teacher education programs, the content and exercises are equally helpful for inservice teachers wanting to document skills and knowledge in this area as required for National Board Certification.

This innovative book focuses on helping high-risk adolescents and their families rapidly resolve long-standing difficulties. Matthew D. Selekman spells out a range of solution-focused strategies and other techniques, illustrating their implementation with vivid case examples. His approach augments individual and family sessions with collaborative meetings that enlist the strengths of the adolescent's social network and key helping professionals from larger systems. User-friendly features include checklists, sample questions to aid in relationship building and goal setting, and reproducible forms that can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. Blending family therapy science with therapeutic artistry, the book significantly refines and updates the approach originally presented in Selekman's Pathways to Change.

Create a plan to connect with every family! Connecting with parents of various ethnic, socioeconomic, or cultural backgrounds can be challenging for educators. This invaluable book offers strategies that will transform the experience for your students and their families, and lead to sustainable success. Through the author’s perspective as a parent, counselor, and advisor to families at risk, readers will discover A step-by-step approach to family engagement developed for K-12 educators working in high-poverty schools with diverse populations Complete how-to’s for creating and carrying out a family engagement plan Tools including a Parent Meeting Agenda, a Parent Empathy Map, an Educator Needs Assessment, and more