COMMENTARY (12 YEARS ON) ON ‘THE CONTRIBUTION OF OBSERVATION TRAINING TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN SOCIAL WORK’ BY JUDITH TROWELL AND GILLIAN MILES

This article aims to stimulate discussion about relationships between the lives of professionals and of service users. The idea is that when parallels are explored and developed, power dynamics between professionals and social workers are reduced, the quality of interaction and work with service users can be improved, and professionals can also be helped in overcoming difficulties in their own lives. I start with an outline of my own personal background and highlight my development throughout, including my emerging identity as a Buddhist. I discuss a case study involving ‘Sally’ and her family and our work together while I was a social work assistant in a Children and Family's team. I try to show the interconnections between the different difficulties that we faced and how that informed my work. I look at some of the benefits, pitfalls and boundaries of working from the point of view that service user and professional are both working to overcome their problems. I also interweave interactions I had at the time with Carlos, a drug user friend in a crisis and the impact he had on me. Because I include my own situation I have called this article a ‘case experience’.

Throughout I refer to Buddhist and psychoanalytic thinking and particularly to agreement between the two around ideas that inner‐resistance is the main barrier to personal evolution. I argue that faith is the key to unlocking resistance, and that faith should be understood as the development of a belief within people that they are able to progress rather than be destroyed in the face of inevitable problems.     

ADAPTING THE MODEL: THERAPEUTIC WORK WITH CHILDREN FROM ARMY FAMILIES

This paper describes the development of a specialised therapeutic service for parents and their young children in an inner city social services family centre. The Under five's counselling service, based on the Tavistock Model, offers brief psychoanalytic interventions to parents who are worried about their young child's development e.g. crying, eating, persistent crying etc. The premise behind setting up such a service was to provide therapeutic intervention to the parent-child relationship at the earliest possible stage, preventing further ongoing difficulties. The paper draws upon observations and interventions with families I have seen in the first year the service was opened. Particular themes which emerged in the work with these families will be highlighted. In particular a link is made between early childhood difficulties and unresolved loss in the mother's lives. Furthermore, the impact of the service upon the rest of the social services family support services is commented upon.     

PARENTS' AND CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF A FAMILY SUPPORT INTERVENTION FOR CHILD BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS

The aim of this study was to establish the perceptions of children and their parents following a Family Support intervention for child behavioural and related difficulties. One hundred parents and 22 children aged 5–12 years participated in structured interviews, following the intervention. A framework approach to thematic content analysis was used. Themes, categories and subcategories were established. Parents discussed the usefulness of the intervention and the service in relation to therapeutic work (behavioural techniques and advice), support, practical help, and liaison with other agencies. They also identified service gaps. A number of factors were identified as responsible for improvement, both directly arising from and independently of the intervention. Despite their young age, children had good understanding of the interventions and their role in them, and expressed their wish for active involvement. The intervention was underpinned by a solution‐focused therapy model, combined with behavioural techniques. Families' perceptions indicate that they predominantly applied behavioural strategies, while some parents and children generated solutions in other areas of their lives. Family support has an important preventive role and should consist of an integral component of inter‐agency services for children with a broad range of behavioural and emotional difficulties and their families, and have close links with child mental health services.     

Lost in translation? Communication challenges in minority families’ and healthcare workers’ interactions

A fundamental principal in the Norwegian welfare system is to provide equal access to healthcare services for all residents, regardless of their ethnicity, language, knowledge, function, or belief. However, many service recipients experience a gap between these ideals and everyday realities. In this article I investigate how this gap affects minority families of disabled children who do not master the majority language and healthcare workers. The data I use in my investigation draw on a qualitative study of minority families of disabled children and healthcare workers. The findings that emerge out of these data are categorized into: linguistic difficulties, expectations and assumptions, and culture-bound services. I use these findings to illuminate how language difficulties and stereotypical assumptions within the Norwegian healthcare system make it difficult for minority families to access healthcare services, and how healthcare services lack an effective way to meet minority families’ needs.     

PSYCHOTHERAPY IN PRISON: THE FRAME IMPRISONED

Very little is written in the literature by or about clinicians providing psychotherapy in prison. This article will examine psychotherapy in prison through the criteria of Langs’ (Psychotherapy: A basic text. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson) therapeutic frame. These criteria include: stability and neutrality of the therapeutic setting, therapist anonymity, fee consideration, and confidentiality. I will use my experiences from various prison settings to examine similarities and differences between psychotherapy inside and outside prison.I wish to thank Drs. Jacqueline Helfgott, David Lovell and Lorna Rhodes for their generous time and suggestions toward making this, originally lengthy article, manageable and readable. I am solely responsible for whatever shortcomings remain.     

Emotional Safeguarding: Exploring the Nature of Middle‐Class Parents’ School Involvement1

Although discussion of parents’ school involvement generally surrounds academic success, there are also emotional motivations for parents’ school interventions. In this exploratory analysis, based on interviews with 21 parents and teachers, I show how these middle‐class parents’ concerns for children extend beyond grades and academic success to the children’s own emotional comfort with schooling. I discuss examples of emotional safeguarding, a parental practice to protect children’s happiness at school. Results also suggest that emotional and academic concerns for children at school are interrelated, and parents often approach the emotional with the academic in mind. Parents focus on reducing children’s anxiety or discomfort at school with the ultimate goal of instilling a love of learning. The parents in this study perceive an emotional route to achieving academic success for their middle‐class children. Unlike parents, teachers in the study identify parents’ concerns as academic or a product of parents’ anxiety. This research introduces the possibility that while parents’ academic concerns are very real, they are also accompanied by equal and occasionally greater concerns for children’s happiness and well‐being at school.     

Managing turning points and transitions in childhood and parenthood – insights from families with disabled children in Norway

This article explores turning points and transitions emerging in the life course of children with disabilities and their parents. Through in‐depth interviews with parents we found that a change appears in disabled children’s social participation and belonging, at approximately eight years of age for children with learning difficulties and at approximately ten years of age for children with mobility difficulties. Most of the parents experienced a ‘turning point’ that directed them into either marginal or inclusive positions in adulthood. The ‘transition’ emerges at a time described as a stable period of life for families in general and illustrates parents’ experiences of the importance of both ‘doing’ and ‘being’ in parenthood and childhood. Parents’ experiences are strongly interwoven with the child’s life and access or lack of access to services and relational responses.     

Maintaining the Gains: What Worked in the Year after Brief Family Therapy

Brief family therapy, including single session therapy, is widely used to provide a timely and responsive service for children with emotional and behavioural problems. However, there is surprisingly little information about how these children and families fare in the longer term. The brief family therapy program described here was directed toward children with problems of moderate severity. Child Behaviour Checklists (CBCL) were completed by parents before, three months after, and twelve months after therapy; 110 parents also participated in semi‐structured telephone interviews twelve months after therapy. Parents' CBCL ratings showed a significant decrease in children's problems after therapy, which were maintained over the subsequent year, although some children continued to experience difficulties. Parents generally found brief therapy a helpful experience. Ways to strengthen the preventive possibilities of brief therapy work will be identified at both a practical and conceptual level.     

Family divided: the class formation of Honduran transnational families

Although there is a growing literature on transnational families, we know little about the class formation of such families and even less about how transnational migration and generation interact in this process. In this article I draw from ethnographic research with Honduran immigrant parents in the USA and transnational youths in Honduras to theorize the class formation of transnational families. Based on Bryceson and Vuorela's concepts of frontiering and relativizing, I show how economic remittances bolster the expectations and improve the lifestyles of transnational youths to the detriment of their parents' welfare in the USA. That parents often relativize their communication, choosing not to tell children about their struggles, can contribute to increased inequalities within families. Finally, my data suggest that it will be difficult for transnational youths to meet their newfound expectations and maintain their lifestyles without a permanent flow of remittances and thus the ongoing separation of family.     

Parenting groups for parents whose children are in care

Excluding very severe child abuse cases, biological parents are usually encouraged to maintain contact with their children in care. Parent‐child contact is often considered important because it can maintain the child's psychological identity and well‐being. It can also maintain parent‐child attachment and in some cases facilitate reunification. Improving parenting skills is viewed as an important method by which contact between children and their biological parents can be enhanced. However, mainstream parenting groups are often unsuitable for parents whose children are in care for a number of reasons. There is stigma involved with having children in care, such parents have very complex lives and there are reduced opportunities to practise skills learnt with their children. Groups designed specifically for parents whose children are in care appear to be a promising approach to improving the quality of contact between these parents and their children. This paper will review group‐based approaches to working with biological parents whose pre‐school‐aged children have been placed in care. The paper will also report the findings of a research project designed to identify key facilitators and barriers to parental involvement in a group‐based programme which includes contact between parents and their children who have been placed in care. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Desirable Difference: The Shadow of Racial Stereotypes in Creating Transracial Families through Transnational Adoption

The article analyzes how parents decide to adopt a child transnationally by detailing how the meaning of race is articulated in the formation of family. Drawing from my interviews with adoptive parents, I examine how they internalize ideas about different racial groups. For example, I investigate how what they have learned from the adoption agencies, their own perceptions of racial stereotypes, and their perceptions of the communities in which they reside influence their understanding of race. The article suggests that adoptive parents, when considering whether to adopt children from the U.S. or overseas, use a criteria dictated by racial stereotypes in understanding Asian Americans as the model minority, African-Americans as a deficient group, and Latinos occupying an intermediary position.     

Depression in school-aged children: assessment & early intervention

A careful assessment of all of these factors will help nurse therapists who are also primary care providers develop a more holistic approach to treatment and, thus, increase treatment effectiveness. The three-pronged assessment approach discussed above is cost effective, safe, and indicated as a frontline measure to assess the risk for depression in children and their parents (particularly mothers), which can begin the process of "true" early intervention. I say "true" early intervention because in my role as an early intervention specialist, my first meeting with families usually occurs after a crucial incident requiring hospitalization of the child or the parent, or school failure, or both. My programs of intervention are hardly "early," although treatment is started relatively early in the life of the child. In the past few years, I have noticed that psychiatric-mental health advanced practice nurses, including myself, are increasingly working in some capacity in primary health centers, such as school-based clinics, churches, collaborative practices, and community health centers. It would be wonderful if we used these settings to identify risk for depression in children and begin preventive treatment (starting with teaching good sleep hygiene, a treatment in itself) to truly make early intervention a reality.     

“Parenting Is Not a Job … It’s a Relationship”: Recognition and Relational Knowledge Among Parents of Gender Non-conforming Children

Parents of gender non-conforming children encounter substantial conflict as they negotiate their children’s “Otherness.” For decades, a pathologizing service model has advocated clinical correction. In opposition, some parents adopt affirming stances toward their children. This study explored the knowledge underneath this stance, asking parents of gender non-conforming children how they know what they know. Analysis revealed a process of recognition and knowledge of the children’s needs acquired through relationship. Drawing on political philosophy and psychoanalytic theory, I argue that the affirming approach to gender non-conforming children is a non-aggressive response to the “Other” and a justice-based parenting practice.     

‘Good faith and effort?’ Perspectives on educational inclusion

This paper considers what might ‘count’ as educational inclusion from the perspectives of six women who are both mothers of and teachers of children with special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. The mother‐teachers draw on their own personal and professional experiences to consider meanings of inclusion in relation to ‘their’ children. Their voices suggest that it is the detail of daily interaction and the commitment to ‘good faith and effort’ on the part of both parents and educational professionals that matters. For the purposes of this paper I shall consider the discourses of SEN, learning difficulties and disability together, although I am aware of the danger of reductionism in doing so.     

THE CONTRIBUTION OF PSYCHOANALYTICAL OBSERVATION IN CHILD PROTECTION ASSESSMENTS

In this paper I describe my role in undertaking child protection assessments for children in my work for a Family Centre managed by a national voluntary child care organisation. I explore how psychoanalytical observation provides additional knowledge informing assessments of risk for children. In an example that I discuss in some detail, I show how observation provides a means for assessing relationships between children and parents which leads to informed recommendations to court. In a second example I show how observation can be linked with a therapeutic approach to generate necessary change in parenting capacity. I conclude that observation is an important and effective training for professionals responsible for protecting children from harm.     

TEACHING IN LITHUANIA—THE PERSONAL AND THE PROFESSIONAL

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the central role of the countertransference as a catalyst for understanding for both teacher and student. During a week of teaching basic psychoanalytic concepts to Lithuanian university students in central Lithuania, I discovered that there was an absence or lack of understanding between the group I was teaching and myself. Our expectations were very different. On a political, cultural level, I was faced with a Lithuanian understanding of the world that is quite different from a Western European perspective. This personal narrative explores how I used my countertransference to the group, and their countertransference to their clinical work, as a tool to begin to explore the professional issues we have in common and to struggle to understand the differences. It was impressive to observe, through the lived experience of this work, the development of a well‐functioning group that had overcome not only the difficulties that accompany large groups but that had taken on board a new way of thinking and working. I returned in October 2004 for a further week's teaching and a continuation of a joint teaching–learning enterprise.     

Coming to terms with inequality and exploitation in an African state: researching disability in Sierra Leone

In this article, I describe how during my anthropological research in post‐conflict Sierra Leone with a disabled community, I was confronted by experiences of inequality and exploitation. Many disabled people had previous disabling contact with other researchers, organisations and journalists. Others described difficulties surviving the disabling socio‐economic conditions and were not viewed as ‘development’ partners, despite the fact that their images and stories had played a big role in the rebuilding and ‘healing’ of the Sierra Leonean nation state. I ask whether we as researchers and an international community are still not colluding with structures and institutions that exploit disabled people in post‐conflict and post‐disaster countries.     

Developing Responsive Preventative Practices: Key Messages from Children's and Families’ Experiences of the Children's Fund

As part of the prevention and social inclusion agenda, the Children's Fund, set up in 2000, has developed preventative services for children at risk of social exclusion. Drawing on a large qualitative dataset of interviews conducted in 2004/05 with children, young people and their parents/carers who accessed Children Fund services, this article analyses key practices and approaches valued by children and parents. These included: specialist support tailored to individual support needs, family‐oriented approaches, trusting relationships with service providers, multi‐agency approaches and sustainability of services. Finally, the article draws out key lessons for the future development of preventative services.     

Relationships,Reconciliation and Children: Giving Young People a Say

I have realised how central my therapy background and skills have been in my current job. Without being conscious of it, I use much of my background as a therapist in my role as Commissioner for Children and Young People. I probably spend more of my time advocating for children and young people as a group because they are excluded or disregarded on the basis of their status as children.