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23 - Keeping the family in mind: setting a local agenda for change

from Part VI - Models for collaborative services and staff training

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2009

By
Clare Mahoney
Edited by
Michael Göpfert ,
Jeni Webster  and
Mary V. Seeman
Clare Mahoney
Affiliation:
National Institute for Mental Health (North-West Team) UK
Michael Göpfert
Affiliation:
Webb House Democratic Therapeutic Community, Crewe
Jeni Webster
Affiliation:
5 Boroughs Partnership, Warrington
Mary V. Seeman
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

Without changes in culture and practice within health and social care organizations, there can be little improvement to provision for children and families affected by mental distress. A strategic combination of actions are needed, but the cornerstone of all change must be the participation of children and families themselves. This chapter is an account of how organizations in Liverpool, UK, are working with children and families to implement the recommendations of a recent consultation with service users (Göpfert et al., 1999). A small development project called ‘Keeping the family in mind’ (KFIM) and run by Barnardos Action with Young Carers (see Bilsborough, Chapter 1) has been set up to facilitate and coordinate the change agenda.

Why change is necessary

Adult and child services do not habitually connect and communicate. The following situation illustrates how this separateness can sometimes result in disservice to families. A children's social worker asked the Action with Young Carers project if they would explain to two children why they had been fostered to Liverpool relatives some 100 miles' distance from their home town. One of the children's parents had serious mental health problems, to the extent that the parents were unable to care for their children. The children were already fostered without any of the professionals involved having had this important conversation with the children. Why this omission? The ill parent had a social worker who knew about mental health, but not about children.

Keywords

Barnardos Actionchange agendafamiliesKeeping the family in mindparticipation of parentsyoung carers
Type
Chapter
Information
Parental Psychiatric Disorder
Distressed Parents and their Families
 , pp. 325 - 332
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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References

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