Into the swampy lowlands. Evaluating family group conferences

Schout, Gert

doi:10.1080/13691457.2020.1760796

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Do patients and caregivers fear a loss of privacy or independence when seeking help from friends or family? Supporting people in overcoming feelings of shame can be helpful (Schout, 2020), but only after couples have indicated that they actually want to involve others but have never learned how to do that. If, by contrast, people indicate that they do not want to involve those in their social network, this should be respected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Hillebregt

Trappenburg

Tonkens

2022

Health Social Care Comm

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In many European countries, including the Netherlands, current care policies encourage 'active citizens' to support each other rather than having individuals rely on paid professional help. Rehabilitation centres also put greater emphasis on social networks assisting adults with acquired long-term disabilities and their caregivers. Often these adults and their caregivers feel insufficiently prepared to cope with the disability in daily life and struggle with community integration. However, little is known about the factors that make vulnerable people accept or decline support from their social networks. We researched the social support needs of persons with acquired disabilities and their caregivers eligible for a family group conference intervention by conducting 19 semi-structured interviews in rehabilitation centres in the Netherlands. A thematic analysis revealed that most couples (15) were reluctant to request (more) support from their social network, even though many of them had a good network to rely on.We identified five reasons for this reluctance: (1) not accustomed asking support, (2) not wanting to be a (bigger) burden, (3) fear of intrusion into one's privacy and independence, (4) fear or problematic motivations such as curiosity or pity and (5) lack of reliability, competence, or comprehension. The main factor seemed to be the lack of reciprocity: couples do not see sufficient options to reciprocate the necessary support. Therefore, before instigating social support-centred interventions such as family group conferences, social care and other health professionals should be aware of any factors causing a sense of reluctance and explore the experiences of an imbalance in reciprocity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Hillebregt

Trappenburg

Tonkens

2022

Health Social Care Comm

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“…The value of the taken for granted application of RCT as the golden design in the evaluation of FGC is questioned by de Jong et al (48), de Jong and Schout (71), and Schout (72). They suggest that the complexity of researching FGC requires a highly nuanced approach, which qualitative research methodology would be more suitable for, while acknowledging that a qualitative methodology depends on the interpretative perspective of the researchers.…”

Section: Methodological Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family Group Conferences as a Shared Decision-Making Strategy in Adults Mental Health Work

Ramon

2021

Front. Psychiatry

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Family Group conferences (FGC) provide a system by which a client and their family reach jointly key intervention decisions, from a number of options proposed by professionals. The system originated in child protection social work.Conceptually FGC is based on the assumption that the family is potentially a supportive social system for an individual with a variety of difficulties, including mental ill health. Reaching a family network agreement can lead to long term positive outcomes in self-confidence and social relationships. This strategy of shared decision making (SDM) can re-unite the family around the client's needs and wishes. It fits well the strengths based and the recovery-oriented approaches to mental ill health.Methodologically, this article provides a narrative review of existing empirical research about FGC in the context of adult mental health. In addition, two community case studies consisting of videos of a mother experiencing mental ill health and a daughter are analysed in terms of their subjective experience of the FGCs they were involved in, and looks at both the process and the outcomes of FGCs.The key findings demonstrate a high level of satisfaction from participating in the FGC meeting, while the evidence pertaining to the outcomes is inconclusive. Only very few systematic review studies, or comparative studies of different approaches to family decision making, exist, and there are no studies which offer cost effectiveness analysis.Discussion: The observed gap between the satisfaction from the process of FGC by the participants vs. the inconclusive outcomes relates to the implementation phase, in which the decisions made by the family are tested. Evaluating FGC processes and outcomes is complex. A systematic and comprehensive research of the implementation process is missing at this stage.In conclusion, FGC is a promising strategy of SDM in adult mental health. The research evidence indicates the need for further exploration of its implementation process, evaluative methodology and methods.

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“…The mixed research outcomes have spurred a debate on what should be considered the most appropriate research methodology to examine the FGC model. Randomized‐research designs are criticized for failing to consider the complex contextual reality of families and merely providing partial insights into the efficacy of the FGC model (Creemers et al, 2017; de Jong & Schout, 2018; Schout, 2022). In light of this debate, scholars advocate for future research to embrace this complexity rather than simplifying it and propose that analysing each conference as a unique case is essential to comprehend the multidimensional nature of FGC (de Jong & Schout, 2018; Schout, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whose benefactors? Whose beneficiaries?—Negotiating help at the intersection between the family and the state

Jørgensen

2024

Child & Family Social Work

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Social work is characterized as a helping profession. Consequently, the nature and purposes of social work revolve around concepts of help and helping. In this article, I explore what happens when the extended family network and friends are brought together by child welfare services to make decisions to help a child. Based on analyses of a single videotaped family group conference, this article offers insights into the challenges and complexities families face when dealing with the mandated task to devise a plan that meets the child's needs. By examining sequences of interaction where friends and family members discuss future scenarios with some cast as beneficiaries and others as benefactors, I show how some of these complexities can be captured in terms of the relationship between benefactive stance and benefactive status. The complexities include ambiguities regarding the relationship between nominated future scenarios and the problem(s) they were designed to solve. Furthermore, participants dealt with uncertainties regarding who was more inclined towards specific future scenarios and thus understood to be the actual beneficiary. Additionally, the analysis shows that social identities ascribed to recipients when resolutions to problems were linked to family members' past shortcomings complicated the acknowledgement and acceptance of assistance.

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Into the swampy lowlands. Evaluating family group conferences

Cited by 6 publications

References 24 publications

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

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

Family Group Conferences as a Shared Decision-Making Strategy in Adults Mental Health Work

Whose benefactors? Whose beneficiaries?—Negotiating help at the intersection between the family and the state

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