Suchergebnisse

Health and social care professionals are constantly exhorted to work collaboratively. This book reports on research which examines interprofessional work with families in which mothers have a mental health problem and where there are also concerns about child protection. Breakdowns in interprofessional collaboration, issues of risk and relevant resources are all addressed. Mothers' views and experiences are contrasted with professional perspectives

ABSTRACTWhile the mental health needs of looked‐after young people have been described in a number of clinical studies, the views of looked‐after adolescents themselves concerning their mental health needs have only rarely been reported. This study used focus groups to elicit the ideas and experiences of looked‐after young people in two local authorities in England. Front‐line carers in the region were also surveyed. Young people and carers were agreed in highlighting the damaging effects of the discontinuity and change experienced in the looked‐after system. Young people emphasized the importance of exercising choice and control when seeking and receiving support and identified the value of positive role models provided by 'survivors' of the care system. Carers reported high levels of risk behaviour, particularly self‐harm, among young people in children's homes. These differing perspectives need to be openly acknowledged and negotiated within care settings in order that relevant and accessible therapeutic and support services can be offered to looked‐after adolescents.

Strategies for the prevention of adolescent suicide are frequently designed to identify those young people who represent a high risk in order that services and support can be effectively targeted. This study explored the experiences of parents who had lost a child through suicide. The findings suggest that the range of behaviours perceived by parents was too broad and diverse to allow for a checklist approach to the identification of risk. The parents' responses did produce some valuable reflections on their experiences of professional support as well as some key messages on parenting which could be disseminated to all parents of adolescents.

This paper takes as its starting point the report produced by the Social Services Inspectorate (1995), entitled Domestic Violence and Social Care, which seeks to alert social workers to the links between domestic violence and child abuse and urges the profession to respond more effectively to these two interconnected forms of violence. Having examined the research findings which provide evidence for these links, the theoretical and service delivery contexts in which these two forms of violence have been studied and conceptualized by the social work profession, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States, are identified. Studies of the social work response to domestic violence are discussed and some of the difficulties experienced by social workers in responding effectively to the needs of families where both forms of violence are experienced are considered. In particular, the issues of 'invisible' men and 'trapped' women and children are explored. It is argued that effective social work intervention which challenges these stereotypes will require additional resources and the article concludes with a consideration of whether the Messages from Research report might herald a shift in the approach to child protection that would promote the allocation of resources to this area of work.

Wide-ranging in scope, 'The Age of the Inquiry' focuses on service and policy development in the fields of health and welfare in the 1990s. It provides an invaluable text for students, teachers and professionals from a wide range of disciplines and professional groups.

'Whole family' interventions for families living with domestic violence and abuse (DVA) are emerging and some international practice examples are available. This study reports a process evaluation of a pilot delivered in Northern England that aimed to work with all members of families experiencing DVA. The evaluation involved analysis of detailed accounts of practice from learning logs and case workbooks as well as interviews with practitioners and family members. The voluntary nature of families' involvement with the pilot, together with an explicit service philosophy of 'meeting families where they are at' appeared successful in engaging families. Pilot staff worked flexibly, seeing family members together and separately, but there was evidence of lower levels of confidence in work with perpetrators. Co-work enabled skills to be transferred to other professionals and social workers increased their use of risk assessment tools in DVA cases. However, there was uncertainty as to whether interagency communication improved across local agencies, and joint protocols and tools were slow to develop. This study is one of the first evaluations of 'whole family' interventions in DVA, and it illustrates how, when additional resources and organisational support are made available, a non-blaming approach that families find engaging can be developed.

Background: Suicide research acknowledges the negotiated nature of a coroner's verdict of suicide. However, the process by which those who are bereaved come to determine that a death was a suicide has received little attention. Aims: To explore how young adults come to conceptualize their friends' deaths as suicides. Method: In-depth interviews were undertaken with 12 young people whose friends had died by apparent suicides. Interviews were analyzsed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: Few of the participants attended the inquest, and most placed little value on the verdict given to the death by the coroner. However, participants used processes and definitions similar to the coroners' to explore and create meaning from their friend's final thoughts and actions in order to determine whether he/she meant to end their life. Conclusion: This research contributes to our understanding of the profound impact of death by suicide and the negotiated nature of participants' understandings of the death. The findings can assist in understanding how the bereaved may be supported.