Family Group Conferencing for older adults: Social workers’ views

Abstract

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.

‘Let us be’. Social support needs of people with acquired long‐term disabilities and their caregivers in rehabilitation practice in the Netherlands

“…Some of these reasons resemble barriers found in previous studies in adult healthcare and welfare, such as the concern over being a burden (Metze et al, 2015b(Metze et al, , 2019 and shame and fear of rejection (de Jong & Schout, 2013a& Schout, , 2013bde Jong, Schout, Pennell, et al, 2015;de Jong et al, 2018;Meijer et al, 2019;Metze et al, 2015aMetze et al, , 2015b. The reluctance to ask for (more) support confirms prior research on the principle of reciprocity (Mauss, 2002) in public mental healthcare, general social welfare and elderly social welfare (Bredewold et al, 2016;de Jong, Schout, Pennell, et al, 2015;Malmberg-Heimonen & Johansen, 2014;Metze et al, 2015aMetze et al, , 2015b.…”

Learning from 35 Years of Community Child Health Services in the United Kingdom: Reflections for Community Geriatricians

“…Many meetings involve the family such as "team around the child meetings" or "family group conferences". Whether this is an appropriate model for elderly people remains to be explored fully [18]. As young children develop into young adults they become more autonomous and the locus of control and decision-making passes from parents to the young people themselves.…”