Families and the professional network: an attempted classification of professional network actions which can hinder change

Hardwick, Peter

doi:10.1046/j..1991.00421.x

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A common experience is that the family imparts selective information to various professionals, each of whom believes that they understand the family well, not realizing that they are only seeing a fragment of the picture. These problems have been documented by Britton (1981), Selvini Palazzoli et al (1980, Dale et al (1986), Reder (1986), Furniss (1991, Hardwick (1991) and Reder et al (1993). Reder and Fredman (1996) have also described how some individuals demonstrate a characteristic 'relationship to help', in which 'A characteristic 'relationship to help'' past adverse experiences when in need of help (from parents or professionals) become repeated in current interactions with professionals.…”

Section: Family-professional Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Understanding communication in child protection networks

Reder¹,

Duncan²

2003

Child Abuse Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Reviews of fatal child abuse cases regularly identify communication problems between the professionals. Understanding their origins requires an analysis of the psychology of communication as well as its technology, since it is a complex process in which interpersonal factors impact on the meaning that each person attributes to the messages given and received. The contexts within which the communications occur also colour how the messages are comprehended. Examples in practice from the Victoria Climbié Inquiry Report (Lord Laming, 2003) will be cited. Effective communication between professionals requires a mindset that can be developed through training.

show abstract

Section: Family-professional Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Understanding communication in child protection networks

Reder¹,

Duncan²

2003

Child Abuse Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Professional networks of care can engage in overprotective practices, by holding beliefs that challenging or overpressuring individuals and families will lead to disaster. Finally multiagency mirroring, where one professional is involved with one family member in such a way as to replicate patterns of distress within the family, creates conditions where action and positive change is unlikely to happen (Hardwick, 1991).…”

Section: Networking and Inter-agency Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Editorial: Bio/Psycho/Social Models and Multidisciplinary Team Working - Can Systemic Thinking Help?

Vetere

2007

Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

mental health care systems are providing services to a wide range of culturally and ideologically diverse client groups. Similarly, professional practitioners represent a diverse group. This complexity is further elaborated by the multilayered spirit of practice in modern health care systems, as found in the different professional approaches to assessment, formulation, intervention and evaluation. There is widespread recognition that no one discipline or system of thought has all the answers! The bio/psycho/social model of health care practice has been put forward as a means of bridging different disciplinary practices, models of mental and physical health and relationships with service users and carers. It has long been recognized that multidisciplinary team working in the context of physical and mental health services poses a challenge to practitioners, loyal to their own ideologies and occasionally less than accepting of others'. Professional differences in power and control within multidisciplinary teams often have not helped a mutual process of influence and crossfertilization of ideas, to the benefit of service users. It was hoped by many that a bio/psycho/social model, that recognizes the importance of an integrated approach to formulation and practice, would foster more holistic approaches to understanding and helping with human distress. In my view, the bio/psycho/social model has not delivered its promise, because it is primarily descriptive in function, rather than explanatory. Thus it does not readily help us take action, and problem solve within complex human systems. Systemic thinking can help, by broadening the disease-focused perspective, using ideas of circular processes and circular causality, encouraging feedback and following the feedback, exploring the relationship between change and stability, and focusing on interaction. Systemic thinking can provide an integrative theoretical structure for formulation and practice in multidisciplinary team working in ways that do not challenge preferred identities and ways of thinking (Vetere & Dallos, 2003). We know that good communication and respectful working alliances with service users are common factors in recovery and healing (Department of Health [DoH], 2004). Collaborative practices have found their way, somewhat belatedly, into the field of psychotherapy broadly, and we see an interesting example in medical prescribing practices. This literature has moved from advocating a position of patient compliance, through adherence, to concordance (Myers & Midence, 1998). It seems clear to me that we need an integrative approach that can bridge diverse ways of working and help with formulation and practice in complex settings.

show abstract

“…A number of authors have described a family and its professional network as one large interacting system (e.g. Reder, 1986; Dale and Davies, 1985; Hardwick, 1991). The principal patterns of interaction between the families and their professional networks in the 35 cases were enactments of care or control conflicts.…”

Section: Family-professional Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new look at child abuse tragedies

Reder¹,

Duncan²,

Gray

1993

Child Abuse Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Thirty-five child abuse inquiry reports, published in Britain between 1973 and 1989, were reviewed and the cases reanalysed using a systemic framework. Problematic interactions were identified within the families, among members of the professional networks and between the families and professionals. These relational aspects of each case interacted and progressively skewed the course of events. The findings have important implications for the practice of child protection, including the assessment of risk and decisions by statutory professionals to employ controlling interventions such as Emergency Protection Orders. 'Recommendations have concentrated on structural improvements in the mechanical transfer of information and largely i p o r e d the relationship aspects of the communication process'

show abstract

Families and the professional network: an attempted classification of professional network actions which can hinder change

Cited by 14 publications

References 6 publications

Understanding communication in child protection networks

Understanding communication in child protection networks

Editorial: Bio/Psycho/Social Models and Multidisciplinary Team Working - Can Systemic Thinking Help?

A new look at child abuse tragedies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About