Chaos and crisis: propositions for a general theory of crisis communication

This paper presents key concepts of chaos theory (CT) as a general framework for describing organizational crisis and crisis communication. Principles of predictability, sensitive dependence on initial conditions, bifurcation as system breakdown, emergent self-organization, and fractals and strange attractors as principles of organization are discussed. The implications for crisis communication as an area of practice and inquiry are explored.     

The balancing act. Collaboration between frontline forensic staff and hospital administration

1. Flexibility, creativity, and consistency are critical characteristics for both frontline staff and administrators in the delivery of treatment and care for complex forensic patients who may be difficult to manage. 2. Through collaborative efforts and ongoing communication, plans can be identified and implemented that enhance patient and staff safety and facilitate positive behavioral and rehabilitation outcomes for patients. 3. Effective partnerships among frontline staff, administration, patients, their families, labor unions, and communities contribute significantly to the effective resolution of conflicts and dilemmas in the provision of holistic care to forensic patients.     

Working with Families Who Experience Parental Mental Health and/or Drug and Alcohol Problems in the Context of Child Protection Concerns: Recommendations for Service Improvement

Child abuse and neglect often occur within the context of multiple risk factors, in particular parental mental health (MH) and/or drug and alcohol (D&A) problems. Interventions aimed at improving parental MH and D&A issues can have a positive impact on children now, as well as in the future. However, implementing sustainable service models that facilitate positive change for families with multiple risk factors is challenging. The purpose of the present study was to gain feedback from key stakeholders on a service model targeted at families where there are parental D&A, MH and child protection concerns to identify possible strengths and limitations of the model. This identified possible strategies for service improvement from the perspective of discharged clients and clinical staff. Gaining feedback from key stakeholders on service models is increasingly recognised as central to service evaluation and development. Ten interviews were conducted with clinical staff and twenty interviews with discharged clients of a pilot service that works with families where the child or children are at risk of significant harm in the context of parental MH and/or D&A issues. The interviews with clinicians highlighted difficulties working with this complex client group and its impact on staff burnout. Clinicians suggested how the model could be changed to better support clinical staff from burnout. Interviews with discharged clients highlighted the importance of the relationship with the worker in establishing client engagement and facilitating change. The way in which these recommendations informed the design of the service model is discussed.     

Identified Problems and Service Utilization Patterns Among Kinship Families Accessing Mental Health Services

Abstract

This study examined the mental health problems and service utilization patterns of kinship families who accessed services in an urban outpatient child psychiatry clinic. A random sample of children who completed the intake process during a calendar year yielded 47 children, or 19% of the sample, whose primary caregiver was a relative, other than a biological parent; approximately half of those families were involved with the child welfare system. Data from an administrative database and from medical records describe the diagnoses, identified problems, and services used by the kinship families. Academic or school-related problems emerged as an identified problem in approximately half of the kinship cases, but school intervention was not a primary target for clinicians. The kinship sample was also compared with a random stratified sample of children who were living with primary caregivers other than kin. Kinship families were more likely to be African-American, but few differences were found between kin and non-kin cases on diagnoses and frequency, duration, or type of services received. The findings suggest that collaboration with schools might increase the engagement and retention of kinship families in mental health services.     

Uncovering a Hidden “I” in Contemporary Urban Ethnography

Considerations of the self in ethnography have taken on various forms, including reportage of how the researcher gained access to a field site as well as achieved rapport with those who were the focus of study. I contend here that there exists a less well‐recognized form of selfhood in ethnography that pertains to the moral self of the ethnographer. This self reflects the sociopolitical or aesthetic orientation taken by the ethnographer of the problem that has framed the research endeavor resulting in the ethnographic product. Through assessments of the work of some ethnographers, including myself, who study people in social categories in which the ethnographer holds membership, this essay explores that dimension of the ethnographer's moral self.     

A Framework for Use with Racially and Culturally Integrated Families: The Cultural-Racial Identity Model as Applied to Transracial Adoption

A new model for understanding and depicting the unique identity experiences of those reared in racially and/or culturally integrated families is presented. The model accounts for heterogeneity within groups defined by their racially integrated families. For the purpose of describing and presenting the model, it was applied to the unique experiences of transracial adoptees. The model allows distinctions to be made between racial identity and cultural identity. These distinctions comprise 16 proposed identities of transracial adoptees and are made up of the degrees to which they have knowledge of, awareness of, competence within, and comfort with their own racial group's culture, their parents' racial group's culture, and multiple cultures as well as the degree to which they are comfortable with their racial group membership and with those belonging to their own racial group, their parents' racial group, and multiple racial groups. A model for understanding the role of parents, extended families, and social and environmental contexts was also presented as a guide for demonstrating the factors impacting the cultural-racial identities of transracial adoptees or others from racially and/or culturally integrated families.     

Record keeping practices: Consequences of accounting demands in a public clinic

This observational study explores the tensions and negative consequences of record construction for patients and front-line staff in a public clinic providing services to poor women and children. For emphasis, it is possible to say that the routine of the clinic is record driven, not service driven. More is accomplished in clinic work than producing records; patients certainly do receive needed health care. However, tight regulations filtered through heavy paperwork requirements stifle the effective delivery of comprehensive, flexible services especially needed by disadvantaged families. Clinic staff may be motivated to attend to individual patient concerns, but accounting demands generally circumscribe their work and create barriers for patients. The record has a life of its own as a socially constructed artifact in the process of caregiving in bureaucratic settings, where actual services often respond not to the client, but to the countable, accountable mandates of management.     

A Framework for Use with Racially and Culturally Integrated Families: The Cultural-Racial Identity Model as Applied to Transracial Adoption

A new model for understanding and depicting the unique identity experiences of those reared in racially and/or culturally integrated families is presented. The model accountsfor heterogeneity within groups defined by their racially integrated families. For the purpose of describing and presenting the model, it was applied to the unique experiences of transracial adoptees. The model allows distinctions to be made between racial identity and cultural identity. These distinctions comprise 16 proposed identities of transracial adoptees and are made up of the degrees to which they have knowledge of, awareness of, competence within, and comfort with their own racial group’s culture, their parents’ racial group’s culture, and multiple cultures as well as the degree to which they are comfortable with their racial group membership and with those belonging to their own racial group, their parents’ racial group, and multiple racial groups. A modelfor understanding the role of parents, extended families, and social and environmental contexts was also presented as a guide for demonstrating the factors impacting the culturalracial identities of transracial adoptees or others from racially and/or culturally integrated families.     

The Role of Family and Marital Communication in Developing Resilience to Family-of-Origin Adversity

To explain recovery from adverse experiences, researchers have focused on resilience as a process occurring within individuals. This study extends existing research by positioning resilience as an interpersonal process in which people communicatively interpret and respond to adversity. Married participants who experienced significant adversity in their family of origin (n = 193) reported on their familial and marital communication and personal characteristics. Overall, resilience was influenced by the unique and combined influences of individual, marital, and family factors. Individuals’ optimism and efficacy emerged as predictors of resilience, and communicated support from a marital partner was particularly important for those lower in optimism. People from families with a balance of cohesion and flexibility and strong communication were more resilient, regardless of the amount of adversity they experienced. In unbalanced families, supportive marital communication served in a compensatory role to promote resilience to family of origin adversity.     

“Am I Really a Bad Parent?”: Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse (AtPA) Identity and the Stigma Management Communication (SMC) Model

Applying qualitative data from grounded theory research on adolescent-to-parent abuse (AtPA), we demonstrate the utility of Meisenbach’s (2010) Stigma Management Communication model. Originally developed for nonfamily contexts, this model provides an applied framework for studying stigma identity as an interactionist construct in families. Our theoretical explication and analysis of AtPA incorporates stigma, identity, and communication strategies to showcase the utility of this model for future family-focused research.     

The Language of Leadership for Female Public Relations Professionals

This study used feminist scholarship to explore leadership in female public relations practitioners and educators. Interviews with 10 women helped illustrate their communication styles, motivations, and meanings for leadership. These women's voices deserve attention due to the concerns about the growing percentage of women entering the field. Results revealed that participants illustrated a mix of 2-way and I-way communication when hypothetically responding to staff. Educators tended to utilize 2-way communication more than I-way and incorporated compromise into conflict resolution. All the participants exhibited assertiveness. empathy for staff, and use of logical rather than emotional arguments.     

Psychotherapy with Gay and Lesbian Families: Opportunities for Cultural Inclusion and Clinical Challenge

Many gay men and lesbians are making decisions to have children, either through pregnancy, adoption, or by blending their families. These families may seek psychotherapy for help with dynamic issues which confront all families from time to time. This article presents a context for clinicians to deepen their understanding of cultural and clinical aspects of gay and lesbian parenting. This context will be discussed through the application of concepts frm self psychology within the framework of narrative theory in order to validate gay and lesbian family experiences by through the creation and understanding of their family narratives.     

The family's role in person-centered care: practice considerations

Effective implementation of person-centered care requires a shared understanding and commitment to make it a reality by administrative personnel, direct care providers, and residents and their family members. Long-term care facilities must seek ways to engage residents' families in person-centered care through its training, policies, care planning, and documentation. Doing so may require revisions to policies and work practices, and ongoing leadership efforts to maintain this care framework within the realities of staff turnover and regulatory requirements. Developing protocols and procedures that facilitate family members' communication with staff and build consensus and shared values will result in a system that represents and honors the unique perspectives, values, and needs of each resident receiving care. It is important for facility leadership to set the tone for acknowledging the importance of family involvement in person-centered care by modeling acceptance of concerns and criticisms as valid and by acknowledging that direct care providers, residents, and their family members have a voice in care decisions. Such an approach has the greatest chance of success in promoting person-centered care and the shared values necessary to ensure its successful implementation.     

Revisiting ethnography by proxy

Abstract

Prompted by discovering a paper written in 1980 which described a process of ‘ethnography by proxy’, I revisit this concept in the light of two research projects: a workplace study of an electronics company conducted in the early 1990s and a later home-based study of young children’s encounters with toys and technology. The paper defines ethnography by proxy as the process of delegating some of the ethnographer’s activities to participants in the research setting. It discusses a pragmatic response to some of the challenges of conducting fieldwork and considers the implications of delegating non-academic proxies to fulfil aspects of the ethnographer’s role, the different guises that may be taken by the ethnographer and what this shift in research relationships might mean for the interpretation of data. The concept of proxy has implications for some of the tenets of ethnographic research as it requires a re-examination of our roles and the relationship between researcher and researched.     

"Nothing about me without me": leading the way to collaborative relationships with families

This article discusses the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse's CASA Safe Haven, an evidence-based, community-driven intervention program for children and families in child welfare whose lives have been adversely affected by substance abuse, and for staff in the agencies that work with them. CASA Safe Haven builds collaborative relationships that feature a blend of multidisciplinary teams that share responsibility for helping families; family group conferencing, in which families are equal and welcome participants in designing and driving a service plan; and the influence of family court to hold families and service providers accountable for progress. CASA Safe Haven is a framework for collaboration.     

Sibling Roles in the Lives of Older Group Home Residents with Intellectual Disability: Working with Staff to Safeguard Wellbeing

Abstract

When parents die, siblings of older people with intellectual disability are likely to take responsibility for oversight of their wellbeing and negotiation with formal support services. This study explored the roles siblings played in the lives of older people with intellectual disability who live in group homes, and the relationships between residents’ siblings and group home staff. The siblings of 13 group home residents and the 17 supervisory staff associated with these services were interviewed, initially face-to-face and then intermittently by phone over a period of three years. Data were analysed using an inductive analytical approach. Siblings valued the relationship with their brother or sister with intellectual disability and played a significant role in safeguarding their wellbeing. Sibling–staff relationships fluctuated over time, sometimes becoming tense and difficult. Few protocols guided these relationships. A principle-based framework could facilitate negotiation between staff and siblings about expectations of communication and decision making.     

Parental functioning and child sexual abuse

Eighty-two mothers and 46 fathers of emotionally disturbed youth in a day treatment program completed the Family Assessment Device (FAD) at time of intake. Interviews with therapists enabled classification of families into three groups: those whose client (the youth) had been sexually abused, those where sexual abuse was suspected but not confirmed, and those without a sexual abuse history. All cases of abuse were non-incestuous. Comparisons of the confirmed abuse and non-abuse groups were made, using three types of analyses. ANOVA of parental responses to the FAD by group yielded significance for mothers but not for fathers, with mothers of abused children reporting more family dysfunction in problem-solving and roles than mothers of non-abused children. Second, significant differences between parents according to group were found in the abused sample in problem-solving, communication, and general functioning, but not in the non-abused sample; mothers reported significantly greater pathology in their families than did fathers. Third, comparison of differences between mothers and their children within families yielded a greater number of differences in the non-abused group. Significance was obtained in affective responsivity and behavior control in both samples. Additionally, however, significant differences in communication and roles were obtained in the non-abused group. Caution in differentiating between incestuous and non-incestuous families is suggested. Implications of this research for family interventions, especially with regard to mother/child perceptual congruence, are discussed.